Professor, and public speaking coordinator, in the Communication & Media Studies Department.

Assistant Dean for the School of Arts & Sciences.

Fall 2023
- class schedule:
  - Monday 3-5:30 COM320 Organizational Communication
  - Tuesday 3-5:30 COM300 Interpersonal Communication
  - Tuesday/Thursday 1:15-2:30 COM100 Human Communication
- office hours (VanHoesen B125-G):
  - Monday 12:30-1
  - Tuesday 12:30-1:15, 2:30-3
  - Wednesday 12:30-2:15
  - Thursday 12:15-1:15

ℹ️ Info for Advisees

🎤 PRES Info for Instructors/Administration

Dr. Knopf earned her Ph.D. from the University at Albany (2005), concentrating in cultural sociology and political communication, with a research specialization in rhetorical criticism. Her dissertation was a study of “Providence, Presidents, and the Press: Inaugural Rhetoric of Religion in a Historical Perspective.” She also earned her MA in political communication from the University at Albany (2001). Her thesis, “Power Plays by the Powerless: A Study of Attempted Diffusion of Innovative Reforms by the New York Assembly Minority Conference,” was based on a graduate practicum with the New York State Assembly. She earned her BA majoring in public relations and minoring in journalism from SUNY New Paltz (2000), and an AA in liberal arts concentrating in social science from Finger Lakes Community College (1998). Additionally, she earned a Certificate of Advanced Study in Healthcare Management from SUNY Empire State University in 2023. Her education has provided a solid foundation in the humanities, social science, and business approaches to, and traditions in, communication studies.

She came to SUNY Cortland in August 2017 from SUNY Potsdam, where she was part of the Department of English & Communication and affiliate faculty to Women’s & Gender Studies and to Africana Studies, and served as Oral Skills Coordinator for the General Education Committee, since 2006. Dr. Knopf has also taught at Monroe Community College, Genesee Community College, the University at Albany, and the College of St. Rose. She has been teaching college classes since 2001 – though her teaching career started in the mid-1990s with summer jobs as a French tutor and swimming instructor.

Her career is invested in rhetorical and communication studies. She is committed to developing undergraduates’ critical thinking, visual, written, oral, and aural skills, and to encouraging new generations of knowledge-producers through graduate study. She has taught more than 30 distinct courses at the 100- (first-year) through 600- (graduate) levels in communication, rhetoric, discourse studies, and media studies.

As an instructor, Dr. Knopf is a speech/human communication generalist, with strengths in political rhetoric and public address. As a scholar, she focuses on rhetoric of the popular arts, with particular interests in politainment and banal militarism and eye toward representation and democracy.

Prior to entering higher education full time, she earned experience in technical writing, web design, photojournalism, public relations, political campaigning, and government research.

Dr. Knopf is a Wilson Scholar of the New York State Communication Association, a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Eastern Communication Association, a 2020 recipient of the Eastern Communication Association Past Officers’ Award, a 2017 recipient of the Finger Lakes Community College Outstanding Humanities Alumni Achievement Award, a 2017 recipient of the SUNY Potsdam President’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, and a 2017 inductee of Phi Kappa Phi. She was a recipient of the 2023 Lucy Shelton Caswell Research Award from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. And, she has earned “top paper” recognitions from the Political Communication Interest Group of ECA in 2023, 2022, 2020, 2019, and 2016.

She is a co-editor of the Routledge Advances in Comics Studies series and currently serves on the editorial board of the Home Front Studies journal. She is also a standing peer reviewer for the Popular Culture Studies Journal and Comics Grid journal.

Dr. Knopf is an active participant and leader in the National Communication Association, Eastern Communication Association, and New York State Communication Association. She is also a member of the Comics Studies Society and the Rhetoric Society of America. She is a past member of the American Sociological Association, the American Political Science Association, the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.

Learn more by viewing her academic portfolio here.

updated 3 September 2023