Dr. Kathleen J. Turner
Dr. Kathleen J. Turner is Professor Emerita and Founding Chair of Communication Studies and Founding Director of Oral Communication at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. A rhetorical analyst, Kathie studies communication as a process of social influence, particularly concerning media, politics, popular culture, and women’s issues.
She is the lead author of Public Speaking: Finding Your Voice (Pearson, 11th ed.) with Randall Osborn, Michael Osborn, and Suzanne Osborn. She is also the author of Lyndon Johnson's Dual War: Vietnam and the Press, the first book in the field of communication to be published by the University of Chicago Press (1985); the co-author of Communication Centers: A Theory-Based Guide to Training and Management (Lexington, 2015); the editor of Doing Rhetorical History: Concepts and Cases (Alabama, 1998); and the co-editor of Reframing Rhetorical History (Alabama, forthcoming).
Her publications also include a monograph on mass media and popular culture; two entries in the Encyclopedia of American Journalism and one in the International Encyclopedia of Communication; chapters on Miami Vice and sixties protest music; and articles on the rhetorical analysis of movies, the future of rhetorical studies, presidential libraries, Time's coverage of religion, social movements' efforts to influence news coverage, comic strips, and the history of product placement.
Kathie relishes leading seminars and serving as scholar in residence for NCA’s Hope Conference, conjoining theory, research, and teaching. Her teaching specialties include principles of oral communication, critical analysis of media, history of mass communication, visual communication and gender, advertising, political communication, and persuasion. In 2007 she received the Donald H. Ecroyd Award for Outstanding Teaching in Higher Education from NCA, and in 2011 the Michael M. Osborn Teacher-Scholar Award from SSCA. She has received two service awards from NCA and one from the Carolinas Communication Association. Elected to the leadership succession of NCA, she served as president in its centennial year of 2014. Her presidential task forces included Inclusivity in the Discipline, The Basic Course, K-12 Education, and Advocacy for the Discipline.
She earned her BA in speech communication and English (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Kansas; and her MA and PhD in communication from Purdue University, where she was a University Fellow.