Jennifer Keohane
associate professor
Klein Family School of Communications Design
Additional Roles:
director, B.A. in Digital Communication program
Contact Information:
Phone: 410.837.6283
E-mail: jkeohane@ubalt.edu
Ph.D., M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.A., Northwestern University
Jennifer Keohane's website and C.V. (.pdf)
I hold a Ph.D. in Communication Arts (Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; an M.A. in Communication Arts (Rhetoric) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and a B.A. in Communication Studies (Rhetoric and Public Culture) and International Studies, magna cum laude, from Northwestern University. Broadly, my scholarship examines how social movements advocate for change. I recently published a book entitled Feminist Voices and Communist Rhetoric in Cold War America. The book explores how women affiliated with the Communist Party during the early Cold War sustained feminist activism during a repressive time period in U.S. history. I also study public memory—how societies commemorate the past in museums and memorials. I want to help figure out how we can productively use lessons from the past to build a more equitable future. You can find my work in Women’s Studies in Communication, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Rhetoric Review, and Journal for the History of Rhetoric. I also study character assassination in political rhetoric. In collaboration with the research lab for Character Assassination and Reputation Politics, I co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Character Assassination and Reputation Management and co-wrote Character Assassination and Reputation Management: Theory and Applications .
I enjoyed a long career as a competitor and coach in speech and debate activities, and as a result, I feel passionately about teaching effective oral communication skills in all of my courses. It is incredibly rewarding to help students find their voices and become more confident communicators.
When I’m not teaching or researching, I love traveling, baking, yoga and crossword puzzles.