Kelly CV

Professor of Rhetoric and Public Culture & Director of Graduate Studies
Editor-elect, Quarterly Journal of Speech
Department of Communication Studies
Affiliated Faculty, Women’s and Gender Studies
Fellow at the Center for Great Plains Studies
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Education

  • Ph.D. (2009), Communication Studies, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN
    Adviser: Kirt H. Wilson
  • M.A. (2003), Communication Studies, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC
    Adviser: Michael J. Hyde
  • B.A. (2001), History, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA

Appointments

  • Professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2020-)
  • Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2017-2020)
  • Associate Professor, Critical Communication & Media Studies, Butler University (2014-2017)
  • Assistant Professor of Media, Rhetoric and Culture & Director of Debate, Butler University (2012-2014)
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, College of Communication, Butler University (2011-2012)
  • Instructor, Department of Communication Studies, Butler University (2009-2011)
  • University Doctoral Fellow, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (2008-2009)
  • Graduate Instructor, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (2005-2008)
  • Instructor and Associate Director of Debate, University of North Texas, Denton, TX (2003-2005)
  • Graduate Instructor, Debate Coach, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC (2001-2003)

Journal Editorships

Editor-elect, Quarterly Journal of Speech (2026-2028)

Honors, Awards, and Fellowships

  • Douglas W. Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award. National Communication Association (2025)
  • Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression, National Communication Association (2022)
  • Karl R. Wallace Memorial Award, National Communication Association (2018)
  • Early Career Award, Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division, NCA (2017)
  • Outstanding New Investigator Award, Critical Cultural/Studies Division, NCA (2015)
  • Diane Hope Book of the Year Award, Visual Communication Division, NCA (2016)
  • Outstanding Article of the Year Award, Visual Communication Division, NCA (2019)
  • Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, University of Minnesota (2008-2009)
  • Montgomery & Frizelle Reid Dissertation Research Award, University of Minnesota (2007)
  • Old Buffalo Graduate Student Award, University of Minnesota (2006)

Publications

Monographs

Kelly, C.R. (in production, 2026). Hard Right: Muscles, Fitness, and the Body Rhetoric of the White Nationalism. Ohio State University Press.

Kelly, C.R. and Sipe, W.J. (2025). Manifesting Violence: White Terrorism, Digital Culture, and the Rhetoric of Replacement. University of Alabama Press.

Kelly, C.R. (2023). Caught on Tape: White Masculinity and Obscene Enjoyment. Oxford University Press.

Kelly, C.R. (2020). Apocalypse Man: The Death Drive and the Rhetoric of White Masculine Victimhood. Ohio State University Press.

Kelly, C.R. (2017). Food Television and Otherness in the Age of Globalization. Lexington Books.

Kelly, C.R. (2016). Abstinence Cinema: Virginity and the Rhetoric of Sexual Purity in Contemporary Film. Rutgers University Press.

Edited Book Collections

Asen, R. & Kelly, C.R. (2024). Rhetorical Economies of Whiteness. Ohio State University Press.

Kelly, C.R. & Black, J.E. (2018). Decolonizing Native American Rhetoric: Communicating Self-Determination. Peter Lang.

Monographs in Process

Slater, G. & Kelly, C.R. Spaces of Exit: Breakdown, Discontent, and Desire for Escape (manuscript in progress).

Refereed Journal Articles

Slater, G. and Kelly, C.R. (forthcoming, 2026) The public’s parallel world: Insurrection, or the antisocial logic of withdrawal. Symplokē. (special issue on “Insurrection”) 

Smith, H. and Kelly, C.R. (2025) White nationalist fairytales: Neosegregation in the Brietbart town square. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies (online first).

Dreyer, C. and Kelly, C.R. (2025) The Reliant (2019) and the Rhetoric of Necropolitical Christianity. Quarterly Journal of Speech 111 (1), 87-109. 

Hoerl K.E. and C.R. Kelly (2025). Monetizing failure: Fyre Fraud, social media, and the normalization of crisis. Journal of Communication Inquiry 49 (1): 27-43 (*accepted 2023)

Neville-Shepard, R. and Kelly, C.R. (2023). The most hated tree in America: Negative difference, the white imaginary, and the Bradford Pear. Communication, Culture, & Critique 16 (3): 166-173.  

Kelly, C.R. (2023). Covid-19 conspiracy rhetoric and other primal fantasies. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 109 (2): 132-153.

Hoerl, K.E. and Kelly, C.R. (2023). Pants on Fyre: Parasitic masculinity and the Fyre Festival documentaries. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 20 (1): 72-90.

Kelly, C.R. (2022). Do you even lift, bro?: (Re)capacitating the white male body. Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture 2 (2): 85-110.

Kelly, C.R. (2021). White pain. Quarterly Journal of Speech 107 (2): 209-233.

Kelly, C.R. (2021). Whiteness, repressive victimhood, and the foil of the intolerant left. First Amendment Studies 51(1): 59-76. *Winner of the 2022 NCA Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression

Hoerl, K. and Kelly, C.R. (2021) Embodied abject play: Women “sex comics” and abject feminism. Text and Performance Quarterly 41 (2): 123-139. 

Neville-Shepard, R. and Kelly, C.R. (2020). Whipping it out: Guns, campaign advertising, and the white masculine spectacle. Critical Studies in Media Communication 37 (5): 466-479.   

Kelly, C.R. and Aunspach, C. (2020). Incels, compulsory sexuality, and fascist masculinity. Feminist Formations 32 (3) 145-172 (Special issue on “The erotics of nonsexualities.” (ed. E. Przybylo and K. Gupta).

Kelly, C.R. (2020). Donald J. Trump and the rhetoric of white ambivalence. Rhetoric and Public Affairs 23 (2) (*Lead article. 12% acceptance rate)

Kelly, C.R. (2020). Donald J. Trump and the rhetoric of ressentiment. Quarterly Journal of Speech 106 (1), 2-24. (*Lead article. 7% acceptance rate) 

Kelly, C.R. and R. Neville-Shepard (2020). Virgin lands: Gender, nature, and the frontier myth in David Magnusson’s Purity. Women’s Studies in Communication 43 (1), 1-22)  (*Lead article. 11% acceptance rate)

Kelly, C.R. (2019). Emasculating Trump: The incredulous gaze, homophobia, and the spectacle of white masculinity. QED: A Journal of GLBTQ Worldmaking 5 (3), 1-27. *Lead article * Winner of the Outstanding Article of the Year Award, Visual Communication Division, National Communication Association

Rademacher, M. and Kelly, C.R. (2019). Constructing lumbersexuality: Marketing an emergent masculine taste regime. Journal of Communication Inquiry 43 (1), 25-46.

Kelly, C.R. (2018). The wounded man: Foxcatcher (2014) and the incoherence of white masculine victimhood. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 15 (2), 161-178. (9% acceptance)

Kelly, C.R. (2017). It Follows: Precarity, thanatopolitics, and the ambient horror film. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 34 (3), 234-249. (17% acceptance rate) 

Kelly, C.R. (2017). The toxic screen: Visions of petrochemical America in HBO’s True Detective. Communication, Culture, and Critique, 10 (1), 39-57. (17% acceptance rate)

Kelly, C.R. (2016). Chastity for democracy: Surplus repression and the rhetoric of sex education. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 102 (4), 353-375. (19% acceptance rate)

Kelly, C.R. (2016). The man-poclypse: Doomsday Preppers and the rituals of apocalyptic manhood. Text and Performance Quarterly, 36 (2), 95-114. (25% acceptance rate)

Kelly, C.R. (2016). Camp horror and the gendered politics of screen violence: Subverting the monstrous-feminine in Teeth (2007). Women’s Studies in Communication, 39 (1), 88-106. (6% acceptance rate)

Radamacher, M. and Kelly, C.R. (2016). “I’m here to do business. I’m not here to play games.” Work, consumption, and masculinity in Storage Wars. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 40 (1), 7-24. (*Lead article)

Kelly, C.R. (2014). Détournement, decolonization, and the American Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island (1969-1971). Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 44 (2), 168-190. (13% acceptance rate)

Kelly, C.R. (2014). “We are not free”: The meaning of <freedom> in American Indian responses to President Johnson’s War on Poverty. Communication Quarterly, 62 (4), 455-473. (17% acceptance rate)

Kelly, C.R. (2014). Feminine purity and masculine revenge-seeking in Taken (2008). Feminist Media Studies, 14 (3), 403-418.

 Kelly, C.R. (2012). Neocolonialism and the global prison in National Geographic’s Locked Up Abroad. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 29 (4), 331-347. Featured in “Nat Geo’s Locked Up Abroad and the burdens of the past,” Communication Currents, February 2012, 1-2. 

Kelly, C.R. & Hoerl, K. (2012). Genesis in hyperreality: Legitimizing disingenuous controversy at the Creation Museum. Argumentation and Advocacy, 48 (2), 123-141. (*Lead article)   

Kelly, C.R. (2011). Blood-speak: Ward Churchill and the racialization of American Indian identity. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 8 (3), 240-265. 

Kelly, C.R. (2010). Orwellian language and the politics of tribal termination (1953-1960). Western Journal of Communication, 74 (4), 351-371.

Hoerl, K. & Kelly, C.R. (2010). The post-nuclear family and the depoliticization of unplanned pregnancy in Juno, Knocked Up, and Waitress. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 7 (3), 360-380. 

Kelly, C.R. (2009). Women’s rhetorical agency in the American West: The new Penelope. Women’s Studies in Communication, 32 (3), 201-231.

Kelly, C.R. (2007). Rhetorical counterinsurgency: The FBI and the American Indian Movement. Advances in the History of Rhetoric, 10 (1), 223-258.

Invited Articles 

Kelly. C.R. (2025). Anti-wokeness and the fear of breakdown. Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture (forum on anti-woke rhetoric) (forthcoming).

Kelly, C.R. & Watts, E.K. (2025) “Devouring: A Conversation Between Eric King Watts and Casey Ryan Kelly” Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture (forthcoming). 

Kelly, C.R. (September 2019). You Are What You Watch: Food Television’s Culture Wars. Spectra: Magazine of the National Communication Association, 14-19. 

Kelly, C.R. (2015). Cooking without women: The rhetoric of the new culinary male. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 12 (2), 200-204.

Kelly, C.R. and Hoerl, K.E. (2015). Shaved or saved?: Disciplining women’s bodies. Women’s Studies in Communication, 38 (2), 141-145.

Book Chapters

Hoerl K.E. and C.R Kelly (2024). Shark party: Trauma scripts and the comic personae of Anthony Jeselneck. Christopher Gilbert and John Lucaites (eds). The Public Culture of Pleasure and Pain. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. 

Kelly, C.R. (in press, 2025). Tragedy and farce: Election denialism and the rhetoric of nonsense. In E.K. Watts (ed.), Past as Rhetorical Prologue. Michigan State University Press. (accepted 2024).

Kelly, C.R. (2020). Food pornography. D. Conley and J. Eckstein (eds.) Cookery: On rhetorical and culinary production. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.

Kelly, C.R. (2017). Representations of Native Americans in mass media. In John Nussbaum (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. London: Oxford University Press. (**peer reviewed entry)

Kelly, C.R. (2015). Exoticizing poverty in Bizarre Foods America. In S. Boerboom (ed.) The political language of food. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. 

Kelly, C.R. (2014) Bizarre Foods: White privilege and the neocolonial palate. In M. Triece and M. Lacy (eds.). Race and Hegemonic Struggle: Pop Culture, Politics, and Protest. Hackensack, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson Press. 

Kelly, C.R. (2014). Strange/familiar: Rhetorics of exoticism in ethnographic television. In R.L. Schwartz-DuPre (ed.), Communicating colonialism: Readings on postcolonial theory(s) and communication. New York: Peter Lang.

Peer-Reviewed Selected Papers

Kelly, C.R. (2019). The rage network: Toxic masculinity in digital space. C. Winkler (ed.), Networking Argument: Selected papers for the 19th Biennial Conference on Argumentation. London: Taylor & Francis.

Kelly, C.R. (2014). “True” Love Waits: The construction of facts in abstinence-until-marriage discourse. C. Palczewski (ed.), Disturbing Argument: Selected papers for the 17th Biennial Conference on Argumentation. London: Taylor & Francis. 

Kelly, C.R. (2007). Scientific consensus and ethical obligation: Reframing global warming. In S. Jacobs, M. Zarefsky, et al. (Eds.) Concerning Argument: Selected papers for the 15th Biennial Conference on Argumentation. Washington, D.C.: National Communication Association.

Book Reviews

Kelly, C.R. (2020). Review of Helene A. Shugart, Heavy: The Obesity Crisis in Cultural Context. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016. Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 23 (1): 169-172. 

Kelly, C.R. (2016). Review of Jason Edward Black, American Indians and the rhetoric of removal and allotment. Jackson, MI: State University Press of Mississippi, 2015. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 102 (4): 418-421.

Journal Manuscripts in Process

Kelly C.R. Alt-Sports: Power Slap as Far-Right Discourse (Revise and Resubmit, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, September 2025)

Research and Teaching Grants

DETECT: anti domestic terrorism that leverages technology to Detect Emergent Threats of Extremism and Communicate to Tactical response.
Co-PI with faculty at Baylor University and University of South Florida. Submitted to the Department of Homeland Security (May 2021, declined). 

Center for Citizenship and Community Grant (CCC).
Awarded by the CCC for developing a course that satisfies the Indianapolis Community Requirement (CCM 363: Freedom of Speech and Democracy). Award Amount: $500.00

Summer Research Grant.
Awarded by the Butler Institute for Research and Scholarship to prepare the book manuscript Food Television and Otherness in the Age of Globalization Award amount: $3,000 (2016). 

Summer Research Grant.
Awarded by the Butler Institute for Research and Scholarship to prepare the book manuscript Food Television and Otherness in the Age of Globalization Award amount: $3,000 (2016). 

Summer Research Grant.
Awarded by the Butler Institute for Research and Scholarship to prepare “The Twilight Saga and the Newest Traditionalism,” a book chapter for the book manuscript Abstinence Cinema: Virginity and the Rhetoric of Purity in Contemporary Film.Award amount: $3,000 (2014). 

Summer Research Grant.
Awarded by the Butler Institute for Research and Scholarship to prepare the book manuscript Abstinence Cinema: Virginity and the Rhetoric of Purity in Contemporary Film. Award amount: $3,000 (Summer 2013).

Research Travel Grant.
Awarded by the Department of Gender, Women’s Studies, and Sexuality, Butler University. In preparation of the manuscript “Genesis in Hyperreality: Legitimizing Disingenuous Controversy at the Creation Museum.” Award amount: $130.00

Keynotes, Seminars, and Invited Lectures

Agora Speaker Series, Department of Communication, University of Pittsburgh, February 21, 2025. Title: “Demanding a New Master: The Far Right Logics of the Fitness Dark Web.” 

University of Chicago Gender and Sexuality Workshop. Respondent to Michael Stablein, January 24, 2025. “Proud (of Your) Boy: Men Without Mothers and the Masculine Womb.” 

Roger Ebert Center at the University of Illinois, “Girth of a Nation: Introduction to Pumping Iron (1977).” An invited introductory lecture and film screening, November 7, 2024. 

Gravlee Lecture, Colorado State University, September 16, 2024. Fort Collins, CO. Presentation title: “Fitness and the New Rhetoric of White Nationalism.”

The Sexualities Project at Northwestern University, May 1-4, 2024. Evanston, IL. Presentation title: “Body Anxieties and the Sexual Politics of White Nationalism.”

Brigance Forum Lecture, March 23, 2024. Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN. Presentation title: “From Keyboard Warriors to Street-fighting Men: The New Rhetoric of White Nationalism”

Seminar Leader, Midwest Winter Workshop, February 17-19, 2024, University of Wisconsin. Madison, WI. 

First Friday Lecture Series, Department of Communication Studies, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR. October 6, 2023. Presentation title: “Ctrl+V Fascism: Copypasta and Memetic Violence”

Featured Presenter, Sommerhauser Institute of Holocaust Education. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. March 24, 2023. 

Plenary Speaker, 17th Biennial Public Address Conference, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, October 13-15 2022. Presentation title: “Caught on Tape: Access Hollywood and Obscene Enjoyment”

Invited Presenter, University of Arkansas Conference on the Rhetoric of Containment. Fayetteville, AR (September 5-6, 2019). Presentation title: “Fear of a Black Planet: Donald J. Trump, Demographic Containment, and the Rhetoric of White Ambivalence”

Seminar workshop leader (with Steven Alvarez) at the Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institution. College Park, MD. (June 6-8, 2019). Workshop title: “Rhetoric and Foodways.” 

Invited seminar leader at the Midwest Winter Workshop on Rhetoric, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, February 3, 2018. Seminar title: “The Rhetoric of Race/Gender/Sexuality.”

“The Wounded Man: The Rhetoric of White Masculine Victimhood.” An invited presentation at the Southern Colloquium on Rhetoric, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR. October 5-6, 2017. 

Keynote Lecture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Rhetoric Society of America Conference (co-sponsored by the Department of Communication Arts and Department of English). April 21, 2017. Presenation Title: “From the Plantation to the Prairie: American Exceptionalism and Food Television”

Research Colloquium, Department of Communication Studies, University of Utah, April 14, 2016. (co-sponsored by the Tanner Center for the Humanities). Presentation Title: “Masculine Rhetorics of Play and Leisure.”

Great Teachers Lecture Series, sponsored by the Department of Communication, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, February 15-17, 2016. Keynote title: “Gastrosexuals, Lumbersexuals, Ammosexuals, and Man/Boys: The New Rhetorics of White Manhood.”

Featured Scholar, Western States Communication Association Preconference on American Indian Rhetoric and Social Change, Albuquerque, NM, February 18, 2012. Presentation Title: “The fresh air of Indian idealism”: Clyde Warrior and the rhetoric of 1960s Indian youth activism.

Selected Conference Presentations

Top Paper Panels

Dreyer, C. and Kelly, C.R. Manufactured Enmity: Christian Nationalism and Cinematic Controversy. Top Paper Panel, Argumentation and Forensics Division. National Communication Association Conference November 16-19, 2023. Washington D.C. 

Hoerl. K.E. and Kelly, C.R. Pants on Fyre: Parasitic masculinity and the Fyre Festival. Top Paper Panel, Critical/Cultural Studies Division. National Communication Association, November 15-18, 2022. New Orleans, LA. 

Kelly, C.R. and C. Aunspach. “Incels, Compulsory Sexuality, and Fascist Masculinity” (2020). Top Paper, Feminist and Gender Studies Division, National Communication Association, (Virtual Conference). 

Kelly, C.R. Rhetoric and Public Address Division, Central States Communication Association, “Suns out, guns out: White masculinity and the optics of gun culture” (2018).

Kelly, C.R. GLBQT Studies Division, National Communication Association, “Emasculating Trump: The incredulous gaze, homophobia, and the spectacle of White masculinity” (2018).

Kelly, C.R. and R. Neville-Shepard. Visual Communication Division, National Communication Association, “Woman as frontier: David Magnusson’s Purity and the optics of subjugating the feminine.” (2016). 

Kelly, C.R. Feminist & Women’s Studies Division of NCA for “Women’s rhetorical agency in the American West: The New Penelope” (2008).

Kelly, C.R. Argumentation and Forensics Division of NCA for “Authenticity, argument, and ‘real Indians’: Policing ethnic boundaries and the Ward Churchill Controversy” (2006).

Competitive Papers/Panel Sessions

Kelly. C.R. Broscience and other psychotic reading practices. A paper presented to the Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division, National Communication Association Conference, November 21-24, 2024. New Orleans, LA. 

Kelly, C.R. Anti-wokeness and the fear of breakdown. A paper presented to the plenary sessions “Just Rhetoric: Anti-Wokeness and the Persistence of Transformative Thinking” Rhetoric Society of America Conference, May 21-24, 2024. Denver, CO.

Kelly, C.R. “Growth and Change: Re/Defining Research Program throughout the Academic Career (Panel discussion),” National Communication Association Research Council. National Communication Association Conference, New Orleans, LA, November 18, 2022.

Kelly, C.R. “White Masculinity in Pandemic Times: Lockdown Conspiracies and Antiblackness." A paper presented to the Argumentation Division, National Communication Association Conference, New Orleans, LA, November 17, 2022.

Neville-Shepard, R. and C.R. Kelly. The most hated tree in America: Negative difference, the white imaginary, and the Bradford Pear. A paper presented to the Communication and Rhetorical Theory Division, National Communication Association Conference, New Orleans, LA, November 16, 2022. 

Kelly, C.R. and Asen, R. “Rhetorical Economies of Whiteness,” A panel session presented to the Critical/Cultural Studies Division, National Communication Association Conference, New Orleans, LA, November 16, 2022. 

Kelly, C.R. and Asen, R. “Rhetorical Economies of Whiteness,” A plenary session presented at the Biennial Rhetoric Society of America Conference, Baltimore, MD, May 25, 2022.

Hoerl, K.E. and Kelly, C.R. “Botched: Dr. Death and the Entrepreneur Subject of Late Stage Neoliberalism.” A paper presented at the Biennial Rhetoric Society of America Conference, Baltimore, MD, May 25, 2022.

Kelly, C.R. “Memetic Violence and the White Genocide Manifesto,” A paper presented to the Public Address Division of the National Communication Association, November 19, 2021. 

Kelly, C.R. “Pumping Iron: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Muscled Imaginary.” A paper presented to the Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies Division, National Communication Association, November 17, 2021. Seattle, WA. 

Kelly. C.R. “Anxiety, Racial Capitalism, and the Donald Sterling Tapes.” A paper presented to the Communication and Sport Division, National Communication Association, November 17, 2021. Seattle, WA. 

Kelly, C.R. and A. Aguayo. National Communication Association, Second Vice President Plenary Session Planner, “Renewal and Transformation Series: January 6 and the Rhetoric of Political Violence,” a short documentary film and discussion panel. Seattle, WA, November 17, 2021. 

Hoerl, K. and Kelly, C.R. The abject feminism of women “sex comics.” A paper presented to the Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division, National Communication Association, Baltimore, MD, November 15, 2019.

Kelly, C.R. Going Native: Anthony Bourdain and No Reservations. A paper presented at the Rhetoric Society of America Biennial Conference, Minneapolis, MN, June 1, 2018. 

Kelly, C.R. Elliot Rodger’s retribution: White masculine violence and the new fascism. A paper presented to the Team Rhetoric Conference “Rhetoric and the new fascism,” Sponsored by Texas A&M University, February 11, 2018. 

Kelly, C.R. and Khan, A.I. “I’m Not Black, I’m OJ”: Racial neoliberalism and black monstrosity in OJ: Made in America (2016). A paper presented to the Critical/Cultural Division of the National Communication Association Conference, Dallas, TX, November 14-17, 2017. 

Kelly, C.R. The rage network: Form, affective arguments, and toxic masculinity in digital space. A paper presented to the NCA/AFA Biennial Conference on Argumentation at Alta, UT. July 20-23, 2017. 

Kelly, C.R. America the Abundant: Fantasies of Limitless Consumption in Man vs. Food and Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. A paper presented to the Rhetoric and Public Address Division. Western States Communication Association Conference, February 16, 2017. 

Kelly, C.R., Chastity for democracy: Eros, rhetorical citizenship, and the Adolescent Family Life Act (1981). A paper presented at the Gender and Citizenship Conference, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, February 20, 2016. 

Kelly, C.R. Gilding the lily while deserting the poor: Las Vegas’s culinary shock absorbers. A paper presented to the American Studies & Critical/Cultural Studies Division, National Communication Association. Las Vegas, NV, November 21, 2015. 

Kelly, C.R., Subverting the monstrous-feminine: An argument with Teeth (2007). A paper present at the NCA/AFA biennial Alta Argumentation Conference, Alta UT, July 30-August 2, 2015. 

Kelly, C.R., America the innocent: Abstinence rhetoric and the sentimental public. A paper presented at the RSA Summer Workshop, Madison, WI, June 1-3, 2015. Session title: Rhetoric’s reality problem (led by Dana L. Cloud). 

Kelly, C.R., Bizarre Foods: White privilege and the neocolonial palate. A paper presented to the Critical/Cultural Studies Division of the National Communication Association Conference, Chicago IL, November 19-22, 2014. 

Kelly, C.R., Cooking without women: The rhetoric of the new culinary male. A paper presented to the Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division of the National Communication Association Conference, Chicago IL, November 19-22, 2014.

Kelly, C.R., The Twilight Saga and the rhetoric of the new(est) traditionalism. A paper to be presented at the Rhetoric Society of America 16th Biennial Conference, San Antonio, TX, May 22-26, 2014.  

Kelly, C.R., Strange/familiar: Rhetorics of exoticism in ethnographic television. A paper presented to the Critical/Cultural Studies Division of the National Communication Association Conference, Washington, D.C., November 21-24, 2013. 

Kelly, C.R., Critique unchained: Reactionary pop criticism and the failure of pure politics. A paper presented to the Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division of the National Communication Association Conference, Washington, D.C., November 21-24, 2013. 

Kelly, C.R., Possession films and the horrors of burgeoning womanhood. A paper to be presented to the Feminist and Women’s Studies Division of the National Communication Association Conference, Washington, D.C., November 21-24, 2013. 

Kelly, C.R., “True” love waits: The construction of facts in abstinence-until-marriage discourse. A paper presented to the NCA/AFA Summer Conference on Argumentation, Alta, UT, August 1-4, 2013.

Kelly, C.R., Neocolonialism and the global prison in National Geographic’s Locked Up Abroad. A paper presented to Critical/Cultural Division of the National Communication Association Conference, New Orleans, LA November 16, 2011.

Kelly, C.R., Contested <freedom>: The National Indian Youth Council and counterhegemonic struggle in Indian Affairs. A paper presented to the American Studies Division of the National Communication Association Conference, New Orleans, LA, November 17, 2011 

Kelly, C.R. and Hoerl, K., The Premodern argument frame: Disingenuous controversy at the Creation Museum. NCA/AFA Summer Conference on Argumentation, Alta, UT, July 28-31, 2011.

Teaching Experience

University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2017-)

  • COMM 998: Special Topics: Rhetoric, Masculinity & Race (Graduate seminar)
  • COMM 950D: Special Topics: Rhetorical Bodies (Graduate Seminar)
  • COMM 981: Rhetorical Criticism (Graduate seminar)
  • COMM 980: Cultural Criticism (Gradate seminar)
  • COMM 950D: Topics in Rhetoric and Public Culture: Rhetoric of Populism (Graduate Seminar)
  • COMM 911D: Contemporary Rhetorical Theory (Graduate seminar)
  • COMM 380: Gender and Communication (Undergraduate)
  • COMM 330: Freedom of Speech (Undergraduate)
  • COMM 357: Paranoia and Polarization in Digital Culture (Undergraduate)
  • COMM 280: Communication and Popular Culture (Undergraduate)
  • COMM 250: Rhetoric, Media, and Civic Life (Undergraduate)

Butler University (2009-2017)

  • CCM 315: Rhetorical Theory 
  • CCM 330: Representations of Race and Difference 
  • CCM 352: Rhetorical Criticism 
  • CCM 463: Free Speech and Democracy 
  • CCM/GWSS 390: Topics: Virginity and the Sexual Politics of Film 
  • COMM 101: Rhetoric and the American Democratic Tradition
  • COMM 102: Public Speaking 
  • COMM 356: Communication Research Methods 
  • COMM 462: Influence in Public Culture 
  • SW 266: Media Literacy 
  • FYS 101& 102: Native American Experience 
  • FYS 101& 102: George Orwell and Social Criticism

University of Minnesota (2005-2009)

  • Comm 1101: Public Speaking (Primary Instructor, Fall 2005 - Spring 2006)
  • Comm 1313: Analysis of Argument (Primary Instructor, Fall/Spring 2007-2008)
  • Comm 3110/5110: Cultural and Political Rhetoric of the 1960’s (Teaching Assistant, Spring 2007)
  • Comm 3201: Introduction to U.S. Electronic Media (Teaching Assistant, Fall 2007)
  • Comm 3601: Introduction to Rhetorical Theory (Teaching Assistant, Fall 2008)
  • Comm 3631: Freedom of Speech, Spring 2006 (Teaching Assistant, Spring 2008)

Advising & Graduate Committees

  • Amy Whiteside (Ph.D. Adviser, 2025-)
  • Sabrina O’Gwynn (Ph.D. Adviser, 2023-)
  • Zac Thornhill (Ph.D. Adviser, 2022-)
  • Jacob Fry (Ph.D. Adviser, 2024-)
  • Mallory Marsh (Ph.D. adviser, 2021, Assistant Professor & Forensics Director, James Madison University)
  • Jennifer Rome (Ph.D. adviser, 2020)
  • Chase Aunspach (Ph.D. adviser, Assistant Professor, Des Moines Community College)
  • William Sipe (Ph.D. adviser, 2023, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada-Las Vegas)
  • Samantha Gillespie (Ph.D. adviser, 2024, Lecture, University of Nebraska)
  • Tyler Behymer, (M.A. adviser, 2024)  
  • Courtney Dreyer (Ph.D. adviser, 2024, Assistant Professor, ASU Lake Havasu)
  • Amanda Brand (Dissertation Committee, Assistant Professor, College of St. Mary)
  • Dakota Sandras (Dissertation Committee, 2024, Assistant Professor, CSU-Pueblo)
  • Megan Cardwell (Dissertation Committee, Assistant Professor, Villanova)
  • Jordan Johnson (Dissertation Committee, Assistant Professor, Hastings College)
  • Adam Blood (Dissertation Committee, Ph.D. 2019, Director of Debate, University of W. Florida)
  • Zoe Farquhar (Dissertation Committee, Ph.D. 2022, Assistant Professor Anne Arundel Community College)
  • Ashley Garcia (Dissertation Committee, Ph.D. 2022, College of St. Rose)
  • William Cooney (Dissertation Committee, Ph.D. 2022, University of Nebraska-Omaha)
  • Trenton Haltom (Dissertation Committee, Sociology, Ph.D. 2021, Baylor University)
  • I.H. Essex (Thesis Committee, English, 2022)
  • Celie Knudson (Thesis Committee, English, 2022)

Service and Administration

National Communication Association

  • Doctoral Education Committee (2022-2025)
  • Professional Service Award Committee (2019-2020) 
  • Gerald R. Miller Dissertation Award Committee (2022-2024) 
  • Chair, Critical/Cultural Studies Division (2016-2019) 
  • (*Division Awards Planner (2016-2017) Division Planner (2017-2018) and Chair (2018-2019))
  • Nominating Committee (2017-2018)
  • Legislative Assembly, Representative for the Critical/Cultural Division (2016-2019)
  • Legislative Assembly, Alternate Representative, Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division (2015)
  • Nominating Committee, Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division (2014-2015)

Rhetoric Society of America

  • RSA Planning Committee (2022)

Editorial Boards 

  • Quarterly Journal of Speech (2019-)
  • Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies (2021-) 
  • Communication and Democracy (2024-)
  • Journal of Intercultural and International Communication (2019-2022)
  • Women’s Studies in Communication (2015-2020)
  • Western Journal of Communication (2013-2021)
  • Contemporary Argumentation and Debate (2019-)
  • University Press of Mississippi Book Series on Horror and Monstrosity Studies (2019-)
  • NCA/AFA Summer Argumentation Conference, Alta, UT (2013; 2015; 2017; 2019)

Ad Hoc Reviewing

  • Argumentation and Advocacy (2012-)
  • Critical Studies in Media Communication (2019-)
  • Communication, Culture, and Critique (2015-)
  • Feminist Media Studies (2017-)
  • QED: A Journal of GLBTQ Worldmaking (2018-)
  • Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society (2018) 
  • Communication Quarterly (2016-)
  • Journal of Communication Inquiry (2015-) 
  • Men and Masculinities (2013-)
  • Rhetoric Society Quarterly (2014-)
  • Peitho:The Journal of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric & Composition(2016)
  • Ethnic and Racial Studies (2016-)
  • Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies (2017-)
  • Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric (2017-)
  • Journal of Feminist Scholarship (2017)
  • Journal of Popular Culture Studies (Special Issue: “Monsters & Monstrosity”) (2018)
  • Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication (2018)
  • Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association (2018)
  • Journal of American Studies (2019)
  • American Indian Quarterly (2020) 
  • Futures (2020) 
  • American Literary History (2021)
  • International Journal of Communication (2021) 
  • Du Bois Review (2022)
  • Asian Journal of Communication (2022)

Book Manuscript Reviewer

  • Rutgers University Press, (2023, 1 manuscript)
  • Ohio State University Press (2021, 2 manuscripts) 
  • University of South Carolina Press (2020, 1 manuscript)
  • University Press of Mississippi (2019, 2020, 2025, 3 manuscripts) 
  • University of Missouri Press (2019, 1 manuscript) 
  • University of Texas Press (2017, 1 manuscript)
  • University of Massachusetts Press (2017, 1 manuscript) 
  • Lexington Books (2018, 1 manuscript)

College & University Service (University of Nebraska 2017-)

  • Director of Graduate Studies (2019-)
  • Dean’s Executive Committee, College of Arts and Sciences (2020-2023)
  • CAS Cares Committee (2020-2022)
  • Search Chair, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Race (2022)
  • Departmental Graduate Committee (2017-)
  • Husker Humanities Initiative (2018-2022)
  • Department Grievance Committee (2022-)

College & University Service (Butler University 2009-2017)

  • Chair, Professional Standards Committee, College of Communication, Butler University (2016-2017) (*responsible for tenure, promotion, faculty reappointments) 
  • Butler University Awards Committee, Butler Institute for Research and Scholarship (2016-2019)
  • Butler University Faculty Senate Parliamentarian (2014-2016)
  • Director of Debate, Butler University (2012-2016)
  • Director, Conference for Ethics in Public Argumentation, College of Communication, Butler University, April 1-3, 2013 (2013-2015)
  • Director of the Butler University Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies Speaker’s Series (2012-2014)
  • Faculty Senate Committee on Faculty Affairs, Butler University (2013-2015)
  • Faculty Senate Committee on Academic Affair, Butler University (2010-2012)
  • Steering Committee Member, Early Butler Admission Program, Shortridge Magnet High School for Law & Public Policy (2013-2014)
  • Steering Committee Member, Office of the Provost Annual Founder’s Day Initiative, Butler University (2013-2014)
  • Division planner, Communication & Media Studies Division, Butler University Undergraduate Research Conference (2012-2016) 
  • Search Committee Member, Executive Director for Institutional Effectiveness, Butler University (2013-2014)
  • Search Committee Member, Assistant Professor in Organizational Communication, College of Communication, Butler University (2011-2012)
  • College of Communication Representative to the Associate Provost’s Office Online Teaching and Learning Committee (Summer 2012)
  • Faculty Expert on File for the Butler University Public Relations Office (2011-2017)
  1. Avatar for Casey Kelly
    Casey Kelly
    Professor Communication Studies University of Nebraska-Lincoln
    Work
    Address
    LPH 361
    Lincoln NE 68588-0329
    Phone
    Work 402-472-2070 On-campus 2-2070
    Email
    ckelly11@unl.edu