September 9 forum: How U.S. presidents used their travel abroad to shape public opinion at home
Dr. Allison Prasch will join us for our September 9 forum in which she will describe her research into how the United States uses presidential visits overseas to further U.S. public diplomacy.The program will take place at noon via Zoom. It is sponsored by the Public Diplomacy Council of America and our partners, the GWU Institute for Public Diplomacy & Global Communication and the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy.
The program is the first to be arranged by PDCA's new Academic Study Committee.
To register for the Zoom program, click here.
Dr. Allison M. Prasch is Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An expert in U.S. presidential rhetoric, political communication, and the history of rhetoric, her research and teaching seeks to understand how U.S. political leaders use words and actions to create and sustain a particular vision of the United States to national and global audiences.
Her first book, The World is Our Stage: The Global Rhetorical Presidency and the Cold War (University of Chicago Press, 2023), examines how U.S. presidents used their rhetoric abroad as a persuasive strategy during the Cold War. Drawing on archival research from five presidential libraries, the Department of State, and the United States Information Agency, the book shows how Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan used their international tours — and the widespread media coverage of these tours — to extend the United States’ global influence, expand the reach of presidential power in foreign affairs, and bolster their own image at home and abroad.
Professor Prasch is also the co-editor (with Sara L. McKinnon) of Reassessing Foreign Policy Rhetorics in a Global Era: Concepts and Case Studies (Michigan State University Press, 2024), and her award-winning academic scholarship has appeared in venues such as Presidential Studies Quarterly, the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, the Southern Communication Journal, Women’s Studies in Communication, and several edited volumes.
As an internationally recognized expert in U.S. presidential rhetoric and political communication, Dr. Prasch’s commentary has been featured in outlets including the Associated Press, Washington Post, Newsweek, The Hill, Boston Globe, U.S. News & World Report, Politico, The Conversation, C-SPAN, the BBC, Scripps News “Morning Rush,” Wisconsin Public Radio, and PBS Wisconsin. She has also appeared on news programs in Australia, Canada, China, and the United Kingdom.