Valerie Palmer-Mehta, Ph.D.

Professor & CJPR Internship Advisor
Office: 328 Wilson
Email: [email protected]

Valerie Palmer-Mehta (Ph.D.) is a professor of communication with a specialization in rhetorical studies and gender/sexuality studies. Dr. Palmer-Mehta has diverse interests, but generally her intellectual efforts include (1) exploring the rhetorical strategies that women employ to influence and transform public culture, intellectual traditions, and everyday practices and (2) investigating how women challenge or reinforce public understanding of key discursive and cultural concepts that we use to organize and make sense of our lives. Currently, she is investigating the rhetoric of women in governance. Her research has been published in journals such as Quarterly Journal of Speech; Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies; International Journal of Communication; Communication, Culture & Critique; Text and Performance Quarterly; Women's Studies in Communication; The Communication Review; QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking; and Journal of American Culture. Her work also appears in edited collections, such as Mothering Outside the Lines: Tales of Boundary-Busting Mamas, Rethinking Ethos: A Feminist Ecological Approach to Rhetoric; Southern First Ladies: Culture and Place in White House History; Mediated Moms: Contemporary Challenges to Motherhood; and Masculinities in Play.  Dr. Palmer-Mehta teaches a variety of courses, such as Intro to Communication Studies, Public Speaking, Persuasion, Gender Communication, Rhetorical Criticism, Women, Power & Persuasion, the Internship capstone, and Feminist Rhetorical Theory.  She is the recipient of the OU Honors College Inspiration Award and the Phyllis Law Googasian Award. She sits on the editorial board of Women's Studies in Communication and is an inaugural lifetime member of the First Ladies Association for Research and Education (FLARE).  In her spare time, she likes to travel, write, garden, and learn new things.