Shannon O'Brien, Ph.D.

shannonbow@utexas.edu


Associate Professor of Instruction

University of Texas at Austin

Year of PhD: 2007

Phone: 3528707951

Address: 158 W 21st St Stop A1800

City: Austin, Texas - 78712-1704

Country: United States

Website


Social Media:

X: shannonbow

About Me:

I was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky.  I received my Ph.D. at the University of Florida. I have lived in Kentucky, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Budapest, Hungary.   I'm an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Government Department at the University of Texas at Austin.  I specialize in American Politics, especially the presidency and political history.  I published Donald Trump and the Kayfabe Presidency in 2020.  It looks at how Donald Trump uses unconventional wrestling tactics as his core communications tools. I published my book Why Presidential Speech Locations Matter: Analyzing Speechmaking from Truman to Obama in 2018 with Palgrave. It explores presidential speech location patterns and what we can learn about their preferences and choices.  My new book, published in July 2024 is Eugenics in American Political Life: How the Politics of Superiority Still Shape Us Today.  It looks at the origins of eugenics language, how it is still with us, and how modern politicians use these same ideas within their policies.

Research Interests

American Presidency And Executive Politics

Development

Urban Politics

Presidential Communication

Political History

Executive Politics

Countries of Interest

United States

My Research:

I study American politics, primarily from a historical perspective.  Generally speaking, I'm very interested in how individuals affect institutional development.  I'm fascinated with how executives can impact how a system interacts and works. My book (Donald Trump and the Kayfabe Presidency) looks at how Donald Trump uses wrestling rhetoric and language to push forward his agenda and narratives. In particular, how he has inculcated its rhetorical techiniques into personal style.  In addition, I'm exploring how his style lends itself towards the idea of manufactured realities, or rather, how spaces can be created to encourage specific types of behaviors. My previous book looks at where presidents give speeches and what we can learn about administrations via locations.  Locations matter and these choices tell us quite a bit about their priorities.  My most recent book, Eugenics in American Political Life: How the Politics of Superiority Still Shape Us Today, looks at how eugenics developed in the United States and the United Kingdom.  It explores how these ideas shaped American immigration policy.  It discusses Mammy statues and how these ideas impact how we frame power in society.  It also looks at how Donald Trump uses eugenic language in his speeches and policies.

Publications:

Journal Articles:

(2020) Transcending the Veil: Barack Obama’s Rhetoric and Strategic Racial Representation, National Review of Black Politics

co-authored with Natasha V. Christie. This work examines how Barack Obama’s speeches and remarks used various rhetorical techniques to strategically maneuver his rhetoric to address racial issues and represent African American concerns. The results of a content analysis of a selection of Obama’s speeches and remarks confirm that Obama and his speechwriters favored the use of statements of color-blind universalism. However, when making certain remarks regarding civil rights issues or perceived racial issues, the pattern shifted, presenting a rare glimpse of the unbalanced representation of African American concerns. These findings suggest that Barack Obama’s speeches and remarks performed double-consciousness; they used universal, balanced, and targeted universalism rhetorical techniques as a genuine, congruent political style for representing African American concerns as a “raced” politician

(2014) Pulling Punches: Charles Beard, the Propertyless, and the Founding of the United States, Constitutional Commentary

Constitutional Commentary 29:409, 410, co-authored with Bartholomew Sparrow

Books Written:

(2024) Eugenics in American Political Life: How the Politics of Superiority Still Shape Us Today, Palgrave Macmillan

The book explores the development of the American eugenics movement and how it still plays a role in American life. Building on a brief overview of the concept of eugenics, Shannon Bow O’Brien charts the foundations of the ideas, significant influences, and influencers of the movement in the last 19th and early 20th centuries. She discusses how these ideals and social life shaped American culture and encouraged attitudes toward racial and ethnic biases, including immigration policies in that period. O’Brien examines how the founding of the United States of America was built on unwanted individuals from the United Kingdom; transported felons and indentured servants were many of the original colonists. As the population forged its new nation, many of these individuals were the focus of restrictive immigration policies that sought to amend the identity of the American citizen and sought to define acceptable roles for Black persons within American society. Faithful slave monuments provided physical models to help engrain these roles within American life. O’Brien traces the development of the Mammy statue movement and its intersectionality with the restrictive immigration laws. Finally, she turns to the rhetoric of Donald Trump and contextualizes his speech in the ideology of the superiority of White Nordic nativism within American life.

(2020) Donald Trump and the Kayfabe Presidency, Palgrave Macmillan

This book examines Donald Trump's longstanding connections to professional wrestling in relation to how he uses and exploits language, and the ways in which he has weaponized going public never before seen in previous administrations. Trump utilizes the language of wrestling to make rhetorical appeals and draws upon its theatrical tactics to redefine expectations of spaces to fundamentally change the nature of political expectations and expression. Wrestling is almost always about stories within a confined space, and Donald Trump inculcated many of its techniques to command an audience with rhetoric. The emotional performance supersedes truth or accuracy; factual exactness matters less than your presentation of the material. As Donald Trump blends performance and public service, social confusion over boundaries has occurred. Theatrical norms, when applied to daily life, generate vastly different reactions than within the artificial confines of an arena. It is not simply a muddling of public and private, but rather a jumbling of theatrical and generalized social standards. This book examines these aspects and explores how Donald Trump has also utilized well-established presidential tools in completely new ways in an attempt to build the strongest executive branch in American history.

(2018) Why Presidential Speech Locations Matter: Analyzing Speechmaking from Truman to Obama, Palgrave Macmillan

The books looks at presidential speech locations and what they tell us about administrations. It looks at administrations through the lens of the Electoral College, Census, Media Markets, Vacations, and Foreign locations to show the impact of priorities and choices by administrations.

Book Chapters:

(2018) "Warren Harding" in Hatred of American Presidents, ABCCLIO

The chapter on Warren Harding in Hatred of America’s Presidents: Personal Attacks on the White House from Washington to Trump edited by Lori Cox Han

Other:

(2024) The Aims of a Presidential Assassin, UT Liberal Arts

Extra Credit Substack: Short Article about presidential assassinations

(2018) Presidential Persuasion, Phi Kappa Phi

Magazine article looking at how presidents use persuasion to get their point across. It argues excessive use of Twitter and other mediums dilutes the impact and power of their words.

Media Appearances:

TV Appearances:

(2024) Voice of America

September 17, 2024 August 22, 2024 August 14, 2024 July 18, 2024 July 12, 2024 June 3, 2024 February 26, 2024 January 15, 2024 January 9, 2024

(2024) Globo (Brazil)

Interview- aired July 7, 2024

(2024) ABC Australia ‘Weekend Breakfast’

live segment on July 20, 2024

(2023) Spectrum News Austin

Live Segment

(2022) BBC World News

BBC World News Evening Edition, August 12, 2022

(2022) Voice of America

Clip about search of Mar-a-Lago

(2021) El Mercurio

September 11, 2021 (translated)

(2020) Newsy

Appearance about Biden's cabinet nominations

(2020) Voice of America

Clip: on challenges of Biden presidency

(2020) Voice of America

Clip: Harris Makes History as First Black and Indian American Woman VP

(2020) Voice of America

Clip: Biden Projects Confidence as Lead Increases in Key States

(2020) Voice of America

Clip: Acquittal Not the End of Trump’s Battles With Democrats

(2020) Voice of America

Clip: Trump Courts Evangelicals to Secure Re-election

(2019) Voice of America

Clip: Ivanka Trump’s Growing Portfolio May Include the Environment

(2019) Voice of America

Clip: Fundraisers at Trump Properties Trigger Ethics Concerns

(2019) Voice of America

Clip: Texas No Longer a Sure Bet for Trump

(2019) Voice of America

Clip: Trump's Foreign Policy Process Stirs Controversy in Washington

(2019) Voice of America

Clip: Trump Seeks to Rally Supporters in Texas

(2019) Voice of America

Clip: A Celebration of Independence, in Trump Fashion

(2019) Voice of America

Clip: Mueller Makes First Public Comments on Russia Probe

Radio Appearances:

(2024) The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen

recorded August 29, 2024 for August 30, 2024 airing recorded September 13, 2024 for September 16, 2024 airing

(2024) Australia Broadcasting News

live radio segment

(2024) Australian Broadcasting Company

July 30- segment on American election

(2024) All Sides with Anna Staver WOSU NPR

The History and Importance of Political Conventions

(2022) ABC Australia

Radio Interview

(2021) Central Time! The Ideas Network of Wisconsin Public Radio

Call in Public Radio program about the presidential transition

(2020) Civics 101: New Hampshire Public Radio

December 2020: “How Does a Contested Convention Work?”

(2020) Central Time! The Ideas Network of Wisconsin Public Radio

Public Radio Show about Presidential Transitions

Newspaper Quotes:

(2024) Austin Chronicle

Donald Trump Relies on Eugenics Concepts, UT Prof Argues in New Book

(2024) On Point

August 16, 2024

(2024) The Guardian

About presidential running mates

(2024) USA Today

Verdict for Donald Trump

(2024) Austin Chronicle

Biden’s Headed to Austin, and Doggett Still Thinks He Should Drop Out

(2024) Pravda (Slovakia)

Interview

(2024) World News Group

Interview

(2024) USA Today

Biden Dropping Out

(2024) Japan Times

Foreign Policy

(2024) La Presse

Presidential Election

(2023) CNN

Fact Check on the Presidential Records Act

(2023) Amader Shomoy

(in Bengali)-translated from English “Reality Check: An America Led by Trump in Jail.”

(2023) Real Clear Politics

Longshots in Politics

(2023) Washington Post

About Presidential Libraries

(2022) La Presse, Montreal

translated

(2021) Newsweek

Article I was quoted in

(2021) The Washington Post

A newspaper article discussing Biden moving forward with America

(2021) Efe News

Article about the Trump administration moving towards Biden's administration

(2021) El Mercurio

December 9, 2021 (translated)

(2021) Voice of America

November 9, 2021 About Trump suing the National Archives

(2021) Voice of America

November 9, 2021 About the National Archives in general

(2021) El Mercurio

November 6, 2021 (translated)

(2021) Efe News

November 3, 2021 (translated)

(2021) Efe News

November 3, 2021 (translated)

(2021) Aftonbladet

October 21, 2021 (translated)

(2021) Voice of America

September 15, 2021 California Governor Recall

(2020) Austin American Statemen, San Antonio Express, Abilene Reporter News, UT News

Opinion Piece: Trump Portrays Both Confident Hero and Aggrieved Victim

(2020) Newsdesk

What happens if President Donald Trump catches a coronavirus?

(2020) Newsweek

What Happens if President Donald Trump Catches Coronavirus?

(2020) Los Angeles Times

As leaders spar over homelessness in Austin, California becomes a punching bag

(2020) The Globe and Mail

Newspaper article about the presidential debate

(2020) The Globe and Mail

Article about the Presidential Debates

(2019) Voice of America

Quote from an interview they conducted with me about the presidency

(2019) El Paso Times

El Paso Times asked me about Beto O'Rourke's viability as a presidential hopeful

Blog Posts:

(2024) UT Liberal Arts, Extra Credit Substack

The Aims of a Presidential Assassin. August 14, 2024

Other:

(2024) The Conversation

All politicians change their minds-and have been flip-flopping on positions for hundreds of years.” August 26.

(2024) The Conversation

Trump’s Second Assassination Attempt is Shocking, but attempts on presidents’ lives are not rare in US history. September 17.

(2024) The Conversation

Biden isn’t the first to struggle to pop the presidential bubble that divides him from the public

(2024) The Conversation

From a pig as political candidate to a breakout speech for Obama- Democratic National Convention often leaves its mark on history

(2023) The Conversation

Manhattan grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump, showing he, like all other presidents, is not an imperial king

(2023) The Conversation

Mike Pence is jockeying against Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination- joining the ranks of just one vice president who, in 1800, also ran against a former boss

(2023) The Conversation

A Brief History of Colorful Presidential Relatives, from Alice Roosevelt to Hunter Biden

(2022) The Conversation

Remembering the veterans who marched on DC to demand bonuses during the Depression, only to be violently driving out by active-duty soldiers

(2022) The Conversation

Article written about search at Mar-a-Lago

(2022) The Conversation

Piece about search at Mar-a-Lago

(2022) The Conversation

Article about the Bonus Army in the Hoover Administration (and the controversy)

(2021) The Great Battlefield Podcast

“Trump and Professional Wrestling with Shannon Bow O’Brien of the University of Texas at Austin,” Episode 559 http://www.resistancedashboard.com/node/818

(2021) Headline

Interview with Headline for Brazil

(2021) Fonte BR

Media appearance discussion Biden's outreach towards American conservatives

(2021) The Conversation

April 14, 2021 I wrote an article discussing how Donald Trump did not give the bulk of his political speeches to the National Archives for inclusion in the Public Papers of the President.

(2021) The Conversation

October 22, 2021 Trump wants the National Archives to keep his papers away from investigators – post-Watergate laws and executive orders may not let him

(2020) Political Science Now, APSA Raise the Vote

Opinion Piece: What to Expect When You’re Electing

(2020) Life and Letters, “2020 Vision: Examining Some of the Country’s Big Issues”

The University of Texas, College of Liberal Arts Magazine October 2020

(2019) Talking Politics KBIA

The commentator saw my paper presentation at the Midwest Political Science convention in April 2019 and did a short radio segment about it.

(2017) Springer Nature Podcast

Podcast about how I got into academia