Constance Gordon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at San Francisco State University. She is a core faculty member in SF State's Climate HQ and the Climate Justice Leaders Initiative. She currently serves as the Art Director for Cultural Studies and is on the Editorial Board for Environmental Communication.
Gordon’s transdisciplinary research broadly addresses the critical rhetoric and organizing practices of food and ecological justice movements as they generate intersectional political critique, facilitate mutual aid, and build alliances across geographies. She is especially interested in organizing as a space of theory-building and informal learning. Her solo and collaborative research has been published in venues like Environmental Communication, Cultural Studies, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Journal of Applied Communication Research, and Frontiers in Communication, as well as edited volumes like The International Handbook of Trends in Environmental Communication, The Rhetoric of Social Movements: Networks, Power, and New Media, and Organizing Eating: Communicating for Equity Across U.S. Food Systems. She is a co-author of the textbook Rhetorical Histories of Social Movements in the U.S. (Cognella, 2025).
Gordon has interdisciplinary training across the humanities and social sciences, with a Ph.D. and M.A. in Communication (Rhetoric & Culture) from the University of Colorado Boulder where she also received Graduate Certificates in Development Studies (Department of Geography) and Ethnic Studies (Department of Ethnic Studies). She received her B.A. in International Relations from San Francisco State University.
Recent Publications
Cloud, D., Cherney, J. L., Cisneros, J. D., Gordon, C., Hill, T., Hoerl, K. E., & Triece, M. E. (2025). Rhetorical histories of social movements in the U.S. (San Diego, CA: Cognella Press). Also see chapter 10: "Rhetorical Histories of U.S. Ecological and Environmental Justice Movements"
Gordon, C., Cram, E, Na'puti, T. (2024). Powermapping "Stop Cop City": Abolition ecology for possibilities beyond enclosure. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 110(4), 576-602.
Gordon, C. (2024). Rhetorical powermapping: Converging solidarities for translocal ecological justice. In N. Crick (Ed.), Routledge handbook of rhetoric and power (pp. 443-458). New York, NY: Routledge.
Gordon, C. (2024). Learning mutual aid: Food justice public pedagogy and community fridge organizing online. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 52(2), 158-178.
Gordon, C. (2024). Criminalizing care: Environmental justice under political and police repression. Environmental Communication, 18(1-2), 138-145.
Gordon, C. (2023). Communicative considerations for urban food governance: Toward food privilege or food justice in Denver, Colorado. In S. Dempsey (Ed.), Organizing eating: Communicating for equity across U.S. food systems (pp. 114-138). New York, NY: Routledge.
Gordon, C., Hunt, K. P. & Dutta, M. J. (2022). Editorial: Food systems communication amid compounding crises: Power, resistance, and change. Front. Commun. 7:1041473. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2022.1041474.
Gordon, C. & Hunt, K. P. (2021). Communicating power and resistance in the global food system: Emerging trends in environmental communication. In B. Takahashi, J. Metag, J. Thaker, & S. Comfort (Eds.), The handbook of international trends in environmental communication (pp. 115-131). New York, NY: Routledge.
Gordon, C. & Byron, K. (2021). Sweeping the city: Infrastructure, informality, and the politics of maintenance. Cultural Studies, 35(4-5), 854-875.
Gordon, C., Pezzullo, P. C., & Gabrieloff-Parish, M. (2021). Food justice advocacy tours: Remapping rooted, regenerative relationships through Denver’s "Planting Just Seeds." In N. Crick (Ed.), The rhetoric of social movements: Networks, power, and new media (pp. 299-316). New York, NY: Routledge.
McGreavy, B., Kelley, S., Ludden, J., Card, D., Cogbill-Seiders, E., Derek, I., Gordon, C., Haynal, K., Krzus-Shaw, K. Parks, M. M., Petts, A., Ross, D. G., Walker, K. (2020). "No(t) camping": Engaging the intersections of housing, transportation, and environmental justice through critical praxis. Review of Communication, 20(2), 119-127.
Gordon, C. & Hunt, K. P. (2019). Reform, justice, and sovereignty: A food systems agenda for environmental communication. Environmental Communication, 13(1), 9-22.
Courses Taught at San Francisco State University
Graduate
- COMM 700: Introduction to Graduate Study
- COMM 744: Seminar in Environmental Communication
- COMM 760: Seminar in Organizational Communication
- COMM 899: Directed Readings (Critical Organizational Communication & Contemporary Capitalism)
Undergraduate
- COMM 675/ENVS 675: Climate Ambassadors Practicum
- COMM 572: Communication and Environmental Justice (formerly Rhetoric of Ecology)
- COMM 348GW: Writing About Communication and Environmental Justice (formerly Writing About Environmental Rhetoric)
- COMM 522: Organizational Communication
- COMM 537: Leadership Communication
- COMM 670: Seminar in Communication Studies
- COMM 150: Fundamentals of Oral Communication
