# overview
Dr. Jennifer Mercieca is an award-winning Professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University. She writes about American political discourse, especially as it relates to citizenship, democracy, and the presidency. Jennifer has published three books: Founding Fictions, The Rhetoric of Heroic Expectations: Establishing the Obama Presidency, and Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump.

Her academic scholarship has been published in The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Argumentation & Advocacy, and Rhetoric Society Quarterly. She is a member of the Editorial Boards of The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Southern Communication Journal, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, and the Texas A&M University Press.

She is a Contributing Editor for Zocalo, the Public Square. She has written public scholarship about rhetoric and politics for The Conversation, USA Today, Washington Post, and other major media outlets. She has been interviewed about rhetoric and politics by the BBC World News, NPR's All Things Considered, NPR's 1A, Diane Rehm, The New York Times, CNN, ABC News, The Guardian, Vice News, Australia's ABC Radio, Politico, Salon, Slate, USA Today, and many other outlets throughout the United States and Worldwide. Her public scholarship articles have had more than 3 million views online and have been translated into foreign languages, republished in newspapers, and used for teaching current events to high school students nationwide.

Her 2020 book on Donald Trump's rhetoric (Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump) was reviewed in the Washington Post, which said "it deserves a place alongside George Orwell's 'Politics and the English Language' and Harry G. Frankfurt's 'On Bulls---.' It's a brilliant dissertation on Trump's patented brand of balderdash. That makes it one of the most important political books of this perilous summer." Reviews in Politico and Salon called the book a "must read" and "highly recommended." The Association of American Publishers awarded Demagogue for President a 2021 PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences: Government & Politics. The book is also a Foreword Indies Winner, earning a Bronze medal in the category of Political & Social Sciences. She is a 2016 recipient of the Texas A&M Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching, the highest student award given to faculty for teaching at Texas A&M University.

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
University of the Pacific - (Stockton, California, United States)

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign - (Urbana, Illinois, United States)

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
University of the Pacific - (Stockton, California, United States)

# educationAndTraining[].field
Communication (broadcasting & media studies)

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Four quotes from the sixth GOP presidential debate, explained by experts

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Donald Trumps nonstop news-making can be exhausting, making it harder for people to scrutinize his presidential actions

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Appropriate[ing] Dress: Women's Rhetorical Style in Nineteenth Century America

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What is the Role of the Communication Discipline in Social Justice, Community Engagement, and Public Scholarship? A Visit to the CM Cafe

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16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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What is legitimate political discourse, and does it include the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol?

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The Fourteenth Amendment and the Privileges and Immunities of American Citizenship

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A field guide to Trump's dangerous rhetoric

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There's an insidious strategy behind Donald Trump's retweets

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Ignoring the President: Barack Obama and the Postrhetorical Presidency

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PUTTING THE "PUBLIC" IN RHETORIC & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

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CHOICE, LOYALTY, AND SAFETY IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF A DISTINCTLY AMERICAN IMAGINED NATIONALISM

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"HAS YOUR COURAGE RUSTED?": NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE CONTESTED RHETORICAL NORMS OF REPUBLICANISM IN POST-REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA, 1798-1801

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"A Discovered Dissembler Can Achieve Nothing Great"; Or, Four Theses on the Death of Presidential Rhetoric in an Age of Empire

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THE CULTURE OF HONOR: HOW SLAVEHOLDERS RESPONDED TO THE ABOLITIONIST MAIL CRISIS OF 1835

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16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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America is in the middle of a battle over the meaning of words like diversity

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Demagogue for President The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump

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Michael Cohens verbal somersault, I lied, but Im not a liar, translated by a rhetoric expert

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Barack Obama and the rhetoric of heroic expectations

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Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation

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Jefferson's call to nationhood: The first inaugural address

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Carrying the burden: How barack Obama both embraced and diminished heroic expectations

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A Nation of Speechifiers: Making An American Public After the Revolution

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Michael Cohens guilty plea? Nothing to see here

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DID THE 2008 ELECTION CHANGE EVERYTHING?

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The Post-Rhetorical Legacy of George W. Bush

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In acceptance speech, Trump embraces role as hero of the forgotten

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The rhetoric of heroic expectations: Establishing the Obama presidency

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"We the People" and the Rhetorics of Republicanism in America, 1776--1845

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Can America's deep political divide be traced back to 1832?

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After a brutal campaign, a moment of transcendence for Hillary Clinton

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William!Manning's Key of Libberty

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The rhetorical brilliance of Trump the demagogue

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Donald Trump and the dangerous rhetoric of portraying people as objects

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Why wont Democrats say they want government to solve problems?

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Law-and-order or conspiracy? How political parties frame the impeachment battle will help decide Trumps fate

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Fighting words for a New Gilded Age - Democratic candidates are sounding a lot like Teddy Roosevelt

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Afterword: Trump as Anarchist and Sun King

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Trump accepts the nomination from the White House lawn, portraying a nation in crisis and himself as its hero

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Trump and Us: What He Says and Why People Listen

# streetAddress
Texas A&M University; Communication; 4234 TAMU

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Expert roundtable on Jan. 6 and Trump's Big Lie: "Fascism in its pure ideological form"

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Tucker Carlson prepares white nationalists for war: Don't ignore the power of his rhetoric

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Texas A&M Professor On 'The Rhetorical Genius Of Donald Trump'

# etdChairOf[].label
Carney, Zoe L. (2010-05). Tropes and Topoi of Anti-Intellectualism in the Discourse of the Christian Right. Master's Thesis.

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Creel, Walter Brady (2016-12). Rhetoric of Heroic Loyalty: Portrayals of Scottish Jacobites as Rebels, Reprobates and Romantics. Doctoral Dissertation.

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Rowe, Sara 1988- (2012-12). Curating Memory: 9/11 Commemoration and Foucault's Archive. Master's Thesis.

# etdChairOf[].label
Terry, Andrea June (2017-05). The Rhetoric of Political Time: Tracing the Neoliberal Regime's Ascent. Doctoral Dissertation.