About Lee Pierce

Lee M. Pierce (she/they) is an Assistant Professor at SUNY Geneseo specializing in rhetoric, race, and U.S. political culture. They also host the Media & Communications and Language channels for New Books Network and their own podcast titled RhetoricLee Speaking.

NBN Episodes hosted by Lee:

Bryan McCann, "The Mark of Criminality: Rhetoric, Race, and Gangsta Rap in the War-on-Crime Era" (U Alabama Press, 2017)

December 26, 2023

The Mark of Criminality

Bryan McCann
Hosted by Lee Pierce

On this episode, Dr. Lee Pierce (she/they)--Asst. Prof. of Communication at SUNY Geneseo--interviews Bryan McCann (he/his)--Associate Professor of Com…

Michele Kennerly, "Editorial Bodies: Perfection and Rejection in Ancient Rhetoric and Poetics" (U South Carolina Press, 2018)

November 5, 2021

Editorial Bodies

Michele Kennerly
Hosted by Lee Pierce

Though typically considered oral cultures, ancient Greece and Rome also boasted textual cultures, enabled by efforts to perfect, publish, and preserve…

Ruby Hamad, "White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color" (Catapult, 2020)

November 3, 2021

White Tears/Brown Scars

Ruby Hamad
Hosted by Lee Pierce

Called “powerful and provocative" by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of the New York Times bestselling How to be an Antiracist, Ruby Hamad's White Tears/Br…

Ashley Hinck, "Politics for the Love of Fandom: Fan-Based Citizenship in a Digital World" (Louisiana State UP, 2019)

October 22, 2021

Politics for the Love of Fandom

Ashley Hinck
Hosted by Lee Pierce

Politics for the Love of Fandom: Fan-Based Citizenship in a Digital World (Louisiana State Press, 2019) examines what Ashley Hinck calls “fan-based ci…

Minna Salami, "Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone" (Amistad, 2021)

September 17, 2021

Sensuous Knowledge

Minna Salami
Hosted by Lee Pierce

Minna Salami's book Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2021) is a collection of thought provoking essa…

Carol Anderson, "The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

August 20, 2021

The Second

Carol Anderson
Hosted by Lee Pierce

Throughout American history to the twenty-first century, regardless of the laws, court decisions, and changing political environment, the Second Amend…

Andre E. Johnson, "No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry Mcneal Turner" (UP of Mississippi, 2020)

July 26, 2021

No Future in This Country

Andre E. Johnson
Hosted by Lee Pierce

No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner (U Mississippi Press, 2020) is a history of the career of Bishop Henr…

Megan D. McFarlane, "Militarized Maternity: Experiencing Pregnancy in the U. S. Armed Forces" (U California Press, 2021)

July 19, 2021

Militarized Maternity

Megan D. McFarlane
Hosted by Lee Pierce

The rights of pregnant workers as well as (the lack of) paid maternity leave have increasingly become topics of a major policy debate in the United St…

Nathan R. Johnson, "Architects of Memory: Information and Rhetoric in a Networked Archival Age" (U Alabama Press, 2020)

July 6, 2021

Architects of Memory

Nathan R. Johnson
Hosted by Lee Pierce

We are now living in the richest age of public memory. From museums and memorials to the vast digital infrastructure of the internet, access to the pa…

Kevin Quashie, "Black Aliveness, Or a Poetics of Being" (Duke UP, 2021)

June 30, 2021

Black Aliveness, Or a Poetics of Being

Kevin Quashie
Hosted by Lee Pierce

In Black Aliveness, or A Poetics of Being (Duke University Press, 2012), Kevin Quashie imagines a Black world in which one encounters Black being as i…

Carly S. Woods, "Debating Women: Gender, Education, and Spaces for Argument, 1835-1945" (Michigan State UP, 2018)

June 30, 2021

Debating Women

Carly S. Woods
Hosted by Lee Pierce

Spanning a historical period that begins with women’s exclusion from university debates and continues through their participation in coeducational int…

Alec Karakatsanis, "Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System" (New Press, 2019)

June 23, 2021

Usual Cruelty

Alec Karakatsanis
Hosted by Lee Pierce

From an award-winning civil rights lawyer, a profound challenge to our society's normalization of the caging of human beings, and the role of the lega…

Wendy K. Z. Anderson, "Rebirthing a Nation: White Women, Identity Politics, and the Internet" (UP of Mississippi, 2021)

June 17, 2021

Rebirthing a Nation

Wendy K. Z. Anderson
Hosted by Lee Pierce

In Rebirthing a Nation: White Women, Identity Politics, and the Internet (U Mississippi Press, 2021), author Wendy K. Z. Anderson details how white na…

Cara A. Finnegan, "Photographic Presidents: Making History from Daguerreotype to Digital" (U Illinois Press, 2021)

June 2, 2021

Photographic Presidents

Cara A. Finnegan
Hosted by Lee Pierce

Defining the Chief Executive via flash powder and selfie sticks. In this episode, Dr. Lee M. Pierce (they & she) interviews Dr. Cara A. Finnegan about…

Moya Bailey, "Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance" (NYU Press, 2021)

May 17, 2021

Misogynoir Transformed

Moya Bailey
Hosted by Lee Pierce

Where racism and sexism meet—an understanding of anti-Black misogyny. When Moya Bailey first coined the term misogynoir, she defined it as the ways an…

Mary Pilon, "The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game" (Bloomsbury, 2015)

May 17, 2021

The Monopolists

Mary Pilon
Hosted by Lee Pierce

The inside story of the world's most famous board game-a buried piece of American history with an epic scandal that continues today. The Monopolists:…

Corey Anton, "How Non-Being Haunts Being: On Possibilities, Morality, and Death Acceptance" (Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2020)

May 4, 2021

How Non-Being Haunts Being

Corey Anton
Hosted by Lee Pierce

How Non-being Haunts Being reveals how the human world is not reducible to “what is.” Human life is an open expanse of “what was” and “what will be,” …

Tara T. Green, "Reimagining the Middle Passage: Black Resistance in Literature, Television, and Song" (Ohio State UP, 2018)

April 30, 2021

Reimagining the Middle Passage

Tara T. Green
Hosted by Lee Pierce

From ships and novels to Mardi Gras, water, and television, how does the legacy of the Middle Passage, the leg of the Atlantic through which African p…

Catherine E. McKinley, "The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Womanhood" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

April 29, 2021

The African Lookbook

Catherine E. McKinley
Hosted by Lee Pierce

What does it mean to tie your cloth to that of another person, as in the Ghanaian tradition, or to be in full dress? How is fashion photography in a c…

Jack Black, "Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy: A Psychoanalytic Exploration" (Routledge, 2021)

April 28, 2021

Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy

Jack Black
Hosted by Lee Pierce

Jack Black, Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy (Routledge 2021). In what ways is comedy subversive? This vital new book critically consi…

Joshua Gunn, "Political Perversion: Rhetorical Aberration in the Time of Trumpeteering" (U Chicago Press, 2020)

April 14, 2021

Political Perversion

Joshua Gunn
Hosted by Lee Pierce

When Trump became president, much of the country was repelled by what they saw as the vulgar spectacle of his ascent, a perversion of the highest offi…

D. A. Miller, "Hidden Hitchcock" (U Chicago Press, 2016)

March 31, 2021

Hidden Hitchcock

D. A. Miller
Hosted by Lee Pierce

After decades of criticism about perhaps the most famous director in history, it seems that nothing is left to be said. But maybe critics just haven’t…

Rachel Hall, "Heirlooms: Stories" (BkMk Press, 2016)

December 1, 2020

Heirlooms

Rachel Hall
Hosted by Lee Pierce

“It turns out there are things that cannot be left. The very nature of secrets, for instance, insists that they be kept.” On this episode of the New …

D. G. Young, "Irony and Outrage: The Polarized Landscape of Rage, Fear, and Laughter in the United States" (Oxford UP, 2019)

November 27, 2020

Irony and Outrage

Dannagal Goldthwaite Young
Hosted by Lee Pierce

On this episode of the New Books Network, Dr. Lee Pierce (s/t) Dr. Dannagal Goldthwaite Young (s/h) about why liberals love satire and conservative lo…