Alisse Portnoy is the author of Their Right to Speak: Women's Activism in the Indian and Slave Debates (Harvard University Press, 2005) and several essays on women's nineteenth century petitioning in the United States. Locating herself in rhetorical studies, Portnoy focuses on intersections of language and power in her scholarship and teaching, in texts which include civil rights activism, mainstream literature and film, and that which we encounter in the every day. She has been awarded funding to support her teaching and diversity initiatives and received the University of Michigan's Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award in 2017.