Introduction: An Issue on Trans-Atlantic Dialogs in Communication Studies

There is a rich tradition of Anglo-American oratory and evaluation of that oratory. This tradition has been so historically strong to the point that “the history of public address” is often code for great speakers and their speeches from the British Isles and the United States. There are, however, other rich communicative and rhetorical traditions from which authors and thinkers on different continents can understand their own, and others’, communicative practices.

The selection of papers that appear in this issue of Southern Communication Journal engage in a trans-Atlantic dialogue on the possibilities of communication theory and analysis as it crosses from Europe to North America and back again. Four of the essays that appear in this issue were initially selected and placed through a review process by Jim Kuypers. When Jim approached me with the possibility of including these essays in SCJ, through a fortunate confluence, I had already been working with two of the other authors. To round out the issue, I invited other authors for an accelerated review process.

In this issue, our authors open possibilities for this trans-Atlantic dialogue and make space for other authors to follow. I thank Jim for initiating this idea and our authors for enacting it.