Professor of Communication, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. John Murphy studies the history of American Public Address and political rhetoric. He's interested in just how political languages collide and influence each other over the course of U.S. history. He's written on John and Robert Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, Martin Luther King. Jr., George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. His scholarly work has appeared in journals such as Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Quarterly Journal of Speech, and American Literary History. His commentary on the presidency, presidential speechmaking, and rhetoric regularly appears in popular media outlets such as The Washington Post, the New York Times, WGN, and USA Today. His most recent book is "John F. Kennedy and the Liberal Persuasion," on the presidential speeches of John F. Kennedy and the American liberal tradition. Experience –present Associate Professor of Communication, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign