Introduction

Dr. Miller’s research focuses on discourses of power and identity in the contexts of marginalization in media and the public sphere from a critical rhetoric perspective. Subjects include trans representations in film and media, the rhetoric of genderblindness, and performances of citizenship in the public sphere.

Bio

Dr. Miller analyzes discourses of power and identity in the contexts of marginalization in media and the public sphere from a critical rhetoric perspective. Systems of power impact all aspects of our lives, from how transgender people are treated in public spaces to how patriarchal oppression of women persists in our genderblind society. A major area of interest of her research is civic engagement, which spans from the treatment of transgender people, women, and other marginalized groups in the public sphere to the transformation of fan participation into citizenship to the rhetorical analysis of political figures. As an example of the first, she recently published a book titled Genderblindness in American Society: The Rhetoric of a System of Social Control of Women (Lexington, 2019) that analyzes how gender is diminished in public life by a system of genderblindness that removes gender from public persuasive appeals. Another major area of interest in her research is transgender representation in media. A primary example of her current work in this area is a book project titled Distancing Representations in Transgender Film: Identification, Affect, and the Audience, which is under contract with SUNY Press. The project analyzes how transgender representations in film are constructed narratively and visually to elicit the affective responses of ridicule, fear, disgust, and sympathy from a cisgender audience in line with a cisnormative ideology. Dr. Miller’s research connects the disparagements, constraints, and empowerments experienced in our everyday lives to larger systems of power in order to explore the co-constructed nature of identity. 

Courses Taught

• COMM 437: Visual Communication
• COMM 420: Gender and Communication
• COMM 407: Gender, Race and Media
• COMM 375: Media Audiences
• COMM 335: Intercultural Communication
• COMM 327: American Oratory

Representative Publications

• Miller, Lucy J. “We Heart Japan: Fan Citizenship and the Role of Institutions in the Response to Japanese Earthquakes.” Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 44, no.4, 2020, pp. 396-415. 
• Miller, Lucy J. “Meritocracy and the Maintenance of Order.” Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, Special Issue on “Merit, Whiteness and Privilege,” vol. 8, no. 4, 2019, pp. 76-81.
• Miller, Lucy J. “Fear and the Cisgender Audience: Transgender Representation and Audience Identification in Sleepaway Camp.” Spectator, Special Issue on “Transgender Media,” vol. 37, no. 2, 2017, pp. 40-47.

Books

Lucy J. Miller. Genderblindness in American Society: The Rhetoric of a System of Social Control of Women. Lexington Books, 2019.

Genderblindness in American Society: The Rhetoric of a System of Social Control of Women rhetorically analyzes discourses of the current genderblind system of social control that seeks to render gender as irrelevant in public life. As an ideology, genderblindness shapes women’s experiences in the public sphere by working to limit our understandings of gender and to separate the continued marginalization of women from ideas of gender discrimination. Taking a critical rhetoric perspective, Lucy J. Miller examines the discourse of genderblindness in the contexts of the gender wage gap, abortion rights, rape culture, and tech culture.

Amanda R. Martinez and Lucy J. Miller (Eds.). Gender in a Transitional Era: Changes and Challenges. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015.

Gender in a Transitional Era addresses a range of issues relevant in current gender and sexuality studies scholarship which span many disciplines. The contributors prioritize the critical thinking that continues to support the notion that we, as a society, still have a ways to go toward full gender equality in all spheres of life. This collection positions marginal voices at the center of complex gender issues in today’s society. Broad thematic topic areas include parental identities, advice, and self-help; gender performances and role expectations in media; interacting within organizational and social spaces; and tensions and negotiations on politics, health, and feminisms. Though there is still much work to be done concerning an array of gender equality issues, scholars in this collection interrogate a transitional era of gender in which changes are evident, yet challenges persist.