Sonja K. Foss

Sonja Foss and her twin sister, Karen A. Foss, also a rhetorical scholar and educator in communication, were born in Portland, Oregon, on January 26, 1950, and grew up in Eugene, Oregon. Foss earned a B.A. in Romance Languages (French and Spanish) from the University of Oregon in 1972, an M.A. in Speech (Rhetoric and Public Address) from the University of Oregon in 1973, and a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from Northwestern University in 1976. She taught at Virginia Tech (1977-1978); Norfolk State University (1978-1980); the University of Denver (1980-1986); the University of Oregon (1986-1989); St. Louis University (1989-1990); Ohio State University (1990-1996); and the University of Colorado Denver (1997–present), where she served as chair of the Department of Communication from 1997-2003.

Foss is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of nine books, and she has published over fifty book chapters and essays in communication journals. Foss regularly presents her research at regional and national conventions and has presented lectures on her work in Sweden and China. She served for seven years (1981-1988) as the coeditor (with Karen A. Foss) of the journal Women’s Studies in Communication and serves on the editorial boards of various communication journals. Some of Foss’s work provides overviews of contemporary rhetorical theories and guidelines for analyzing rhetoric. Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric (with Karen A. Foss and Robert Trapp) summarizes the theories of ten rhetorical theorists, including Kenneth Burke, bell hooks, Jean Baudrillard, and Michel Foucault. Her textbook Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice offers various methods for analyzing rhetorical artifacts, including the cluster, ideological, metaphoric, and narrative methods. Although some of Foss’s work provides accessible ways into conventional theories of and methods for studying rhetoric, the primary focus of her research is on reconceptualizing communication concepts and theories. She often takes a communication theory or concept and asks what it would look like if it were built on different assumptions, different values, different kinds of symbols, or the speaking practices of previously marginalized groups. Foss’s work in the area of feminist perspectives on communication is one way in which she reconceptualizes communication theory and practice. When she entered the communication discipline in the 1970s, a period characterized by “womanless communication,” there “was nothing in the curriculum about women or feminism.” Her early efforts in this area were designed largely to introduce the communication discipline to great women speakers and social movements involving women in an effort to make them legitimate data for study. These efforts are illustrated by her articles on women priests in the Episcopal Church and the debate on the Equal Rights Amendment.

Foss’s later feminist work has been concerned with transforming “the communication discipline as a result of feminist understandings, insights, and scholarship.”She calls herself a feminist reconstructionist in that she seeks to reconstruct communication theories and concepts that are based on patriarchal values and assumptions and the speaking practices of elite white men. Her objective is to create “a more comprehensive description of communication processes—to describe as fully as possible the diverse communicative experiences that characterize symbol use in all of its variety.” She also wants “to challenge and transform the ideology of domination that pervades Western culture,” so she is interested in assessing theories and practices to see which of them re-inscribe this ideology and how they might be transformed.

The theory of invitational rhetoric, which Foss developed with Cindy L. Griffin, is an example of her reconceptualization work from a feminist perspective. The theory reconceptualizes the definition of rhetoric and challenges the assumption that all rhetoric is designed to persuade. A similar project is Feminist Rhetorical Theories (with Karen A. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin), in which the rhetorical theories of nine feminist theorists such as Sally Miller Gearhart, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Sonia Johnson are explicated, providing the communication field with alternatives to traditional rhetorical theories. Inviting Transformation: Presentational Speaking for a Changing World, written with Karen A. Foss, is another example of Foss’s efforts at reconceptualizing; in this textbook, Foss and Foss present a new model of public speaking that incorporates invitational principles and the speaking practices of marginalized groups. Foss’s article on two paradigms of change, written with Karen A. Foss, is another example of her reconceptualization efforts. In this article, Foss and Foss propose an alternative to the paradigm of persuasion that characterizes how change traditionally has been conceptualized in the communication discipline.

Foss’s work on the visual image as communication is another way in which she questions and reconceptualizes communication theories and concepts. When visual images are used as the data of studies, she suggests, theories of communication must be expanded to encompass these different types of symbols. Examples of her work in this area are studies of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, visual argumentation, the appeal of visual images and her proposal for a method for evaluating visual images.

Foss also assists graduate students and faculty members develop into successful academic writers, helping to demystify the academic writing and publishing process. She is the author, with William Waters, of Destination Dissertation: A Traveler’s Guide to a Done Dissertation, in which travel is used as a metaphor for writing a dissertation. She is the founder of Scholars’ Retreat, writing retreats that provide individualized assistance for those who want to complete their theses, dissertations, and other academic publications.

Foss has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the following:

• Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado Denver, 2013.
• Douglas W. Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award, National Communication Association, 2012.
• Distinguished Scholar Award, Western States Communication Association, 2011.
• Feminist Scholar Award, Organization for Research on Women and Communication (with Karen A. Foss), 2010. The award recognized the article “Our Journey to Repowered Feminism: Expanding the Feminist Toolbox,” published in Women’s Studies in Communication.
• Gender Scholar of the Year, Southern Communication Association (with Karen A. Foss), 2005.
• Outstanding Book Award, Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender (with Karen A. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin), 2000. The award recognized the book Feminist Rhetorical Theories.
• Francine Merritt Award for contributions to women in communication, Women's Caucus, Speech Communication Association, 1993.