Dr. Young Cheon Cho

• PhD (2009) - Communication Studies, University of Iowa
• MA (2003) - Communication, University of Colorado at Boulder
• MA (1999) - Mass Communication, Yonsei University
• BA (1997) - Mass Communication, Yonsei University

"I believe that communication is basically a political and ethical problem rather than a semantic or psychological one.”

During my undergraduate and graduate education in media studies at Yonsei University, I became interested in understanding communication in its broad historical, political, and philosophical contexts. My curiosity in the public and symbolic aspects of communication led me to pursue graduate studies in Rhetoric at the University of Colorado at Boulder. With my heightened interest in action (praxis) and speech (lexis), out of which rises the realm of contingent human affairs, I completed a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Public Advocacy at the University of Iowa. I am currently teaching courses in Communication & Public Affairs.

Professional Affiliations

• International Communication Association
• National Communication Association

Courses Taught

• CMST 235 - Intercultural Communication
• CMST 350 - Foundations of Rhetorical Communication
• CMST 428 - Politics and the Media
• CMST 452 - Freedom of Speech
• CMST 453 - Persuasion and Rhetoric
• CMST 604 - Graduate Seminar in Political Communication
• CMST 612 - Graduate Seminar in Rhetorical Theory

Current Interests

My research focuses on critical-cultural histories of rhetoric and philosophy, visual rhetoric, and theories of the public sphere. I have been performing comparative and international criticism of theories of political participation and democratic deliberation. The major project that I am working on is theorizing the politics of suffering in the public sphere, where I examine the body rhetoric of subalterns, the rhetorical eloquence of pain, the promises and limits of empathy, and the ethics of spectatorship.