Academic Degrees:

• Ph.D., University of Minnesota
• M.A., University of Maine
• B.A., San Francisco State University

Dr. Aric Putnam began teaching at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in 2003. He teaches and researches rhetorical history, criticism, and theory, with particular emphasis on the history of public arguments about race, colonialism, and political culture. His current research explores the role of place in the radical rhetoric of the African Diaspora, from provincial nationalisms to the transnational visions of black surrealism.

Courses:

• COMM 201 Rhetoric, Culture & Criticism
• COMM 102 Public Speaking & the Public Sphere
• COMM 310 Black Civil Rights Rhetoric
• COMM 384B Rhetoric of Popular Music
• COMM 387A The Harlem Renaissance
• COMM 334 Rhetorical Theory

Recent Publications:

Book Review: “Hearing the Hurt: Rhetoric, Politics, and Aesthetics of the New Negro Movement.” The Quarterly Journal of Speech. Forthcoming.

“Negroes with Guns: Robert F. Williams and the Rhetoric of Place in the Modern Civil Rights Movement.” Paper presented at the Rhetoric Society of America Biennial Conference, San Antonio, TX., May, 2014.

The Insistent Call: Rhetorical Moments in Black Anti-colonialism, 1929-37. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012.

“Ethiopia is Now: J. A. Rogers and the Rhetoric of Black Anti-colonialism During the Great Depression.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 10.3 (2007). 421-446.

“‘Modern’ Slaves: The Liberian Labor Crisis and the Politics of Race and Class.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 9.2 (2006). 235-256.