Dana L Cloud

History/Background

As an undergraduate at Pennsylvania State University, Cloud received her B.A./B.S. English and Telecommunications double major in 1986. Cloud received her M.A. in Rhetorical Studies from the University of Iowa in 1989. In 1992, she received her Ph.D. in Rhetorical Studies from the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. Since August 2015, Cloud has been a professor and the Director of Graduate Studies at Syracuse University. Before this, Cloud was a faculty member in the Department of Communication Studies, part of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, and part of the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at University of Texas in Austin, TX from January 1993 to August 2015. In addition, Cloud served as the Director of Graduate Studies in Department of Communication Studies at University of Texas, Austin from August 2008 – 2015.

Scholarly Work

As a scholar, Dr. Cloud’s “research interests include critical rhetorical and cultural studies, including Marxist theory, feminist theory, public sphere theory, and postmodernism; rhetoric of social movements; representations of sex, gender, and race in popular media; activist scholarship; and scholarship about activism.”

Control and Consolation in American Culture and Politics: Rhetoric of Therapy

Cloud is credited with creating the term “rhetoric of therapy” in her 1998 book, Control and Consolation in American Culture and Politics: Rhetoric of Therapy. In this book, she describes rhetoric of therapy as "a set of political and cultural discourses that have adopted psychotherapy's lexicon—the conservative language of healing, coping, adaptation, and restoration of previously existing order—but in contexts of social and political conflict". This book explores what occurs when political activism and pursuit of social change is replaced by personal, psychological changes. Dr. Cloud emphasizes this therapeutic shift in American culture to personal changes rather than social changes. In this book, Cloud argues that "the purpose of this therapeutic discourse is to encourage people to focus on themselves and their private lives rather than to attempt to reform flawed systems of social and political power".

We are the Union: Democratic Unionism and Dissent at Boeing

Dr. Cloud's 2011 book titled We are the union: Democratic Unionism and Dissent at Boeing follows the 1995 assembly worker strike at Boeing, the worlds most successful aircraft manufacturing company. This case study follows union workers in Wichita and Seattle through their plea for union reform and fight for a voice in corporate management. Presenting organizational communication and management communication theories, Cloud sheds light on each group involved - the corporate leaders, the assembly workers, and the union organizers. In this book, Cloud argues of the importance of healthy unions and calls for union reform.

Editorial Board Member & Journal Editor

As an editorial board member and journal editor, Dr. Cloud has and continues to serve many positions, including:

o Editorial Board Member, Rhetoric Review, 2012 to present

o Editorial Board Member, Communication and Critical Cultural Studies, 2003–present

o Editorial Board Member, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 1997–present

o Editorial Board Member, Southern Journal of Communication, 2014 to present.

o Editorial Board Member, Western Journal of Communication, 1995–present.

o Editorial Board Member, Women’s Studies in Communication, 1997–present.

o Editorial Board Member, Communication Studies, 1999.

o Associate Editor, Oxford Research Encyclopedia, “Critical/Cultural Studies”

o Associate Editor, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 1997–present.

o Associate Editor, Communication Quarterly, 2001-2003.

Professionally, Cloud is a member of the National Communication Association, the Western States Communication Association, the International Communication Association, the Rhetoric Society of America, and the Union for Democratic Communications.

Awards & Honors

Throughout her scholarly career, Cloud has been the recipient of over 25 awards and honors. Some of those awards include:

o In 2014, she was the recipient of the National Communication Association Communication and Critical Studies Division Distinguished Scholar Award

o In 2014, she was the recipient of the NCA Communication and Critical Cultural Studies Division Best Article of the Year Award for “Shock Therapy: Oprah Winfrey, Celebrity Philanthropy, and Disaster ‘Relief’ in Haiti”

o In 2014, she was the recipient of the NCA Francine Merritt Award for the mentoring of women

o In 2014, she was the recipient of the Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award from the National Communication Association Rhetoric and Communication Theory Division

o In November 2009, she was the recipient of the Randy Majors Award for Outstanding Contributions to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, and Transgender Scholarship in Communication Studies, Caucus on LGBT Concerns, National Communication Association

Books

Cloud, D. L. (1998). Control and consolation in American politics and culture: Rhetorics of therapy. Thousand Oaks: Sage Press.

Cloud, D. L. (2011). We are the union: Democratic unionism and dissent at Boeing. University of Illinois Press.

Journal Articles

Cloud, D. L., & Feyh, K. E. (2015). Reason in revolt: Emotional fidelity and working class standpoint in the “Internationale”. RSQ: Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 45(4), 300-323. doi:10.1080/02773945.2014.965338

Cloud, D. L. (2014). Shock therapy: Oprah Winfrey, celebrity philanthropy, and disaster “relief” in Haiti. Critical Studies In Media Communication, 31(1), 42-56. doi:10.1080/15295036.2013.864047

Gatchet, A. D., & Cloud, D. L. (2013). David, Goliath, and the Black Panthers: The paradox of the oppressed militant in the rhetoric of self-defense. Journal Of Communication Inquiry, 37(1), 5-25. doi:10.1177/0196859912466411

Cloud, D. L., & Gunn, J. (2011). Introduction: W(h)ither ideology?. Western Journal Of Communication, 75(4), 407-420. doi:10.1080/10570314.2011.588897

Cloud, D. L. (2015). History and class consciousness/A defense of the history of class consciousness: Tailism and the dialectic. Quarterly Journal Of Speech, 101(1), 284-290. doi:10.1080/00335630.2015.994881

Cloud, D. L. (2015). "Civility" as a threat to academic freedom. First Amendment Studies, 49(1), 13-17. doi:10.1080/21689725.2015.1016359

Gunn, J., & Cloud, D. L. (2010). Agentic orientation as magical voluntarism. Communication Theory (10503293), 20(1), 50-78. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2009.01349.x

Cloud, D. L. (2009). Foiling the intellectuals: Gender, identity framing, and the rhetoric of the kill in conservative hate mail. Communication, Culture & Critique, 2(4), 457-479. doi:10.1111/j.1753-9137.2009.01048.x

Cloud, D. L. (1997). Concordance, complexity, and conservatism: rejoinder to Condit. Critical Studies In Mass Communication, 14193-197. doi:10.1080/15295039709367007

Cloud, D. L. (1996). Hegemony or concordance? The rhetoric of tokenism in “Oprah” Winfrey's rags-to-riches biography. Critical Studies In Mass Communication, 13115-137. doi:10.1080/15295039609366967

Lozano-Reich, N. M., & Cloud, D. L. (2009). The uncivil tongue: Invitational rhetoric and the problem of inequality. Western Journal Of Communication, 73(2), 220-226. doi:10.1080/10570310902856105

References

Cloud, Dana L. "Curriculum Vitae: Dana L. Cloud." (n.d.): 1-34. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.

Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts. "Dana L. Cloud | Faculty & Staff." Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts. Syracuse University, 2017. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.

Cloud, D. L. (1998). Control and consolation in American politics and culture: Rhetorics of therapy. Thousand Oaks: Sage Press.

Cloud, D. L. (1998). Control and consolation in American culture and politics: Rhetorics of therapy. Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications, Inc. doi:10.4135/9781483327921

Cloud, D. L. (2011). We are the Union: Democratic Dissent at Boeing. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.