Stephen Klien
Stephen Klien
Dr. Stephen A. Klien serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Communication. He teaches courses in introduction to communication, public speaking, argumentation, and political communication. He also has professional experience in faculty development and is a current Faculty Fellow for MU’s Teaching for Learning Center (T4LC) specializing in the evaluation of teaching. His present research focuses on how the implementation of career exploration assessments in the Communication curriculum improves career self-efficacy and self-determination in undergraduate students. His current work is also focused on the development of training resources for improving the collection, interpretation and use of student feedback survey data by faculty. Past research involves the criticism of contemporary political rhetoric, with particular attention paid to the constitution of public character and citizen agency. This work has focused on the rhetorical construction of ideology and agency by conservative popular media, as well as on the constitution of citizen agency in post-9/11 war films.
- Comm 1200 – Public Speaking
- Comm 2500 – Introduction to Communication
- Comm 3572(H) – Argument and Advocacy
- Comm 4940 – Internship
Klien, S.A. (2024). Promoting career exploration and student choice in the introductory course: The communication career awareness research project. Communication Teacher, 38(3), 276-289. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 17404622.2024.2350394
Klien, S.A., Elmer, J.W., & Rottinghaus, P.J. (2024). Using a career research project in the introductory communication course to develop agency, self-efficacy, self-determination, and adaptability in career exploration. Journal of Communication Pedagogy, 8, 24-47. https//doi.org/10.31446/JCP.2024.1.03
Klien, S.A. (2015). Cinematic simulacra and the prospect for public agency: Constructing the citizen-soldier in post-9/11 war films. In E. Sahlstein Parcell and L.M. Webb (Eds.), A communication perspective on the military: Interactions, messages, and discourses (pp. 373-390). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-1-4539-1562-2
Klien, S.A. (2013). O’Reilly’s war on the “war on Christmas”: Diatribe, culture war and conservative ideology. In C. Rountree (Ed.), Venomous speech: Problems with American political discourse on the right and left (pp. 269-298). Praeger / Bloomsbury Publishing.
Klien, S.A., and Farrar, M.E. (2009). The diatribe of Ann Coulter: Gendered style, conservative ideology, and the public sphere. In J.L. Edwards (Ed.), Gender and political communication in America: Rhetoric, representation, and display (pp. 63-85). Lexington Books.
Klien, S.A. (2007). Complexity and ideology in televisual war rhetoric: The air war over Iraq in Campaign 2004. In D. Zarefsky and E. Benacka (Eds.), Sizing up rhetoric (pp. 181-199). Waveland Press.
Klien, S.A. (2005). "Leave no man behind": The construction of public character, institutional legitimacy, and citizen agency in Black Hawk Down. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 22, 427-449. https://doi.org/10.1080/07393180500342993