Visiting Professor of Rhetoric, American Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies
B.A., Mount Union College; M.A., The Ohio State University; Ph.D., The Ohio State University 

About

Dr. Jamie Capuzza joined the faculty of The University of the South in Fall 2024. Previously, she chaired the Department of Communication, and she served as director of both the Honors Program and the Gender Studies Program at the University of Mount Union. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Havana in Cuba; Christ University in Bangalore, India; University of Shanghai, Luneburg University in Germany, University of Turin in Italy; Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, and the University of Pais Vasco in Bilbao, Spain.

Teaching

Winner of Mount Union's Great Teacher Award , Dr. Capuzza teaches courses in the Rhetoric Program, in American Studies, and in Women’s and Gender Studies.

Courses Taught

  • RHET 101: Public Speaking

  • RHET 351: Intercultural and Cross-Cultural Communication: A Global Perspective

  • RHET 412: Rhetoric in the Age of Protest II: 1974-Present

  • WMST 111: Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies 

  • WMST 220: The Politics of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights

Scholarship

Dr. Capuzza’s primary research interests include social movement rhetoric, women’s and LBGTQIA+ studies; and transnational and intersectional feminisms. She has presented numerous research papers at academic meetings of organizations such as International Society for the History of Rhetoric; National Women’s Studies Association; Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender; the National Communication Association; and the Southern States Communication Association. She is on the Editorial Board for the journal Women &  Language. 

Books

Capuzza, J. C. (2023) The Fifth Star: Ohio’s Fight for Women's Right to Vote. Kent OH: Kent State University Press. (More here).

Awards

  • Gold Winner in Women’s Studies in the Foreword Indies Award.
  • Ohio Academy of History Senior Scholar Book Award.

Reviews

  • A “stirring and necessary book” ― Akron Beacon Journal
  • “In The Fifth Star, Jamie Capuzza deftly situates Ohio women’s long fight for social reform and women’s rights within the larger arc of US women’s history. Capuzza brings to life a colorful cast of Ohio women, long overshadowed by their sisters to the east, who fought side by side with the likes of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Carrie Chapman Catt. And offering a timely reminder to readers today, Capuzza also shows how women working at the local and state levels can drive national movements for change. The Fifth Star will likely stand as the definitive history of Ohio women’s struggle to secure their rights for decades to come.” ― Gina M. Martino, author of Women at War in the Borderlands of the Early American Northeast
  • “The Fifth Star is an important contribution to the historical narrative about the significance Ohio women played in the suffrage movement. This work draws on extensive research and tells a compelling story about the many women who made the Nineteenth Amendment a reality.” ― Megan Wood, executive director and CEO of the Ohio History Connection
  • “What a welcome, vital contribution The Fifth Star is to historical scholarship on female suffrage! Jamie Capuzza’s sophisticated, engagingly-written book helps readers to understand the unique, complex ways the fight for suffrage unfolded in Ohio, while also demonstrating how crucial Ohio was in the broader national battle for female enfranchisement. A compelling, accessible narrative, The Fifth Star greatly enriches existing scholarship about U.S. women’s long, brutal fight for suffrage, movingly honoring individual Ohio suffragists who were instrumental in securing votes for women (both state and nationwide), and offering a vivid, inspiring reminder of the need for persistent vigilance and ongoing activism to ensure that all Americans have full, free, and fair access to the franchise.” ― Holly M. Kent, author of Her Voice Will Be on the Side of Right: Gender and Power in Women’s Antebellum Antislavery Fiction

Spencer, L & Capuzza, J. (Eds.). (2015). Transgender Communication Studies: Histories, Trends, and Trajectories. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. (More here).

Awards

  • Top Book award by the National Communication Association LBGTQ Division

  • Top Edited Book award by the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language and Gender

  • Distinguished Edited Book award by the National Communication Association’s Applied Communication Division

Reviews

  • I experienced immense joy when I learned about Transgender Communication Studies: Histories, Trends, and Trajectories, an edited collection that is indeed ‘the first of its kind in the communication discipline.’ This collection offers a focused and sincere attempt to understand and advocate on behalf of transgender identities and experiences…. This collection will no longer allow communication scholars and journal editors to easily avoid these topics…. Continued efforts are thus vital to understand transgender identities and experiences; Transgender Communication Studies will contribute remarkably to these efforts. ― Women’s Studies in Communication
  • One of the important things this book does is to acknowledge the significance of the coalition the LGBTQ acronym enacts while also pointing out that as important as understanding our similarities is, we must also attend to the ways in which we differ. It illustrates that although we may share some needs and goals, the contours of those needs and goals may diverge as a result of our specific situations. And so the various chapters in the book remind us that as we work together to effect social change—and to study those efforts—we need to move back and forth between attending to similarities and differences. We need to remember that our specific needs and goals might not be exactly analogous to people in similar, but different, situations, and we need to check in with one another to ensure that the coalition is working to the benefit of everyone and not just a few. This book makes that case for the LGBTQ community; I’m convinced it’s a lesson that’s important for all social movement activists—and for those of us who study them. ― QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking
  • [T]his book stands as a testament to how rich and challenging communication research in transgender studies can be once divorced from the limiting assumptions of gay and lesbian studies, paving a way forward as a new wave of public awareness draws attention to transgender issues in media and communication. ― Journal of Communication
Select Research Articles 

Capuzza, J.C. (2021) and Daily, T. We March On: Voices from the Women's March on Washington. Women & Language. 43 (2). 

Capuzza, J. C. (2020). “‘T’ is for ‘transgender’: An analysis of children’s picture books featuring transgender protagonists and narrators.” Journal of Children and Media, 14 (2).

Capuzza, J. C. (2016). “Improvements Still Needed for Transgender Coverage.” Newspaper Research Journal, 37 (1), 82-94. doi:10.1177/0739532916634642

Spencer, L. & Capuzza, J. (2016). “Centering Gender Identity and Transgender Lives in Instructional Communication Research.” Communication Education, 65 (1): 113 – 117. doi: 10.1080/03634523.2015.1096949

Capuzza, J. C. & Spencer, L. (2016). “Regressing, Progressing, or Transgressing on the Small Screen? Transgender Characters on U.S. Scripted Television Series.” Communication Quarterly. 1 – 17. doi: 10.1080/01463373.2016.1221438

Select Book Chapters

Capuzza, J. C. & O’Rourke, S. P. (2021). “Rhetoric and Peace Studies,” Engaging the Humanities in Education for Peace. Nicole Johnson (Ed). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Capuzza, J.C., Spencer, L., Billiard, T. J., Booth, T., Heinz, M., Jones, S. and Miller, L. (2020). Transing communication education: A chorus of voices. Queer Communication Pedagogy. Ahmet Atay and Sandy Pensoneau-Conway (Eds.). NY: Routledge.

Capuzza, J. C. (2019). Transgender Lives and U.S. News Media. Gender, Journalism and Power. Cindy Carter, Linda Steiner and Stuart Allan (Eds.). NY: Routledge.

Capuzza, J. C. (2019). Meta-sexist Discourse and Affective polarization in the 2016 US Presidential Campaign. Affect, Emotion, and Rhetorical Persuasion in Mass Communication. Lei Zhang and Carlton Clark (Eds.). NY: Routledge. 

Awards

University of Mount Union Great Teacher Award

Distinguished Research Award by the University of Mount Union

Gender Scholar of the Year by the Southern States Communication Association

Ohio Magazine’s Excellence in Education Award

Fulbright-Hays Award

Jane Weston Chapman Award (1998).