Pamela Conners

As a teacher and a scholar, I value rhetoric’s potential to inspire civic engagement and advance a more just community. Through the development of writing, speaking, and listening, I believe we help students to be ethical and influential citizens, who think critically and argue passionately. My primary goals as a teacher are to foster a love of learning in my students, to introduce them to new ideas and perspectives, and to encourage them to see the resonance between their coursework and their everyday lives. 

Here at Gustavus, I teach a variety of courses that ask students to critically evaluate arguments, to understand the power of communication, and to recognize the role that our voices play in the ongoing work of a democracy.  Courses include Public Discourse, Rhetorical Criticism, Community Advocacy and Social Change, Argumentation and Debate, Public Deliberation, and Contemporary Rhetoric. I am also the current Director of the department's Public Deliberation & Dialogue program.

My research broadly investigates how public discourse shapes the development and implementation of public policy and what processes of public deliberation facilitate democratic decision-making. 

This is how I teach

In the News

• Schmierbach, Edie. “Exhibit Focuses on Displaced Europeans’ Arrival in Area.” Mankato Free Press, February 13, 2022.
• “Deliberation and Dialogue across Differences.” Gustavus News, February 3, 2021. 
• Akin, JJ. “NSF Grant Supports Study of Deliberation in STEM Classrooms.” Gustavus News. September 30, 2020.

Current Research

• "Embodied Trauma and Pastoral Relief: The Material Rhetoric of Flight 93 National Memorial." Accepted for publication in Western Journal of Communication
• “Constituting Identity through Place(ment): Refugee Resettlement Rhetoric in post-World War II Minnesota.” In development for Rhetoric & Public Affairs.

Selected Publications & Presentations

• “‘Welcome New Neighbor’: Refugee Resettlement in Post-World War II Minnesota.” Public Exhibit. Traverse des Sioux Treaty Site History Center, Nicollet County Historical Society, October 2021-March 26, 2022.
• "Learning to Talk with One Another." Episode 1.1, Gustavus Learning for Life Podcast (2020).
• “Designing Productive Community Conversations.” (co-presenter Paul Peterson). Minnesota School Board Association Leadership Conference, January 2018.
• Conners, Pamela. “Constructing Economic and Civic Values through Public Policy Debate: The Case of the National Housing Act of 1934.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 20 (2017): 421-452.
• Conners, Pamela and Ryan Solomon. “The Business of School Board Deliberation.” In Communication and The Economy: History, Value and Agency.  Eds. Joshua S. Hanan and Mark Hayward. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2014. 209-232.
• Asen, Robert, Deborah Gurke, Ryan Solomon, Pamela Conners, and Elsa Gumm. “‘The Research Says’: Definitions and Uses of a Key Policy Term in Federal Law and Local School-Board Deliberations.”  Argumentation and Advocacy 47 (2011): 195-213.

Courses Taught