Michael Butterworth

Dr. Michael L. Butterworth (Ph.D., Indiana University) is the Governor Ann W. Richards Chair for the Texas Program in Sports and Media, Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, and Director of the Center for Sports Communication & Media at The University of Texas at Austin. His research explores the connections between rhetoric, democracy, and sport, with particular interests in national identity, militarism, and public memory. His books include Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity during the War on Terror; Communication and Sport: Surveying the Field; Sport and Militarism: Contemporary Global Perspectives; Rhetoric, Sport, and Political Struggle; and the Handbook on Communication and Sport. Dr. Butterworth’s essays have appeared in journals such as Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies; Communication & Sport, Critical Studies in Media Communication, theInternational Review for the Sociology of Sport, the Journal of Communication, the Quarterly Journal of Speech, and Rhetoric & Public Affairs. He earned his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Public Culture at Indiana University-Bloomington, and has an M.A. in Communication and a B.A. in Political Science from Northern Illinois University. He is an avid Chicago Cubs fan and can easily be distracted with conversations about sports, politics, and music.