College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
John S. Nelson
Professor
Office:
331 SH
Office hours:
T, Th: 10:50am–12:20pm and by appointment
Phone number:
(319) 335-2349
Email:
Research Area
Political Theory
Additional Research Areas
Political Communication
Political Inquiry
American Politics
About
Director, University of Iowa Honors Program, 2005-2011.
Director, Bridging Project for International and Interdisciplinary Studies at Grinnell College and University of Iowa, 1997-2004.
Executive Director and Founder, Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI), the University of Iowa residency center for advanced studies in rhetoric, science, and culture, 1985-2002.
Executive Officer, University of Iowa Department of Political Science, 1998-2001.
President, Vice President, and Past President, University of Iowa Faculty Senate, 1988-1991.
Dr. Nelson is also the editor of the journal Poroi: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Rhetorical Analysis and Invention.
Education
PhD University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1977
Publications
Author
Politics in Popular Movies: Rhetorical Takes on Horror, War, Thriller, and SciFi Films, Boulder, Paradigm Publishers (distributed through Taylor & Francis), 2015, pp. xii + 244; 978-1-61205-556-5 and 978-1-61205-557-2.
Popular Cinema as Political Theory: Idealism and Realism in Epics, Noirs, and Satires, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. xii + 249; 978-1-137-37470 -7.
Tropes of Politics: Science, Theory, Rhetoric, Action, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1998, pp. xviii + 291; 0-299-15834-9.and G. R. Boynton, Video Rhetorics: Televised Advertising in American Politics, Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1997, pp. xix + 235; co-authored by G. R. Boynton; 0-252-06648-0.
and G. R. Boynton, Hot Spots: Multimedia Analyses of Political Ads, Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1997; videotape equivalent of a book in five chapters; 0-252-06648-0.
ed. with Allan Megill and D. N. McCloskey, The Rhetoric of the Human Sciences: Language and Argument in Scholarship and Public Affairs, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1987, pp. xiii + 445; 0-229-11020-6 and 0-299-11024-9.
Korean edition, Seoul, Korea University Press, 2003; 89-7641-495-0 and 89-7641-428-4.
Italian edition, Lavoro, Societa Editrice Il Lavoro, 1998.
Chinese chapters, adapted and translated by Po-Keung Hui as a special issue of Cultural and Social Studies, Volume 2, Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1997; 0-19-587842-6.
ed., Tradition, Interpretation, and Science: Political Theory in the American Academy, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1986, pp. xvi + 372; 0-88706-371-3 and 0-88706-373-X..
ed., What Should Political Theory Be Now? Albany, State University of New York Press, 1983, pp. xv + 607; 0-87395-694-X and 0-87395-695-8.
Editor
and Founder, Poroi, an electronic journal on rhetoric in culture, inquiry, and politics, 2000-2008.
and Founder, Poligram, newsletter for alumni and friends of the University of Iowa Department of Political Science, 1999-2001.
with D. N. McCloskey, New Practices of Inquiry, University of Chicago Press, series of nine books on crossing old divides among the social sciences, arts, humanities, and professions, 1990-2004.
with David Depew, John Lyne, D. N. McCloskey, and John Peters, Rhetoric of the Human Sciences, University of Wisconsin Press, series of twenty-three books on rhetorics of fields and professions, 1985-2003.
Editorial Board
Social Epistemology — A Journal of Knowledge, Culture, and Policy, 1990-present.
Political Communication, 1992-1996.
Newsletter of the American Political Science Association Division on Political Communication, 1989-1993.
American Journal of Political Science, 1979-1981, 1985-1987, 1988-1990.
Journal of Politics, 1979-1981.