The National Communication Association (NCA) Public Address Division has given their 2020 award to Dr. Bjørn Stillion Southard, for his book, Peculiar Rhetoric: Slavery, Freedom, and the African Colonization Movement (University Press of Mississippi, 2019). Each year, the Marie Hochmuth Nichols Award honors one of the most prominent leaders in public address research. The award criteria include the importance of the work in expanding or shifting understanding of public address or rhetorical practice, the originality and quality of both research and writing, as well as the creativity of the author. The Communication Studies department is proud to congratulate Dr. Stillion Southard for this honor, and for the publishing of his timely and fascinating book. Peculiar Rhetoric investigates how politics and identity were negotiated amid the intense public debate on race, slavery and freedom in America during the African colonization movement. Dr. Stillion Southard pores over the speeches of Henry Clay, Elias B. Caldwell, and Abraham Lincoln, in addition to analyzing the little-known speeches and writings of free blacks who wrestled with colonization's conditional promises of freedom during the same period. He examines an array of discourses to probe the complex issues of identity confronting free blacks who attempted to meaningfully engage in colonization efforts. To learn more about Dr. Stillion Southard's analysis of the rhetorical devices related to the African Colonization Movement, click on the link below. https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/P/Peculiar-Rhetoric
