Michael Lee
Michael Lee, an associate professor of communication in the Department of Communication at the College of Charleston, has been recognized by the National Communication Association for his book on the development of conservative political thought in post-World War II America.
Lee’s book, “Creating Conservatism: Postwar Words that Made an American Movement,” was awarded the association’s 2015 Diamond Anniversary Book Award, the 2015 James A. Winans and Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address, and the 2015 Kohrs-Campbell Prize in Rhetorical Criticism.
Whereas the Diamond Anniversary award recognizes “the most outstanding” book published in the last two years in any area of the communication discipline, the Winans-Wichelns award recognizes an exemplary book specifically in the area of rhetoric and public address.
The Kohrs-Campbell Prize, which comes with a $10,000 award, was created to encourage original research and scholarship of the highest quality in the field of rhetorical criticism.
“I suspected they had the wrong guy,” Lee says of his reaction to winning the awards. “Now that the news has set in, I am still stunned but also greatly honored to have my book listed among books by scholars I have read, studied, and looked up to for well over a decade.”
Lee, who began teaching at the College in 2008, wrote the initial drafts of the book as part of his doctoral dissertation at the University of Minnesota. But he says it took him eight years to complete the book because of both the complexity of the topic and the long period of time it covers. The book was published by Michigan State University Press in August 2014 and is available on Amazon.
Read more about how Lee researched and wrote his award-winning book.
Lee will be recognized at the association’s Annual Convention in Las Vegas on Nov. 21, 2015.
