About 

A teacher of rhetoric, Tony de Velasco works within an essentially-contested and evolving scholarly tradition more than 2,000 years in the making. 

His books include Centrist Rhetoric: The Production of Political Transcendence in the Clinton Presidency (2010), Rhetoric: Concord and Controversy (2012, co-edited) and Rethinking Rhetorical Theory, Criticism, and Pedagogy: The Living Art of Michael C. Leff (2016, co-edited).

His work appears in venues such as Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, Southern Communication Journal, the Commercial Appeal, and MLK50: Justice Through Journalism.

He has received numerous honors, including the Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award (2011), the College of Communication and Fine Arts Dean's Outstanding Research Award (2013), the Alumni Association "Eye of the Tiger" Award (2019), the Faudree University Professorship (2019) and the Benjamin W. Rawlins, Jr. Meritorious Professorship (2020).

Prof. de Velasco has directed eight doctoral dissertations and six MA projects to completion, and served on more than thirty successful PhD and MA committees.

Education

Ph.D., Emory University
B.A., Guilford College

Experience

Professional

Associate Professor, Department of Communication, University of Memphis, 2011-present
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of Memphis, 2005-2011

Administrative

Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Communication, University of Memphis, 2013-2019

Honors and Awards

Benjamin W. Rawlins, Jr. Meritorious Professorship, 2020
University of Memphis Alumni Association "Eye of the Tiger" Award, 2019
Faudree University Professorship, 2019
College of Communication and Fine Arts Dean's Outstanding Research Award, 2013
University of Memphis Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award, 2011

Research and Scholarly Activities

Research Interests

Rhetoric and Social Theory; U.S. Political Discourse; Rhetorical Pedagogy

Publications

“Redemptive Exclusion: A Case Study of Nikki Haley’s Rhetoric on Syrian Refugees.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 23.4 (2020), 735-760. (second author, with Noor Ghazal Aswad).

“A Cautionary Note on Context, Memory, and the Regulation of Black Womanhood.” The Conceit of Context. Charles Morris III and Kendall Phillips, eds. (New York: Peter Lang, 2020), 263-269.

"'I'm a Southerner, too': Black Southern Counterpublics and Confederate Monuments in Memphis, Tennessee. Southern Communication Journal 84.4, (2019), 233-245.

Rethinking Rhetorical Theory, Criticism, and Pedagogy: The Living Art of Michael C. Leff (with John Angus Campbell and David Henry) (Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2016)

Rhetoric: Concord and Controversy (with Melody Lehn) (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2011).

Centrist Rhetoric: The Production of Political Transcendence in the Clinton Presidency. (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010)

(with Michael C. Leff) "Rhetoric" in Kristen Malmkjær, ed. The Routledge Linguistics Encyclopedia. (London: Routledge, 2009), 456-61.

"Transgressive Eloquence: bell hooks, Cicero and the Aims of Rhetorical Pedagogy." Sizing Up Rhetoric. David Zarefsky and Elizabeth Benacka, eds. (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2007), 393-7.

"Rethinking Perelman's Universal Audience: Political Dimensions of a Controversial Concept." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 35.2 (Spring 2005), 47-64.