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Patricia Sullivan

Biographical profile

Patricia A. Sullivan is an award-winning scholar and popular teacher whose speciality area of teaching -- political communication -- has brought her national attention and recognition. She has been a teacher at New Paltz for 16 years and is currently the Chair of the Department of Communication and Media, one of the largest departments at the college.

Dr. Sullivan teaches some of her department’s most popular courses, including her classes on Theories of Persuasion, Communication and Dissenting Voices, Political Communication and Communication and Gender. After taking a class with Professor Sullivan, one student recently wrote that it should be "a requirement for anyone hoping to function in an aware manner in our society." Another student added, “she makes subjects I don't think I'm interested in seem interesting.”

Dr. Sullivan is not just a success in the classroom, however. Her co-edited collection of essays, Political Rhetoric, Power, and Renaissance Women, was published in 1995. Her prolific scholarship and writing has received national awards. Her 1996 book, From the Margins to the Center: Contemporary Women and Political Communication, was named book of the year by the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender. She has received similar national awards for scholarly articles she wrote in 1996 and 1999.

Dr. Sullivan’s most recent book is a collection of essays she co-edited called New Approaches to Rhetoric.

Sullivan began her academic life at Marquette University in Milwaukee where she received a degree in English and communication. She then obtained her Ph.D. in rhetoric and communication at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

Her teaching career began at Seattle University and the University of Puget Sound in the state of Washington. After seven years there, she taught for one year at Marquette University before joining the New Paltz faculty in 1990.

Dr. Sullivan is a good example of a professor who has uniquely blended her research interests with the classes she teaches. She has written for many years on issues relating to politics, women, race, and power, topics that often become the focus of her classes. Her articles are often used by other communication professors in classes throughout the country. Her current research projects center on rhetorical analyses of moral decision-making patterns in U.S. Supreme Court abortion decisions, political apologies, and new social movements. In addition to pursuing scholarly research projects, she plans to write about rhetoric for more general audiences.

Communication and Media

CSB 50
75 South Manheim Blvd.
New Paltz, New York 12561
Phone: 845-257-3456 or 257-3450
Fax: 845-257-3461

sullivap@newpaltz.edu

Courses Taught

90353 Theories of Persuasion

90356 Communication and Dissenting Voices

90433 Aesthetics & Criticism of Television

90451 Political Communication

90452 Communication and Gender

EDUCATION

B.A., Marquette University, Speech and English. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1976

Ph.D., The University of Iowa, Communication (Rhetorical Studies), Iowa City, 1983

Books, Articles, and Selected Chapters

New Approaches to Rhetoric. Collection of essays co-edited with Steven R. Goldzwig. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004.

From the Margins to the Center: Contemporary Women and Political Communication. For Praeger Series in Political Communication. With Lynn H. Turner. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996.

Political Rhetoric, Power, and Renaissance Women. Collection of essays co-edited with Carole Levin. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995.

Sullivan, Patricia A., and Steven R. Goldzwig. “Narrative and Counternarrative in Mediated Coverage of Milwaukee Alderman Michael McGee. The Quarterly Journal of Speech 86.2 (2000): 215-231.

Sullivan, Patricia A., and Lynn H. Turner. “The Zoe Baird Spectacle: Silences, Sins, and Status.” The Western Journal of Communication 63.4 (1999): 413-432.

Sullivan, Patricia A., and Steven R. Goldzwig. “A Relational Approach to Moral Decision-Making: The Majority Opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The Quarterly Journal of Speech 81.2 (1995): 167-190.

Sullivan, Patricia A., and Steven R. Goldzwig. “Abortion and Undue Burden: Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Judicial Decision-Making.” Women and Politics 16.3 (1996): 27-54.

Sullivan, Patricia A., and Steven R. Goldzwig. “Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes and ’Tis: A Memoir: American Autobiographical Traditions and Narrative Constructions of ‘Whiteness’.” Eds. Patricia A. Sullivan and Steven R. Goldzwig. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004. 267-291.

Sullivan, Patricia A., and Steven R. Goldzwig. “Seven Lessons from President Clinton’s Race Initiative: A Post-Mortem on the Politics of Desire.” Ed. Robert E. Denton, Jr. and Rachel L. Holloway. Westport, CT: Praeger , 2003. 143-171.

Sullivan, Patricia A., and Steven R. Goldzwig. “Electronic Democracy, Virtual Politics, and Local Communities.” Ed. Robert E. Denton, Jr. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000. 51-73.

Awards

Article of the year from the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, & Gender, 2000

Book of the year from the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, & Gender, 1997

Article of the year from the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, & Gender, 1996