University of Wisconsin–Madison
Allison Prasch

Allison Prasch

Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture

Nancy Obin Sukenik Professor | Associate Professor

she/her/hers

aprasch@wisc.edu

Allison Prasch

Biography

Dr. Allison M. Prasch is the Nancy Obin Sukenik Professor and Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An expert in US presidential rhetoric, political communication, and the history of rhetoric, her research and teaching seeks to understand how US political leaders use words and actions to create and sustain a particular vision of the United States to national and global audiences.

Prof. Prasch’s first book, The World is Our Stage: The Global Rhetorical Presidency and the Cold War (University of Chicago Press, 2023), examines how US presidents used their rhetoric abroad as a persuasive strategy during the Cold War and received the 2024 Roderick P. Hart Outstanding Book Award from the Political Communication Division of the National Communication Association. Her second book project traces the rhetorical history of Washington, DC and has been supported by a H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship (2025), an Institute for Research in the Humanities Faculty Fellowship (2025), and a Vilas Associates Award (2023).

Prof. Prasch is also the co-editor of Reassessing Foreign Policy Rhetorics in a Global Era: Concepts and Case Studies (Michigan State University Press, 2024) and the co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary US Presidential Rhetoric (under contract). Her award-winning academic scholarship has appeared in the field’s most prominent outlets, including the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Southern Communication Journal, Women’s Studies in Communication, and several edited volumes.

From 2025-26, Prof. Prasch served as Special Advisor to Dean Eric M. Wilcots (College of Letters & Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison) and currently sits on the Wisconsin Exchange Steering Committee, the Arts & Humanities Divisional Committee, and the Center for the Humanities Steering Committee. Prof. Prasch also serves as President of the American Society for the History of Rhetoric and sits on the Board of the Rhetoric Society of America.

As an internationally recognized expert in US presidential rhetoric and political communication, Prof. Prasch’s commentary has been featured in outlets including National Public Radio, Associated Press, Washington Post, Newsweek, The Hill, Boston Globe, Politico, C-SPAN, the BBC, and Wisconsin Public Radio. She is a frequent contributor to The Conversation, and has also appeared on news programs in Australia, Canada, China, France, the United Kingdom, and Qatar.

Education

  • Ph.D. Communication Studies (Rhetoric), University of Minnesota, 2016
  • M.A. Communication Studies (Rhetoric), University of Minnesota, 2011
  • B.A. American Studies, Hillsdale College, 2006

Honors/Awards

Books

Journal Articles

Book Chapters

  • Forthcoming. “Texturing Place, Emplacing Rhetoric: Biden, Trump and Competing Visions of US American Power.” The Routledge International Handbook of Political Communication, eds. Pamela Pietrucci, Jelte Olthof, Lisa Villadsen, Karrin Vasby Anderson, and Mary E. Stuckey.
  • 2019. “Reading the Presidency In Situ: Obama in Cuba and the Significance of Place in U.S. Presidential Public Address.” Reading the Presidency: Advances in Presidential Rhetoric, Stephen J. Heidt and Mary E. Stuckey, eds. New York: Peter Lang, 44-64.
  • 2018. “The Two Madam Secretaries: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Elizabeth McCord, and Mimetic Representations of 21st Century Feminism.” Women, Feminism, and Pop Politics:From “Bitch” to “Badass” and Beyond, Karrin Vasby Anderson, ed. New York: Peter Lang, 223-244.

Selected Lectures, Media Appearances, & Public Scholarship

Courses

  • CA 360 – Introduction to Rhetoric in Politics and Culture
  • CA 369 – Rhetoric of the US Presidential Election
  • CA 610 – Theoretical Advances in US Presidential Discourse
  • CA 610 – US Presidential Rhetoric & Foreign Policy
  • CA 610 – Rhetoric of the Cold War
  • CA 610 – Foreign Policy Rhetorics in a Global Era
  • CA 969 – Rhetorical Historiography
  • CA 969 – Race, Place, and National Identity