Rate My Professor Jeremiah Hickey

Jeremiah Hickey is an Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Communication Studies at St. John's University within the St. John's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He holds a B.A. in Communication/Journalism from St. John Fisher College (2001), an M.A. from Texas A&M University (2004), and a Ph.D. from the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University (2008). Hickey joined St. John's University as Assistant Professor in the Department of Rhetoric, Communication, and Theatre in 2009 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2015. His teaching interests center on the connection between public address and political philosophy, particularly regarding the development and maintenance of democratic society. He teaches courses on the First Amendment and civil society, rhetoric of social movements, political communication, rhetorical history and theory, public speaking, and argumentation and debate.

Hickey's research specializations encompass legal rhetoric, rhetorical theory, social movements, violence, and rhetoric and public culture. Key publications include "Death by Adjective: The Supreme Court’s Attack on Legislative Regulations of Violence, or, How Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia Stopped Worrying about Symbolic Violence by Employing Aesthetic Claims to Limit Legislative Restrictions on Violence" (2013, First Amendment Studies), "Exempting the University: Trigger Warnings and Intellectual Space" (2016, First Amendment Studies), "On Philosophy in American Law" (2010, Rhetoric and Public Affairs), "David Riesman and First Amendment Jurisprudence: From the ‘Power of the State,’ to ‘Protection of Autonomy’ to ‘Intent to Intimidate’" (2006, Free Speech Yearbook), and "The Past Must Not Be the Present: Legislative Supremacy and Judicial Duty in the Insular Cases" (2013, South Central Review). He earned recognition from the National Communication Association's Communication and Law Division for his paper "Visions of Democracy: Partisanship, Race, Self-Government, and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation." Hickey serves as faculty advisor for the Epsilon Delta chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the National Communication Association honor society, participates in the University Assessment Committee, and was elected Secretary of the Assessment Committee for St. John's University Liberal Arts Faculty Council (2014–2016).