Dr. Melody Lehn, Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies, has recently published an article in the Journal for the History of Rhetoric entitled “I Would Like to Take a Course in Public Speaking, Not That I Ever Intend to Make a Speech: Lady Bird Johnson, Collaborative Rhetorical Learning, and the Rhetorical First Lady Revisited.” The Journal for the History of Rhetoric is the official journal of the American Society for the History of Rhetoric. Dr. Lehn conducted archival research for this study at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. She presented an earlier version of this article at a meeting of the Southern States Communication Association.
Building upon previous scholarship about the "Rhetorical First Lady," this study investigates Lady Bird Johnson’s well-documented public speaking anxiety, which prompted her to enroll in an all-female public speaking course taught by Prof. Hester Provensen (University of Maryland) in 1959. In the Capital Speaker’s Class, Lady Bird engaged in a collaborative process of rhetorical education that continued with her East Wing staff once she became First Lady. She likewise applied the theories and best practices she learned as a speech coach and critic who shaped President Lyndon Johnson’s rhetorical practices.
For more information on Dr. Lehn's work, see her page here.
