Sara A. Mehltretter Drury is a Byron K. Trippet Assistant Professor of Rhetoric. Her research analyzes the quality and character of public discourse in the United States. Her specific interests include presidential rhetoric, the rhetoric of national security, political campaigns, social movements, the rhetoric of religion, and the theories and practices of democracy. She has published essays in Journal of Communication & Religion, Voices of Democracy, and in the edited volume What Democrats Talk about When They Talk about God.

 

Professor Drury was an undergraduate at Boston College and earned her B.A. degree summa cum laude in Communication and Political Science, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She did her graduate work at the Pennsylvania State University, earning her M.A. and Ph.D. in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts. In 2010-2011, she worked as a Research Associate at the Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio, where she took part in Kettering’s research on democratic principles and practices.

 

Outside of the classroom, Professor Drury enjoys cooking, outdoor activities, and travel. A native of Buffalo, New York, she is a loyal Bills and Sabres fan, and has a discerning palate for the delicacy known to Buffalonians simply as “wings.”

Ph.D. in Communication Arts and Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University

M.A. in Communication Arts and Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University

B.A. summa cum laude in Communication and Political Science, Boston College

RHE 101 Public Speaking

RHE 270 American Religious Rhetoric

RHE 320 Classical Rhetoric
RHE 370 Presidential Rhetoric

FRT Politics and Persuasion

“Walter Lippmann and the Push for a Democratic Foreign Policy in the Early Cold War.” Presented at the National Communication Association Convention, San Francisco, November 2010. Top Paper in American Studies

 

“A Bridge to Nowhere?: Jimmy Carter and Evangelical Argumentation in Presidential Discourse.” Presented at the Religious Communication Association Pre-Conference, National Communication Association Convention, San Francisco, November 2010.

 

“President Johnson, Vietnam, and Public Memory.” Invited Colloquium Presentation for the Department of Communication Studies, the University of Kansas, February 24, 2010.

 

“Theatrical Performances as Social and Political Activism: A Roundtable Discussion.” Invited moderator and participant, sponsored by the Center for Democratic Deliberation and the Center for Performing Arts at Penn State, the Pennsylvania State University, February 1, 2010.

 

Drury, Sara A. Mehltretter. "More than a Beard and a Pasty Forehead: Lessons from the Great Debate of 1960." Spectra 48 (2012): 12-15

 

Mehltretter, Sara Ann. “Tim Kaine and the Rhetoric of Catholic Evangelism.” In What Democrats Talk about When They Talk about God, edited by David Weiss, 177-192. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010.

 

Mehltretter, Sara Ann. “Dorothy Day, the Catholic Workers, and Moderation in Protest during the Vietnam War.” Journal of Communication & Religion 32 (2009): 1-32. Lead essay.  

 

Top Paper in American Studies. “Walter Lippmann and the Push for a Democratic Foreign Policy in the Early Cold War.” National Communication Association Convention, San Francisco, California, November 2010.

 

Carroll C. Arnold Award for Scholarly Excellence. Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, 2009.

 

Center for Democratic Deliberation Dissertation Fellowship. The Pennsylvania State University, 2009-2010.

 

Phi Beta Kappa, Boston College.