Contemporary Public Speaking

by Pat Gehrke, Megan Foley

Overview

A critical guide for public speaking in a diverse, digital world

Contemporary Public Speaking builds students’ confidence as speakers, inviting them to view their intersectional identities as the very strengths that give them power and purpose in public speaking. Every speaker has a unique voice to share, and this textbook equips students with the skills they need to make their voices heard in our diverse and increasingly digital public culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324119586
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/01/2026
Edition description:	Second Edition
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Pat Gehrke (he/him) is a professor in the Speech, Communication, and Rhetoric Program and the Department of English at the University of South Carolina. He has over twenty years of experience teaching and directing public speaking courses. He has taught over fifteen different undergraduate courses, including public speaking, online public communication, small group communication, political communication, civic engagement, argumentation, rhetoric, and communication ethics. He also designed and teaches USC’s unique and innovative online public speaking course. He is the author or editor of six books including The Ethics and Politics of Speech (2009), A Century of Communication Studies (with William Keith, 2014), and Teaching First-Year Communication Courses (2017). He served as editor of Review of Communication from 2013 to 2016 and has twice received the National Communication Association’s presidential citation for service to the discipline. He is widely recognized as a leading authority on the history of communication studies in the United States and an innovator in online public speaking pedagogy. He holds a PhD in communication from the Pennsylvania State University.

Megan Foley (they/them) is the director of standpointadvocacy.org, a virtual teach-in for advocates, activists, and educators committed to social justice. They have fifteen years of college teaching experience and have taught more than a dozen different undergraduate courses, including public speaking, intercultural communication, gender and communication, persuasion, small group communication, nonverbal communication, interpersonal communication, communication theory, and rhetorical theory. They have published award-winning research in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Philosophy and Rhetoric, the Quarterly Journal of Speech, and the Journal of Communication Studies. They have served on the editorial boards of the Quarterly Journal of Speech and Women’s Studies in Communication as well as the National Communication Association’s Leadership Development Board. They hold a PhD in communication studies from the University of Iowa.