Journal Articles by Skye de Saint Felix
Argumentation and Advocacy, 2020
Tracking all mentions of Ronald Reagan during presidential primary and general election debates f... more Tracking all mentions of Ronald Reagan during presidential primary and general election debates from 1988 to 2016, we suggest that<Reagan>has emerged as a complex ideograph in contemporary political discourse. Demonstrating what we call the “personified ideograph,” this essay tracks the reverence toward Reagan that indicates the name’s status as a god term, and suggests the historic meaning of the ideograph is linked to
secondary terms like “principled,” “peace through strength,” and “prosperity.” We further contend that such a calcified memory of Reagan has led to a schism in the GOP, and we describe the alternative understanding of<Reagan>as linked to such terms as “bipartisanship” and “change.”
Papers by Skye de Saint Felix
This thesis provides a rhetorical history of abortion discourse with an emphasis on the rhetorica... more This thesis provides a rhetorical history of abortion discourse with an emphasis on the rhetorical moment from 2013-2016. To uncover the rhetorical strategies used to shape consensus on abortion, I highlight three major events-Senator Wendy Davis's (D-Fort Worth) notorious 13-hour filibuster against Texas's HB2, the conservative capture of Davis as Abortion Barbie, and the Supreme Court case, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt (2016). Because of these key rhetorical moments, pro-choice and anti-choice publics cultivated a period of heightened tension that reinvigorated abortion debates. While pro-choice groups employed narrative to centralize women as rhetorical agents and open spaces to discuss abortion, anti-choice publics used visual rhetoric to vilify women and accentuate the fetus. But with both ideologies adopting scientific rhetoric, the Supreme Court intervened to determine evidenced-based truth and settle disputed abortion law. This helped make abortion a major political issue in the 2016 presidential election and accentuated how legal, political, and public discourses perpetuate reproductive oppression.
Book Review of Buying a Bride: An Engaging History of Mail-Order Matches
Social Science Research Network, Jul 1, 2016
Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 2018
A s the 2013-2015 West African Ebola outbreak ignited a global moral panic, Marouf A. Hasian Jr. ... more A s the 2013-2015 West African Ebola outbreak ignited a global moral panic, Marouf A. Hasian Jr. investigated the contested nature of Ebola rhetorics as various politicians, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), legal commentators, and media outlets framed the disease according to their interests. Using Michel Foucault's discussion of dispositifs, clusters of meaning with rhetorical and material effects, Hasian assesses how cultural knowledges of the global North and South impacted humanitarian medical intervention and public health policies. Through a critical, historical, and rhetorical analysis of dominant Ebola dispositifs, this text demonstrates how American discourses heroized their role in "ending" the spread of this disease, ignoring the fact that local communities did most of the groundwork to contain and eradicate Ebola. The introductory chapter, "Arguing about the Cultural and Legal Meanings of the 2013-2015 West African Ebola Outbreak," explains that fear of contracting Ebola spread faster than Ebola itself. While previous outbreaks aroused some public attention, the "Zaire" Ebola outbreak, primarily in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, triggered global responses heightened by fear and national stereotyping of Ebola victims. In critiquing international responses to the epidemic, Hasian investigates the "host of contestable legal and bioethical decisions" (11) made from 2013 to 2015 that caused delayed intervention, ineffective protocols, and massive loss of life.
A New Doll in Texas: A Feminist Media Analysis of Senator Wendy Davis’s Rhetorical Framing as “Abortion Barbie”
Feminist Media Studies, 2021
After Senator Wendy Davis’s epic filibuster of Texas’s House Bill 2 in 2013, she was vilified in ... more After Senator Wendy Davis’s epic filibuster of Texas’s House Bill 2 in 2013, she was vilified in the media as “Abortion Barbie.” As a term, “Abortion Barbie” was circulated in conservative and libe...
guidance, direction, and support from Dr. Lisa Corrigan. I would like to thank her for igniting m... more guidance, direction, and support from Dr. Lisa Corrigan. I would like to thank her for igniting my passion for social justice issues, particularly feminism and women's studies, encouraging me, providing me with source materials, and calming my anxieties throughout this whole process. She is an invaluable mentor that has changed my educational career. Furthermore, I would like to thank the dedicated members of my thesis committee-Dr. Stephanie Schulte and Professor Laurent Sacharoff. I also would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education for honoring feminist and rhetorical studies by awarding Dr. Corrigan and me a 2015 Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship to research these significant issues. Additionally, I want to acknowledge the University of Arkansas, especially the Communication department and Gender Studies program, for providing me with incredible mentors, a strong curriculum, and the tools to conduct this research. I would also like to thank my mother, Kathy, for being an extremely strong, independent female role model for me throughout my entire life. I am forever grateful for her support and making me proud to be her daughter. I would also like to thank my brother, Chase, for giving me my first book on feminism and pushing me to think critically and embrace my academic passions.
This thesis provides a rhetorical history of abortion discourse with an emphasis on the rhetorica... more This thesis provides a rhetorical history of abortion discourse with an emphasis on the rhetorical moment from 2013-2016. To uncover the rhetorical strategies used to shape consensus on abortion, I highlight three major events—Senator Wendy Davis’s (D-Fort Worth) notorious 13-hour filibuster against Texas’s HB2, the conservative capture of Davis as Abortion Barbie, and the Supreme Court case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt (2016). Because of these key rhetorical moments, pro-choice and anti-choice publics cultivated a period of heightened tension that reinvigorated abortion debates. While pro-choice groups employed narrative to centralize women as rhetorical agents and open spaces to discuss abortion, anti-choice publics used visual rhetoric to vilify women and accentuate the fetus. But with both ideologies adopting scientific rhetoric, the Supreme Court intervened to determine evidenced-based truth and settle disputed abortion law. This helped make abortion a major political i...
The Rhetorical Style of Predatory White Masculinity in Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 Testimony Before the Senate Judiciary Committee
Women's Studies in Communication
There they go again: invoking the Reagan > ideograph
Argumentation and Advocacy
Practicing Pathology: The Rhetoric of Pathology in Jane Doe's Struggle to Obtain an Abortion in Federal Immigration Custody
World Medical & Health Policy
Abstinence Cinema: Virginity and the Rhetoric of Sexual Purity in Contemporary Film, by Casey Ryan Kelly
Southern Communication Journal
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Journal Articles by Skye de Saint Felix
secondary terms like “principled,” “peace through strength,” and “prosperity.” We further contend that such a calcified memory of Reagan has led to a schism in the GOP, and we describe the alternative understanding of<Reagan>as linked to such terms as “bipartisanship” and “change.”
Papers by Skye de Saint Felix
secondary terms like “principled,” “peace through strength,” and “prosperity.” We further contend that such a calcified memory of Reagan has led to a schism in the GOP, and we describe the alternative understanding of<Reagan>as linked to such terms as “bipartisanship” and “change.”