Janis L. Edwards

Associate Professor of Communication Studies

PhD., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1993

Dr. Edwards' teaching and research interests focus on political communication, visual rhetoric/visual culture studies, rhetorical dimensions of contemporary media, gender, and their intersections. She has published or presented work on inventional strategies in editorial cartoons, the rhetoric of First Ladies, campaign films, Depression-era film and photography, and the feminist art movement, among other topics. In 1999 she became the first recipient of the Award for Excellence in Visual Communication Research offered by the National Communication Association’s Visual Communication Commission, and she is a past chair of the Political Communication Division of the Central States Communication Associations and the NCA Visual Communication Commission.

Selected publications:

Edwards, J. L. (2007). Drawing politics in pink and blue. PS, Political Science and Politics, 40, 249-253.

Edwards, J. L. (2000). The First Lady/First Wife in editorial cartoons: Rhetorical visions through gendered lenses. Women’s Studies in Communication, 23, 367-391.

Edwards, J. L. (1997). Political cartoons in the 1988 presidential campaign: Image, metaphor, and narrative. New York: Garland Press.