Faculty Profiles

Michael R. Kramer

Professor
Department Chair
Communication Studies

Phone 

574.284.4647

Email 

mkramer@saintmarys.edu

Education 

PhD, University of Minnesota
JD, University of Wisconsin, Madison
MA, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
BS, Winona State University
 

Research Interests 

  • Political communication
  • Apologia and image restoration
  • Presidential rhetoric
  • Rhetorical criticism of comic books and graphic novels
  • Public memory and material rhetorics

Courses Recently Taught 

  • COMM 302: History and criticism of public address
  • COMM 308: Persuasion
  • COMM 330: Critical issues in mass communication
  • COMM 383: Art and entertainment law
  • COMM 495: Seminar in rhetoric and criticism

Professional Experience 

  • Spent seven years working in state and federal courts after earning a law degree from the University of Wisconsin and prior to becoming a professor

Creative and Scholarly Work 

  • "Image Repair Rhetoric and Shock Radio: Don Imus, Al Sharpton, and the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team Controversy." Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 21(2) (2014): 247-257.
  • "Strict Father or Nurturant Parent?  President Jimmy Carter’s Rhetoric of Morality in Support of the Panama Canal Treaties." Carolinas Communication Annual, 28 (2012): 61-90.
  • "Temporal Ethos: A Shifting Rhetorical Resource in Arguments about War and Peace."  Florida Communication Journal, 37 (2008): 12-26.
  • Kramer, M., K. Olson. "The Strategic Potential of Sequencing Apologia Stases:  President Bill Clinton's Self-Defense in the Monica Lewinsky Scandal."   Western Journal of Communication, 66 (2002): 347-368.

Professional Memberships 

National Communication Association
State Bar of Wisconsin