All People

Leslie Harris

  • Associate Professor, Communication
  • Department Chair, Communication

Education

  • PhD, Communication Studies, Northwestern University
  • MA, Communication Studies, Northwestern University
  • BS, Communication Studies and Gender Studies, Northwestern University

Teaching Schedule

Course Num Title Meets
COMMUN 973-001 Topics in Rhetorical Research: Rhetorical History & Historiography M 2:30pm-5:10pm

Courses Taught

  • COMMUN 335 - Critical Analysis of Communication
  • COMMUN 436 - Recent Rhetorical Theory
  • COMMUN 472 - Rhetorics of Radicalism in the U.S.
  • COMMUN 651 - Topics: Rhetorics of Radicalism in the U.S.
  • COMMUN 701 - Critical Analysis of Communication
  • COMMUN 765 - Argument Theory and Practice
  • COMMUN 874 - Rhetoric of Women’s Rights in the U.S.

Research Interests

I am a scholar of rhetoric and public culture who specializes in understanding the relationships between public controversy and intersectional identity. Across my teaching, research, and service I have maintained a commitment to community engagement and attentiveness to race and gender within rhetoric. My recent research includes the public humanities project Voices of Gun Violence.

Selected Publications

Mudambi, Anjana & Leslie J. Harris. “Feminist Relational Agency and the Cultural Contestation of Heteronormative Gender Norms in the Indian American Diaspora.” Women’s Studies In Communication (2024). https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2024.2366175
Harris, Leslie J. & Erin Sahlstein Parcell. “Gun Violence Rhetoric in Milwaukee: Racialized Violence and the Creation of Urban Space.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies (2024). https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2024.2376361
Harris Leslie J. The Rhetoric of White Slavery and the Making of National Identity. Michigan State University Press, 2023. *Recipient of the Marie Hochmuth-Nichols Distinguished Book Award (Public Address Division of the National Communication Association)
Harris, L. J. (2020) “Whores” and “Hottentots”: Protection of (white) women and white supremacy in anti-suffrage rhetoric. Quarterly Journal of Speech , 106(3), 253-257.
Harris, L. J., & Harris, A. (2020) What the Threat of Gun Violence Has Taught a Generation of American Children. Gender Policy Report, University of Minnesota.
Harris, L. J. (2019) Home-Making, Nation-Making: American Womanhood in Progressive Era Presidential Rhetoric. Heidt, S. J., & Stuckey, M. E. (Eds). Reading the Presidency: Advances in Presidential Rhetoric . New York: Peter Lang.
Harris, L. J. (2018) Rhetorical Mobilities and the City: The White Slavery Controversy and Racialized Protection of Women in the US. Quarterly Journal of Speech , 104(1), 22-46.
Lawler McDonough, M. , Marks, L. , & Harris, L. J. (2017) “A Truly Inspiring Notion": A Case-Study of Project-Based Graduate Service-Learning. Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement , 8(2).
Harris, L. J. (2014) State of the Marital Union: Rhetoric, Identity, and Nineteenth-Century Marriage Controversies. Waco, TX: Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Harris, L. J., & Kim, S. (2014) ‘True’ Americans and ‘Violent’ Immigrants: Making Sense of Wife Murder in Chicago, 1870–1910. Immigrants & Minorities: Historical Studies in Ethnicity, Migration, and Diaspora .
Harris, L. J., & Allen, M. R. (2011) The Paradox of Authentic Identity: Mormon Women and the Nineteenth Century Polygamy Controversy. Rowland, R. (Ed). Reasoned Argument and Social Change , 340-347. Washington D.C.: Reasoned Argument and Social Change.
Harris, L. J., & Smith, K. (2010) Feminists for Life and the Appropriation of History. Gouran, D. S. (Ed). The Functions of Argument and Social Context , 158-163. Washington D.C.: Washington D.C.: National Communication Association.
Harris, L. J. (2010) Law as Father: Metaphors of Family in Nineteenth-Century Law. Communication Studies , 61, 526-542.
Harris, L. J. (2009) Motherhood, Race, and Gender: The Rhetoric of Women’s Antislavery Activism in the Liberty Bell Giftbook. Women’s Studies in Communication , 32(3), 293-319.
Harris, L. J. (2006) Torn from Her Very Bosom: Melodramatic Argument in Nineteenth Century Law. Riley, P. (Ed). Engaging Argument , 293-298. Washington: National Communication Association.