Overview
As a positive value and phenomenon, transnationalism highlights the potential for increased connection and movement of peoples, ideas, values, or goods across national borders. As a phenomenon, transnationalism raises numerous questions for rhetoric and writing studies and has energized new lines of inquiry. Rhetoric can be used to obfuscate global capitalist forces or promote coalitional possibilities; rhetoric can be used to deny (im)mobility and precariousness facing peoples, celebrate intellectual tourism, or call forth a global citizen who has rhetorical skills commensurate with an increasingly transnational world and networks of (dis)association.
Because rhetoric, ethics, and pedagogy have a long history of being bound to one another, we will explore questions related to these terms separately and together. So, in this seminar we will explore the trans and national in transnational rhetoric as well as the impact of each on the imaginaries, exigencies, and ethical responsibilities of the rhetor/rhetorician and educator. A number of questions will guide our explorations of transnational rhetoric:
- Why is there a call for a global and transnational turn in rhetoric and writing studies?
- What are the features and goals of this turn?
- What theoretical frameworks inform/pave the road for this turn? What theoretical and analytical frameworks are developed to realize these goals?
- What would a geopolitical or transnational approach to rhetoric and writing studies look like?
- What are the relations between language policies/writing models and a transnational orientation? How and why do writers develop and maintain local and transnational connections at one and the same time?
These questions will help us grapple with this complex entity named transnational rhetoric and attend to recurring questions about the rhetorics of encounter and knowing the other, rhetorics of power and representation, and rhetorics of (im)mobility and (dis)location.
Potential Reading
- A Course Reader: May include articles and chapters like:
Jacqui M. Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s "Cartographies of Knowledge and Power," Vanessa Andreotti’s "An Ethical Engagement with the Other," Paolo Boccagni’s "Rethinking Transnational Studies," Kenneth Burke’s work on Identification from A Rhetoric of Motives, Diana Brydon’s "Critical Literacies for Globalizing Times," Sylvanna M.Falcón and Jennifer C. Nash’s "Shifting Analytics and Linking Theories," Thomas Faist’s “Towards Transnational Studies,” Wendy Hesford’s “Global Turns and Cautions in Rhetoric and Composition Studies,” Breny Mendoza’s "Transnational Feminisms in Question," Chandra Mohanty’s "Transnational Feminist Crossings," Saskia Sassen’s “Local Actors in Global Politics,” Shu-Mei Shih’s "Towards an Ethics of Transnational Encounters," Raka Shome’s "Transnational Feminism and Communication Studies," Lynda Walsh’s "Accountability: Towards a Definition of Hybridity for Scholars of Transnational Rhetorics," Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s "Diasporas Old and New: Women in the Transnational World" and "Setting to Work (Transnational Cultural Studies),"and Bo Wang’s "Comparative Rhetoric, Postcolonial Studies, and Transnational Feminisms."
- Books/Journal Special Issues: May include:
Aikam, Hokulani K., Maile Arvin, Mishuana Goeman, and Scott Morgensen. “Indigenous Feminisms Roundtable.” Spec. issue on Transnational Feminisms. Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 36. 3 (2015): 84-106.
Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Aunt Lute Books, 1987.
Canagarajah, A. Suresh, ed. Literacy as Translingual Practice: Between Communities and Classrooms. Routledge, 2013.
Dingo, Rebecca A., Networking Arguments: Rhetoric, Transnational Feminism, and Public Policy Writing. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012.
Dingo, Rebecca, Rachel Riedner, and Jennifer Wingard. Spec. issue on “Transnational Feminisms.” JAC, vol.33, no.3/4, 2013, pp.517-669.
Grewal, Inderpal. Transnational America: Feminisms, Diasporas, Neoliberalisms. Duke University Press, 2005.
Hesford, Wendy S., and Eileen E. Schell. Spec. issue on “Transnational Feminist Rhetorics.” College English, vol.70, no.5, 2008, pp. 461-540.
Swarr, Amanda Lock, and Richa Nagar, eds. Critical Transnational Feminist Praxis. State University of New York Press, 2012.
Pedwell, Carolyn. Affective Relations: The Transnational Politics of Empathy. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Requirements
Besides regular attendance and reflective engagement, you will be expected to
- Lead class discussion,
- Present a book report (Reading list will be provided),
- Develop a conference proposal (You will choose a conference relevant to your area of study), and
- Write a seminar paper: You will develop your conference proposal into a researched, seminar-length paper to be handed in by the end of the semester. During the semester, research reports, exchange of early drafts, and conferences with me will provide opportunities to share ideas and to get feedback.