Dr. erin d mcclellan graduated with a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2007. Her dissertation was titled "Place and Space in the Public Square: A Theoretical and Critical Framing of Platial Vernacular Rhetoric". After serving as a visiting professor for two years, Dr. mcclellan joined the faculty of the Department of Communication at Boise State University in 2011. Her ongoing research combines qualitative and rhetorical methods and focuses on both official and vernacular rhetorics used to make sense of public spaces and places. In support of these interests, Dr. mcclellan has worked with the Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Public Affairs on the launch and networking of the Center on Main, Boise State University's new presence in downtown Boise.
Published Articles
Rhetoricizing the Urban: Finding a Living Public in Public Plaza, Lo Squaderno (2012)
The city is a complex and nuanced collection of symbols, actions, interactions, and meanings rife...
Narrative as Vernacular Rhetoric: Understanding Community Among Transients, Tourists and Locals, Storytelling, Self, Society (2011)
This article suggests that by analyzing vernacular narratives of a community through a qualitative rhetoric...
Making Sense of the City: Place, Space, and Rhetoric in Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square, Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies (2008)
Communication and Community: Creating Common Discourse across a Scholarly Community, Communication Yearbook (2007)
Contributions to Books
Vernacular Rhetoric and Social Movements: Performances of Resistance in Rhetoric of the Everyday (with Gerard A. Hauser), Active Voices: Composing a Rhetoric of Social Movements (2009)
Conference Paper Presentations
Boise's Best: "Best of" City Accolades as a Discursive Formation of an Ideal City, Communication and the City: Voices, Spaces, Media Conference, Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds (2013)
Translating Occupy: Global Social Movements, Culture, and Processes of Engendering Change (with Stephen Rhinehart), Rhetoric and Public Address Interest Group, 84th Annual Convention of the Western States Communication Association (2013)
Boston’s City Hall Plaza: Public Place? Free Space? Or Private Interests Preserved?, Urban Communication Foundation Preconference, International Communication Association (ICA) Conference (2012)
(Re)reading the Discourses of Sustainability: A Cautionary Tale of Being "Green" (with John G. McClellan), International Communication Association (ICA) Conference (2012)