Kendall R. Phillips

Biography

Kendall R. Phillips’ research focuses on controversies and conflicts arising around topics like public memory, popular film and popular culture. He has published several books, including “A Place of Darkness: The Rhetoric of Horror in Early American Cinema”; “Controversial Cinema: The Films that Outraged America”; and “Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture.” His essays have appeared in such journals as Quarterly Journal of Speech, Communication Monographs, and Philosophy and Rhetoric. He is co-editor for the book series “Horror and Monstrosity Studies” at the University Press of Mississippi and “Rhetoric, Politics and Society” for Palgrave Macmillan.

Phillips currently serves as director of the Lender Center for Social Justice at Syracuse University, visiting professor at York St John University (United Kingdom) and honorary fellow in the School of Art Whiti o Rehua, College of Creative Arts, at Massey University (New Zealand). He previously served as president for the Rhetoric Society of America.

A list of Phillips’ work is available online.

Education

• Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University

Areas of Expertise

American film, public discourse, rhetoric, rhetoric of popular culture

Selected Publications

• Phillips, Kendall R. “A Place of Darkness: The Rhetoric of Horror in Early American Cinema.” Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2018.
• Calafell, Bernadette M. & Phillips, Kendall R. “Disciplining the Devil: A Rhetorical History of Tod Browning’s The Devil Doll (1936).” Critical Studies in Media Communication, 36: 1 (2018): 18-34.
• Phillips, Kendall R. “‘The Safest Hands are Our Own’: Cinematic Affect, State Cruelty, and the Election of Donald J. Trump.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 15 (2018): 85-89.
• Phillips, Kendall R. “The Event of Dissension: Reconsidering the Possibility for Dissent.” Quarterly Journal of Speech, 101 (2015): 60-71.
• Phillips, Kendall (2012). “Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film.” Carbondale, IL:  Southern Illinois University Press. [Finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Nonfiction]
• Phillips, Kendall, & Reyes, Mitchell (2011). “Global Memoryscapes: Contesting Remembrance in a Transnational Age.” Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press.
• Phillips, K. R. (2008). “Controversial Cinema: The Films that Outraged America.” Westport, CT: Praeger.
• Phillips, K. R. Ed. (2005). “Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture.” Westport, CT: Praeger Press.
• Phillips, K. R. Ed. (2004). “Framing Public Memory.” Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.
• Phillips, K. R. (2004). “Testing Controversy: A Rhetoric of Educational Reform.” Cresskill, N. J.: Hampton Press.

Awards and Honors

• 2024 George E. Yoos Distinguished Service Award, Rhetoric Society of America
• 2009 Judith Greenberg Seinfeld Distinguished Fellow
• 2008 University Teacher/Scholar of the Year, Syracuse University Chancellor’s Award
• 2007 Bronze Telly Award for “Classic Movie Night,” 28th Annual Telly Awards (national award for local/regional television)
• 2005 Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award, Syracuse University Graduate School
• 2002 College Faculty Award, Syracuse University

Lectures, Panel and Workshops

• 2018 Keynote Speaker, “Frontiers of Public Memory,” First Chinese Conference on Frontiers in Rhetorical Theory, Shanghai University (China).
• 2018 Workshop Leader, “The Art of Rhetoric and Social Change,” American University’s Syrian Initiative to Combat Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, Istanbul (Turkey).
• 2015 Keynote Speaker, “The Profanity of Memory,” triggering Memory Symposium, Massey University (New Zealand).
• 2015 Keynote Speaker, “The Absence of Memory,” Memory on Trial Conference, Third Ørecomm Festival, Malmö University (Sweden).