Articles & Book Chapters
Peer-reviewed articles and chapter contributions from CARP scholars—…
Keohane, J., Icks, M., Shiraev, E., & Samoilenko, S. (2025). Character Assassination in Politics: Gendered and Racialized Attacks on Kamala Harris. Wiley Handbook of Social and Political Conflict, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley/Blackwell, pp. 281–291.
An intersectional analysis of how misogynistic tropes and racialized frames are weaponized to undermine Vice President Harris’s credibility and authenticity—linking modern smear tactics to broader patterns of reputational warfare.
Samoilenko, S. A., & Cook, J. (2024). Developing a critical response to ad hominem attacks against climate science. American Behavioral Scientist. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241240352
Maps how personal attacks on scientists distort climate discourse and proposes a framework to analyze and counter ad hominem strategies across media.
Samoilenko, S. A., & Cook, J. (2024). Developing an ad hominem typology for classifying climate misinformation. Climate Policy, 24(1), 138-151. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2023.2245792
Introduces a comprehensive typology of ad hominem attacks used to discredit climate science, giving researchers and policymakers a practical schema to identify and counter denialist rhetoric.
Icks, M. (2024). The many deaths of Domitian: Scandal and image destruction in Imperial Rome. In Scandalogy 4 (pp. 125–137). Springer Nature Switzerland.
A study of how scandal erased a ruler’s legacy—tracing posthumous smear campaigns and propaganda with striking parallels to contemporary politics.
Keohane, J. (2024). Cancel Culture Rhetoric and Moral Conflict in Contemporary Democratic Societies. American Behavioral Scientist. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642241240337
Shows how public “calling out” can transform accountability into polarized moral conflict, with consequences for democratic discourse.
Keohane, J. (2024). Holding out for a Hero: The rhetorical battle over the National Garden of American Heroes. In Scandalogy 4 (pp. 109–123). Springer Nature Switzerland.
Analyzes how memorialization, symbolism, and partisan identity collide in a high-profile debate about national heroes.
Samoilenko, S. A., & Jasper, J. M. (2023). The implications of character assassination and cancel culture for public relations theory. In Public Relations Theory III (pp. 452–469). Routledge.
A fresh framework showing how PR must anticipate and counter reputational warfare amid instant outrage and viral scandal.
Samoilenko, S. A., & Langley, Q. (2023). Character assassination and brandjacking in digital corporate communication. In Handbook of Digital Corporate Communication (pp. 222–236). Edward Elgar.
Explores how reputational attacks morph into “brandjacking,” and outlines strategies to reclaim brand narratives online.
Samoilenko, S. A., Eremina, A., & Gumensky, A. (2023). Cancel culture and novaya etika in Russian public discourse. In Internet in the Post-Soviet Area (pp. 71–87). Springer.
Examines the rise of online moral policing and media-driven accountability in contemporary Russian digital culture.
Icks, M., & Shiraev, E. (2021). Having the last laugh: Scandalous character assassination in comedy. In Scandology 3 (pp. 135–149). Springer Nature Switzerland.
From Athenian theater to U.S. late-night shows—how humor exposes and weaponizes reputations.
Keohane, J. (2021). On display eight hours a day. Peitho, 23(2).
How Cold-War era publications feminized and racialized clerical labor, aligning it with U.S. geopolitical interests.
Hagen, E., & Icks, M. (2021). Inleiding. Karaktermoord is een tijdloos wapen. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 134(2), 187–200.
An engaging introduction showing how character assassination shapes power struggles across centuries.
Shiraev, E. (2021). Fake news for the American Revolution. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 134(2), 254–267.
On forged letters against George Washington—an early case of political disinformation and character attack.
Samoilenko, S. A. (2021). The cocreational view of character assassination. In The Handbook of Strategic Communication (pp. 76–90). Wiley.
Reframes character attacks as interactive processes co-created by attackers, targets, audiences, and media.
Samoilenko, S. A. (2021). The applied social theory of character assassination. Journal of Applied Social Theory, 1(3), 1–6.
Samoilenko, S. A. (2021). Character assassination: The sociocultural perspective. Journal of Applied Social Theory, 1(3), 186–205.
Icks, M. (2020). Poisoned Ink: Character Assassination of Roman Emperors. Ancient History Magazine, 28, 18–23.
How posthumous defamation reshaped imperial legacies through histories, biographies and public discourse.
Icks, M., & Shiraev, E. (2020). Character assassination and scandalogy. In Scandalogy 2 (pp. 104–123). Halem.
Samoilenko, S. A., & Karnysheva, M. (2020). Character assassination as modus operandi of Soviet propaganda. In The Sage Handbook of Propaganda. Sage.
Samoilenko, S. A., & Laruelle, M. (2020). Character assassination as strategic communication in EU-Russia relations. In Strategic Communication in EU-Russia Relations (pp. 135–160). Palgrave.
Shiraev, E., & Mölder, H. (2020). Global Knowledge Warfare. The Cypher Brief. link
Keohane, J. (2020). The rhetorical and ethical implications of character assassination in the age of McCarthy. In Routledge Handbook of Character Assassination and Reputation Management (pp. 269–281).
Icks, M., Shiraev, E., Keohane, J., & Samoilenko, S. A. (2020). Character assassination: Theoretical framework. In Routledge Handbook… (pp. 11–24).
Icks, M. (2020). Agrippina, Theodora and Fredegund as evil empresses. In Routledge Handbook… (pp. 183–195).
Samoilenko, S. A. (2020). Character assassination in the context of mediated complexity. In The Global PR Handbook (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Samoilenko, S. A. (2020). Character assassination as a structurational phenomenon. In Routledge Handbook… (pp. 45–62).
Shiraev, E., & Makhovskaya, O. (2020). Traumatic psychological impact of character attacks. In Routledge Handbook… (pp. 36–44).
Shiraev, E. (2020). Cross-cultural comparisons of character assassination. In Routledge Handbook… (pp. 63–72).
Icks, M., & Shiraev, E. (2019). Character assassination in Ancient Rome. The Journal of Psychohistory, 46(4), 270–289.
Samoilenko, S. A., Icks, M., Shiraev, E., & Keohane, J. (2018). Character assassination. In The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality (Vol. 2, pp. 441–445). UCL Press.
Icks, M. (2017). The “vices and follies” of Elagabalus. In Varian Studies, Vol. 3 (pp. 185–204). Cambridge Scholars.
Icks, M. (2017). Turning victory into defeat. In Der römische Triumph in Prinzipat und Spätantike (pp. 317–333). De Gruyter.
Samoilenko, S. A., Erzikova, E., Davydov, S., & Laskin, A. (2017). Different media, same messages. International Communication Research Journal, 52(2), 31–55.