Summary
Amy Pason (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the Βι¶ΉΣ³», specializing in rhetoric. Dr. Pason has been at the University since 2010, and has been active in university governance including serving as Faculty Senate Chair (2020-22) and Chair of the NSHE Council of Senate Chairs (2021-22), and Chair of the Graduate Council (2024-25). Dr. Pason practices inclusive and participatory leadership in her various university roles, recently as Chair of the Faculty Diversity Committee and numerous department committees. She has taught a wide variety of courses (undergraduate and graduate) in the program, and regularly engages with interdisciplinary collaborators through her research and in serving on graduate student committees.
Dr. Pason’s research and teaching centers on multiple facets of democracy in the US, especially in the ways that we can foster and support democratic culture. She has explored advocacy strategies of activists, intersections of the First Amendment and protest, and public deliberation of legislation. She is interested in the ways that publics are invited to or restrained from engaging in democratic governance, and works to foster skills in students to deliberate and understand how to engage across differences to solve society’s “wicked problems” through organizing the Wolfpack Community Howl deliberative discussion events. She is currently developing research to understand how negative political rhetoric and incivility by elected officials undermines political participation thinking through the concept of dignity.
Dr. Pason was raised in northern Βι¶ΉΣ³», and is committed to serving through public education.
Research/teaching interests
- Deliberation and Dialogue
- Rhetoric of Social Movements and Counterpublics
- Political Campaign Discourse
- Academic Labor and Higher Education Governance
Courses taught
- Facilitating Difficult Discussions
- Principles of Persuasion
- Argumentation and Debate
- Rhetoric of Dissent
- Rhetorical Criticism
- Leadership
Recent publications
- Chaput, C., & Pason, A. (Eds.). (2022). Into the Gateway: Project on Power, Place, and Publics. Routledge.
- Kahn, S., & Pason, A. (2021). What do we mean by academic labor (in rhetorical studies)? Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 24 (1-2), 109-128.
- Pason, A. (2021). Strategic Storytelling: “Our Home” Narratives of Occupy Homes. In N. Crick (Ed.) The Rhetoric of Social Movements: Networks, Power, and New Media. Routledge.
- Pason, A. & File, P. (2021). Protesting with Guns: The Case of the Bundys. First Amendment Studies, 55 (2), 102-125, doi: 10.1080/21689725.2021.1970609
- Foust, C., Pason, A., & Rogness, K.Z. (eds.) (2017). What Democracy Looks Like: The Rhetoric of Social Movements and Counterpublics.University of Alabama Press.
- Pason, A., Griffin, T., & Kwiatkowski, M. (2017). Skylar’s Law: Memorial crime policy and mediating argument spheres. Argumentation and Advocacy, 53(1), 23-40. doi: 10.1080/00028533.2016.1272897
Recent awards
- University Foundation Outstanding Committee Service Award (2024)
- Distinguished Publication Award (National Communication Association, Communication and Law Division), 2022.
- Βι¶ΉΣ³» College of Liberal Arts Service Award (2019)
- Phi Beta Kappa
Education
- Ph.D., Communication Studies (Rhetoric), University of Minnesota, 2010.
- M.A., Human Communication (Rhetoric), University of Denver, 2005.
- B.A., Communication, Psychology, and a Minor in Leadership Studies, 2003.