Professor Emeritus, Communication Studies
A Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies, James taught courses in rhetoric and media studies including Introduction to Communication Criticism, Argument Theory, Rhetoric and the Law, Political Communication, African American Public Discourse, and Introduction to Civic Rhetoric which focused on Democracy and Voting. He also taught African Americans and the Constitution through Puget Sound’s African American Studies program. He is an affiliate faculty member in the Dept. of Communication at the University of Washington, and from 2016 through 2021 served as an affiliate professor in the section on rhetoric at the University of Copenhagen.
Best known for his 2001 book Sourcebook on Rhetoric: Key Concepts in Contemporary Rhetorical Studies (Sage), James authored or co-authored over two dozen essays, monographs, and book chapters on such topics as dissociative argument in malapportionment and vote dilution cases, Martin Luther King’s (1967) Riverside Church speech against the Vietnam war, Henry Highland Garnet’s (1843) “Address to the Slaves,” and language and voice strategies in The Federalist Papers.
James edited the academic journal Rhetoric Society Quarterly from 2011-2015, served as an associate editor for six academic journals, reviewed book manuscripts for numerous university presses, and organized multiple academic conferences in rhetorical studies.