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Meredith Neville Shepherd, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication
Meredith Neville Shepherd, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies, examines advocacy for women’s sports in relation to uniform regulations in a paper funded by the UW Communication Research Center. Specifically, Neville Shepherd examines the controversy surrounding sexist dress standards, which have emerged as a hot-button issue. It will be in the headlines and on social media during the 2020 Olympics (held in 2021 due to COVID-19).
Her article, titled “Uniform Choice: Resilient Feminism and Rhetoric Around the 2020 Olympic ‘Panty War,'” argues that the language of personal choice is rhetorically effective but politically restrictive. It reveals how it was organized. This essay is published in Feminist Media Studies, an interdisciplinary and transnational outlet that currently ranks among the top journals in feminism and women’s studies, according to Google Scholar’s citation metrics.
In addition to funding from the Center for Communication Research, Neville-Shepard’s research on this topic also received grant support from the Institute for Research on Gender and Communication. An earlier version of her published essay was featured on the Feminist and Gender Studies Top Papers panel at the 2023 National Communication Association Conference. The conference, held in National Harbor, Maryland, attracted more than 4,000 communication scholars from across the United States.
Neville-Shepard joined the University of Arkansas faculty in 2016 and was promoted to tenure track in 2023. Her research fuses rhetorical methods, cultural theory, and feminist perspectives to examine popular culture and mediated political discourse. In addition to Feminist Media Studies, her peer-reviewed journal articles can be found in top-ranked outlets such as Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Women’s Studies in Communication, and American Behavioral Scientist. Her work has been recognized with awards from the National Communication Association, the American Forensic Association, and the Southern States Communication Association.
About the Communication Research Center: The Communication Research Center fosters collaborative, interdisciplinary social research within the University of Arkansas, the Northwest Arkansas region, and the broader intellectual community. Towards this end, CCR strives to foster and support interdisciplinary collaboration. Provide opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to participate. Collaborate with local, state, and national funding agencies. Obtain and maintain equipment necessary to support research activities. CCR maintains laboratory space equipped with cutting-edge technology to study all aspects of communication.
