James F. Klumpp Endowed Lecture in Communication

Announcing the Klumpp Endowed Lecture in Communication

The James F. Klumpp Endowed Lecture in Communication will support a lecture in Rhetoric and Public Address in the Department of Communication of the College of Arts & Humanities at the University of Maryland. The lecture will bring an outstanding scholar in Rhetoric and Public Address to campus to meet with faculty and graduate students in Communication and to present a public lecture.

The endowed lecture is made possible by the generous donation from James F. Klumpp and Yvonne Carignan. 

University of Maryland Professor Emeritus James F. Klumpp, a rhetorical critic focused on the use of discourse to effect social change, retired from the Department of Communication at UMD in 2015. 

Klumpp received his B.A. at the University of Kansas and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Communication. He was a member of the Department of Communication at UMD from 1986 to 2015, where he directed 16 dissertations and theses.  Klumpp co-authored Making Sense of Political Ideology: The Power of Language in Democracy, and co-edited, American Rhetorical Discourse. He also published dozens of articles and book chapters. Klumpp is likely most known for his article published in the Quarterly Journal of Speech entitled, "Rhetorical Criticism as Moral Action," which is as relevant today as when he co-authored it in 1989.

As Klumpp explained, this “lecture is my way to honor and enrich the faculty and students of today’s Department of Communication who continue the tradition of excellence that my colleagues and I dedicated our time at UMD to passing along to the students of our day. May the opportunity to interact with a leading scholar in the field enrich their growth at UMD and create memories that will deepen their appreciation for the art and importance of rhetoric in the public arena.”

Preference for the Klumpp lecture will be given to topics drawn from the following areas: the history of American public discourse, criticism of contemporary political discourse, the work and legacy of twentieth-century rhetorical theorist and critic Kenneth Burke, the importance of civil argument and debate to democracy, and the impact of public voice on social order with particular emphasis on voices for social change. 

Once launched, the Klumpp lecture will become an annual tradition in COMM at UMD! Stay tuned for more updates.