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

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 research looks at the impact of eugenical thought upon American Politics.

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 most recent 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.  

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:

(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:

(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:

(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:

(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:

(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

Other:

(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