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Paul Elliott Johnson

  • Associate Professor

Education

PhD, University of Iowa

Biography

Paul matriculated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2005 with a degree in political science and after a successful career as a competitor for the William Pitt Debating Union. He returned to Pitt in 2011 while finishing his studies at the University of Iowa. Despite hailing from Nashville, TN he is a big fan of most things Pittsburgh.

Areas of Interest

Paul does work on politics, media, and culture. Broadly, his work takes a critical approach, grounded in an appreciation of the structural dynamics of the United States that inform much of our contemporary moment. Areas of focus include political communication, democratic theory, social movements, public address, civic rhetoric, political media, rhetorical ecologies, argumentation, and political authority. Paul focuses on the adroit deployment of populist rhetoric by conservative forces in the context of Western democracies and especially the United States.

Video

Dr. Paul Johnson speaks about his research and teaching.

    Courses Taught

    • Public Speaking (COMMRC 0520)
    • Power, Knowledge, and Desire (COMMRC 1143)
    • Argumentation
    • Rhetoric and Social Theory
    • Politics of Popular Culture
    Awards
    -American Forensics Association Outstanding Dissertation Award (2015)
    -Outstanding Article of the Year, National Communication Association, Critical/Cultural Studies Division, "Walter White(ness) Lashes Out: Breaking Bad and Male Victimage" (2017)
    -Outstanding Article of the Year, National Communication Association, American Studies Division, "The Art of Masculine Victimhood: Donald Trump's Demagoguery" (2017)
    Representative Publications

    Books

    • Johnson, P. E. (2022) I The People: The Rhetoric of Conservative Populism in the United States. University of Alabama Press. (Awarded the 2023 Winans Wichelns Award for Outstanding Book in Public Address from NCA’s Public Address Division).

    Articles

    • Johnson, P.E. (2024). “Owning the Libs: The Right-Wing Politics of Envy,” Theory & Event, 27 (4),  244-257.
    • Johnson, P.E. (2022) “Fear of a Black City: Gender and Postracial Sovereignty in Death Wish  (2018).” Women’s Studies in Communication, 45.2: 232-253.
    • Johnson, P.E. (2017) “The Art of Masculine Victimhood: Donald Trump’s Demagoguery.” Women’s Studies in Communication 40.3: 229-250. (Awarded the Outstanding  Essay of the Year from NCA’s American Studies Division in 2018).
    • Johnson, P. E. (2017) "Walter White(ness) Lashes Out: Breaking Bad and Male Victimage." Critical Studies in Media Communication 34.1: 14-28. (Awarded the Outstanding Essay of the Year from NCA's Critical/Cultural Studies Division in 2018).
    • Johnson, P.E. (2017) “Deactivating the State of Exception: Imagining a Popular Trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.” Argumentation and Advocacy, 53.1: 2-22.
    • Von Burg, R. & Johnson, P. E. (2009). “Yearning for a Past that Never Was: Technological Anxiety and the Performance-Enhancement Controversy in Baseball.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 26 (4), 351-371. 

     

    Presentations

    • February 3, 2017 - 3:00pm: AGORA Speaker Series: “I, The People: American Conservatism, Political Theory, and the Populism’s Discontents”
    • September 7, 2018 - 3:00pm: Agora Speaker Series:“The Year of the Angry White Male: The 1994 Midterm and the Conservative Populist Crisis”
    • April 6, 2017 - 11:00am: Colloquium on Masculinity and Affect- Departmental special guest include, Brent Malin, Paul Johnson, and Caitlin Bruce
    Research Interests

    Paul’s work is interdisciplinary, rooted in both rhetorical theory and critical/cultural studies, and is often informed by scholarly perspectives on gender and sexuality. He is especially interested in both how US conservatives have adeptly deployed rhetorics of victimhood, especially in gendered and racialized ways, and how more general liberal scripts of personhood are invested in similar narratives. His book, I the People: The Rhetoric of Conservative Populism in the United States (University of Alabama, 2022) examined conservative discourses from the middle of the 20th century through to the conservative capture of the Republican Party in the early 21st. The book was awarded the 2023 Winans-Wichelns Award from the Public Address division of the National Communication Association. His essay “Walter White(ness) Lashes Out: Breaking Bad and Male Victimage” won the 2017 award for Outstanding Essay from the NCA’s Critical/Cultural Studies division.  Other work has appeared in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Theory & Event, Women’s Studies in Communication, and Argumentation and Advocacy. He has pieces in edited collections on presidential rhetoric, rhetorical populism, and media coverage of democracy. 

    He has a few ongoing projects: one about the visual rhetoric of the painter Jon McNaughton, another about how finance capitalism is perceived as multiracial threat in certain cultural texts, and finally a project to examine the close readings of materialist philosophies in early Cold War era memoranda to Harry Truman.