Lester C. Olson
Professor of Communication and Chancellor’s Distinguished Teacher
PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1109 M Cathedral of Learning
Phone: 412-624-6796
E-mail: olson@pitt.edu
Lester C. Olson teaches and researches in the areas of visual rhetoric, rhetorical criticism, and public address. He has an abiding interest in silence, human rights, and rhetoric concerning social justice. His current book-length project focuses on Audre Lorde, an internationally acclaimed poet and activist.
Courses Taught
- Rhetorical Criticism (COMMRC 1123)
- Rhetoric and Human Rights (COMMRC 1148)
- Rhetorical Criticism (COMMRC 2201)
- Public Argument (Visual Rhetoric) (COMMRC 2214)
Selected Publications
Books
Visual Rhetoric: A Reader in Communication and American Culture.Sage Publications, Inc. 2008. Visual images, artifacts, and performances play a powerful part in shaping U.S. culture. To understand the dynamics of public persuasion, students must understand this visual rhetoric.
Emblems of American Community in the Revolutionary Era: A Study in Rhetorical Iconology. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991. This project received three national awards, among them the James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address.
Benjamin Franklin’s Vision of America, 1754-1784: A Study in Rhetorical Iconology. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, April 2004. This book received two national awards: the Rhetoric Society of America’s 2005 Book Award and the 2005 Marie Hochmuth Nichols Award from the Public Address Division of the National Communication Association.
Selected Essays
“On the Margins of Rhetoric: Audre Lorde Transforming Silence into Language and Action,” Quarterly Journal of Speech, 83, 49-70. 1997. This essay will be reprinted in Readings in Political Communication, in press, edited by Theodore F. Sheckels, Janette Kenner Muir, Terry Robertson, and Lisa Gring-Pemble. State College, PA: Strata, scheduled for release May 2007.
“Liabilities of Language: Audre Lorde Reclaiming Difference,” Quarterly Journal of Speech, 84, 448-470. 1998.
“The Personal, the Political, and Others: Audre Lorde Denouncing ‘The Second Sex Conference,’” Philosophy and Rhetoric, 33(3), 259-285. 2000.
“A Cartography of Silence: Bias Crimes and Public Speechlessness,” Journal of Intergroup Relations, 31(4), 76-102. Winter 2004/2005.
“Audre Geraldine Lorde (1934-1992), Professor of English, Poet, Black Lesbian, and Socialist.” In Bernard K. Duffy and Richard W. Leeman (Eds.), American Voices: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Orators.Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 285-292. 2005.
“Visual Rhetoric Representing Rosie the Riveter: Myth and Misconception." In J. Howard Miller’s ‘We Can Do It! ’ Poster (with James J. Kimble as co-author), Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 9(4), 533-570. Winter 2006.
“Traumatic Style: Audre Lorde’s Discourse as Exemplar,” in press, to be published by the University of South Carolina Press in an anthology titled Queer-ing Public Address, edited by Charles Morris, scheduled for release in 2007.