Scholarship

Dr. Knopf studies rhetoric of the popular arts. With a foundation in political communication, rhetorical studies, and cultural sociology, her scholarship is broadly concerned with banal politics and militarism, focusing on the intersections of art, identity, communication, and representation. Heavily interdisciplinary, her work recognizes the “multivocal” aspect of political discourse and contributes to the growing scholarship that seeks a more complete understanding of U.S. political processes and institutions by attending to rhetoric that contributes to cultural meaning beyond traditional or legacy venues. Frequently interested in verbal-visual rhetoric, it is particularly concerned with matters of inclusion and democracy. Specifically, her scholarship considers:

• Politics in a converged media environment: campaign politics, gender politics, and media politics in visual rhetoric, especially comics and film.

• Discourses related to war and the military, with particular attention to warriors’ narratives - principally in epistolary and art, expressions of banal militarism and anti-militarism, and military social media strategy.  

• Representations of gender and race, especially in political and/or military contexts broadly defined, which may encompass spectral or "freak" positionality.

• Socio-political discourses of health, trauma, and death.

Her research contributes to an understanding of how popular culture and our entertainment choices shape, and are shaped by, our attitudes, beliefs, and values, how they participate in collective memory processes, and the ways in which they support or challenge cultural myths and discourses. 

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As a scholar-teacher, Dr. Knopf knows that students versed in popular culture studies may pursue careers in media, entertainment, museums, and other fields. Her scholarship inspires her teaching, and vice versa. Her familiarity with political campaigns and media shapes her courses in political communication, social movements and social change, and media studies and media literacy. Her background in presidential rhetoric informs her public speaking and gender communication courses. Her  explorations of gender and difference enlivens her courses in gender communication, women's rhetoric, social movements, and media and cinema studies. And her interests in “genre” media contribute to offering courses in comics and horror, which act as thematic gateways to rhetorical critique and media ecology.