Rasha Diab

In this course, we will examine how rhetoric has been theorized, taught, practiced and revisited. Throughout its history, different voices have shaped what rhetoric is and its function in a community. At times, these different understandings of rhetoric expanded and at others narrowed rhetorical territory. Moreover, social, political, intellectual, historical changes can facilitate and mandate a revision and a retelling of rhetoric.

In this course, we will revisit and critically engage the contribution of key figures exemplifying rhetoric in antiquity; medieval; renaissance; enlightenment periods. We will also explore modern times, needs and challenges, studying how the work of, for example, Kenneth Burke, Chaim Perelman, Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, Jacquline Royster and others impact our conception of rhetoric today.

Focusing on how rhetoric is revisited and retold, we will explore some influential revisions of rhetoric. These revisions continue to expand rhetoric’s territory beyond that conceived in antiquity. We will investigate revisions that uncovered women’s rhetorical contributions (Royster; Glenn); different rhetorical traditions; the intersections of culture, race, nation, etc. and rhetoric. For example, we will explore how scholars continue to shed light on the nuances of rhetoric especially when it intersects with facets of our experiential, relational and material lives including culture, ability, race, etc.

Assignments and Grading

Students’ performance will be assessed based on an achievement rubric detailed at the beginning of the semester.   

Major assignments will include:

• Two researched, peer reviewed, and substantially revised research papers
• Short assignments
• Participation (class participation, oral report/leading class discussion/individual or group presentation)
• Attendance (attendance policy detailed at the beginning of the semester)

Required Texts and Course Readings

• A history of rhetoric book
• A course reader including selections from Cheryl Glenn’ s Rhetoric Retold, Andrea Lunsford’s Reclaiming Rhetorica, Molly Wertheimer’s Listening to Their Voices, Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s Ancient Non-Greek Rhetoric and Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks.

Very often we invoke peace as a desirable state of being and of the world. But, what is peace? What does it take to be peaceful? To what extent does our criticism of violence help us get closer to peace? What does peace have to do with rhetoric? We will use these questions to begin our explorations of the rhetoric of peacemaking. The discipline of rhetoric has an enduring investment in countering injustice and pursuing justice and peace.

In this course, we will explore this enduring investment. In specific terms, we will study the (1) relation between rhetoric, violence, and peacemaking, (2) ways in which our rhetorical practices can cause/exacerbate conflict or guide us to peacemaking, and (3) rhetorical choices, practices and stances that are consistent with developing peaceful communication styles. 

As we reflect on the rhetoric of peacemaking, we will read scholarship on the rhetoric of nonviolence, reconciliation, and (human) rights. We will also read/read about illustrative speeches, texts, and rhetorical practices that critique injustice and advocate for justice and peace.

Major Assignments and Grading

• Two researched and substantially revised papers: 60% (30% each)
• Two presentations: summarizing research undertaken and major findings: 10% (5% each)
• Participation & Short Writing Assignments: class participation/leading class discussions, responses to freewriting prompts, and/or short writing assignments: 20%
• Portfolio: comprises a revised research paper and another short writing 10%

Required Texts

A packet of readings, which will include:

• Chapters/Articles written like Erik Doxtader’s “Reconciliation—A Rhetorical Conception” or With Faith in the Works of Words: The Beginnings of Reconciliation in South Africa 1985-1995; Ellen Gorsevski’s Peaceful Persuasion: The Geopolitics of Nonviolent Communication; John P. Lederach’s The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace; and James J. Kimble “John F. Kennedy, the Construction of Peace, and the Pitfalls of Androgynous Rhetoric.”

Speeches/Texts written by politicians like John F. Kennedy’s “The Strategy of Peace,” national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi’s speech on the eve of the last fast and Martin L. King’s “I have a Dream”, and recognized activists like Rigoberta Menchú’s I, Rigoberta Menchú

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.

Very often we invoke peace as a desirable state of being and of the world. But, what is peace? What does it take to be peaceful? To what extent does our criticism of violence help us get closer to peace? What does peace have to do with rhetoric? We will use these questions to begin our explorations of the rhetoric of peacemaking. The discipline of rhetoric has an enduring investment in countering injustice and pursuing justice and peace.

In this course, we will explore this enduring investment. In specific terms, we will study the (1) relation between rhetoric, violence, and peacemaking, (2) ways in which our rhetorical practices can cause/exacerbate conflict or guide us to peacemaking, and (3) rhetorical choices, practices and stances that are consistent with developing peaceful communication styles.

As we reflect on the rhetoric of peacemaking, we will read scholarship on the rhetoric of nonviolence, reconciliation, and (human) rights. We will also read/read about illustrative speeches, texts, and rhetorical practices that critique injustice and advocate for justice and peace.

Major Assignments and Grading

• Two researched and substantially revised papers: 60% (30% each)
• Two presentations: summarizing research undertaken and major findings: 10% (5% each)
• Participation & Short Writing Assignments: class participation/leading class discussions, responses to freewriting prompts, and/or short writing assignments: 20%
• Portfolio: comprises a revised research paper and another short writing 10%

Required Texts

A packet of readings,which will include:

• Chapters/Articles written like Erik Doxtader’s “Reconciliation—A Rhetorical Conception” or With Faith in the Works of Words: The Beginnings of Reconciliation in South Africa 1985-1995; Ellen Gorsevski’s Peaceful Persuasion: The Geopolitics of Nonviolent Communication; John P. Lederach’s The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace; and James J. Kimble “John F. Kennedy, the Construction of Peace, and the Pitfalls of Androgynous Rhetoric.”
• Speeches/Texts written by politicians like John F. Kennedy’s “The Strategy of Peace,” national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi’s speech on the eve of the last fast and Martin L. King’s “I have a Dream”, and recognized activists like Rigoberta Menchú’s I, Rigoberta Menchú, 

In this course, we will examine how rhetoric has been theorized, taught, practiced and revisited. Throughout its history, different voices have shaped what rhetoric is and its function in a community. At times, these different understandings of rhetoric expanded and at others narrowed rhetorical territory. Moreover, social, political, intellectual, historical changes can facilitate and mandate a revision and a retelling of rhetoric.

In this course, we will revisit and critically engage the contribution of key figures exemplifying rhetoric in antiquity; medieval; renaissance; enlightenment periods. We will also explore modern times, needs and challenges, studying how the work of, for example, Kenneth Burke, Chaim Perelman, Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, Jacquline Royster and others impact our conception of rhetoric today.

Focusing on how rhetoric is revisited and retold, we will explore some influential revisions of rhetoric. These revisions continue to expand rhetoric’s territory beyond that conceived in antiquity. We will investigate revisions that uncovered women’s rhetorical contributions (Royster; Glenn); different rhetorical traditions; the intersections of culture, race, nation, etc. and rhetoric. For example, we will explore how scholars continue to shed light on the nuances of rhetoric especially when it intersects with facets of our experiential, relational and material lives including culture, ability, race, etc.

Assignments and Grading

Students’ performance will be assessed based on an achievement rubric detailed at the beginning of the semester.   

Major assignments will include:

-       Two researched, peer reviewed, and substantially revised research papers

-       Short assignments

-       Participation (class participation, oral report/leading class discussion/individual or group presentation)

-       Attendance (attendance policy detailed at the beginning of the semester) 

Required Texts and Course Readings

• A history of rhetoric book
• A course reader including selections from Cheryl Glenn’ s Rhetoric Retold, Andrea Lunsford’s Reclaiming Rhetorica, Molly Wertheimer’s Listening to Their Voices, Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s Ancient Non-Greek Rhetoric and Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks.

What does culture have to do with rhetoric? This question taps into a crucial force that impacts rhetorical practices and scholarship, and this intersection of rhetoric and culture has attracted the attention of scholars especially since second half of the 21^st century, resulting in the development of comparative rhetoric. In this course we will study the conception, development and practice of rhetoric in different and mainly non-Western cultural traditions. For example, we will survey research on rhetorical traditions like ancient Indian, Egyptian, and Rhodian, demonstrating how they predate, relate to and differ from those in Greece and Rome. We will also discuss the objectives, achievement, and potential of research in comparative rhetoric as well as challenges posed by this kind of research. 

Course Requirements, Assignment and Grade Distribution

Class Activities and Discussions (20%)

- Participating in and/or leading class discussion

- Peer review workshops

- Oral report/presentation of research

- Short Assignments

Short Papers (20%)

- Writing five short response/reflection papers to further explore and engage topics and questions addressed in class.

Two Research Papers (30% each)

- Further explore and reflect on issues raised by the course drawing on outside research.  Both papers will involve producing multiple drafts.

More detailed instructions, expectations and grading criterion will be provided at the beginning of the semester, and might be modified based on students’ performance.

Attendance

Attendance policy will be detailed at the beginning of the semester.

Potential Texts

- Selections from George Kennedy’s Comparative rhetoric (1998)

- Selections from Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s two edited collections titled Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks (2004)and Ancient Non-Greek Rhetorics (2009)

- Packet of readings

In this course, we will examine how rhetoric has been theorized, taught, practiced and revisited. Throughout its history, different voices have shaped what rhetoric is and its function in a community. At times, these different understandings of rhetoric expanded and at others narrowed rhetorical territory. Moreover, social, political, intellectual, historical changes can facilitate and mandate a revision and a retelling of rhetoric.

In this course, we will revisit and critically engage the contribution of key figures exemplifying rhetoric in antiquity; medieval; renaissance; enlightenment periods. We will also explore modern times, needs and challenges, studying how the work of, for example, Kenneth Burke, Chaim Perelman, Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, Jacquline Royster and others impact our conception of rhetoric today.

Focusing on how rhetoric is revisited and retold, we will explore some influential revisions of rhetoric. These revisions continue to expand rhetoric’s territory beyond that conceived in antiquity. We will investigate revisions that uncovered women’s rhetorical contributions (Royster; Glenn); different rhetorical traditions; the intersections of culture, race, nation, etc. and rhetoric. For example, we will explore how scholars continue to shed light on the nuances of rhetoric especially when it intersects with facets of our experiential, relational and material lives including culture, ability, race, etc.

Assignments and Grading

Students’ performance will be assessed based on an achievement rubric detailed at the beginning of the semester.   

Major assignments will include:

-       Two researched, peer reviewed, and substantially revised research papers

-       Short assignments

-       Participation (class participation, oral report/leading class discussion/individual or group presentation)

-       Attendance (attendance policy detailed at the beginning of the semester) 

Required Texts and Course Readings

• A history of rhetoric book
• A course reader including selections from Cheryl Glenn’ s Rhetoric Retold, Andrea Lunsford’s Reclaiming Rhetorica, Molly Wertheimer’s Listening to Their Voices, Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s Ancient Non-Greek Rhetoric and Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks.

“the world is a set of stories which must be chosen among to live the good life in a process of continual recreation.

In short, good reasons are the stuff of stories”—Fisher

Are we storytelling animals? In this course, we will examine rhetorical narratives. This will help us, for example, examine stories we live by, stories we tell about ourselves, and stories that are told about us and others. What is common between these narratives is that they provide an “interpretive lens” that shapes our relationship with and perception of ourselves, people, life, experiences, and possibilities.

Because of their seeming simplicity, rhetorical narratives call on us to be vigilant and mindful rhetors who are aware of the multidimensional activities involved; narratives engage our intellects, emotions, ideologies, and ethics. Our explorations of rhetorical narratives will address questions like:

• Do we know rhetorical narratives when we see them?
• What makes a narrative rhetorical?  What are the rhetorical features and functions of narrative?
• How do narratives appeal to us? What are the consequences of rhetorical narratives?
• What are our ethical and rhetorical responsibilities as readers and writers of narrative?

As we read about and respond to these questions, we will explore the rhetorical dimensions of a variety of narratives from different times and different regions in the world. These narratives are used in different genres like news reports, biographical writing, testimonials, and political speeches. To analyze these narratives, we will use different rhetorical concepts like representation, presence, identification, terministic screens, and pentadic ratios.

Assignments and Grading

Students’ performance will be assessed based on an achievement rubric detailed at the beginning of the semester.

Major assignments will include:

• Two researched, peer reviewed, and substantially revised papers (60%)

• Short writing assignments (15%)
• Participation (class participation, oral report/leading class discussion, individual or group presentation) (15%)
• Attendance (policy detailed at the beginning of the semester) 
(5%)

Required Texts and Course Readings 


The Course reader will include:

• Selections from Krista Ratcliffe’s Rhetorical Listening, James Phelan’s Narrative as Rhetoric, Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s Ancient Non-Greek Rhetoric, Kenneth Burke’s Rhetoric of Motives, Pereleman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s New Rhetoric, Andrews and Bamberg’s Considering Counter-Narratives, Fisher’s Human Communication as Narration, Page and Bronwen’s New Narratives: Stories and Storytelling in the Digital Age.  

• Articles/Chapters like Fisher’s “Narration as a Human Communication Paradigm”, Burgess’ “The Rhetoric of Moral Conflict”, Kirkwood’s “Narrative and the Rhetoric of Possibility”, Lucaites and Condit’s “Re-constructing Narrative Theory”, McClure’s “Resurrecting the Narrative Paradigm: Identification and the Case of Young Earth Creationism”, Lewis’s “Telling America’s Story: Narrative Form and the Reagan Presidency”, andCorder’s “Rhetoric as Love”.

Very often we invoke peace as a desirable state of being and of the world. But, what is peace? What does it take to be peaceful? To what extent does our criticism of violence help us get closer to peace? What does peace have to do with rhetoric? We will use these questions to begin our explorations of the rhetoric of peacemaking. The discipline of rhetoric has an enduring investment in countering injustice and pursuing justice and peace.

In this course, we will explore this enduring investment. In specific terms, we will study the (1) relation between rhetoric, violence, and peacemaking, (2) ways in which our rhetorical practices can cause/exacerbate conflict or guide us to peacemaking, and (3) rhetorical choices, practices and stances that are consistent with developing peaceful communication styles.

As we reflect on the rhetoric of peacemaking, we will read scholarship on the rhetoric of nonviolence, reconciliation, and (human) rights. We will also read/read about illustrative speeches, texts, and rhetorical practices that critique injustice and advocate for justice and peace.

Major Assignments and Grading

• Two researched and substantially revised papers: 60% (30% each)
• Two presentations: summarizing research undertaken and major findings: 10% (5% each)
• Participation & Short Writing Assignments: class participation/leading class discussions, responses to freewriting prompts, and/or short writing assignments: 20%
• Portfolio: comprises a revised research paper and another short writing 10%

Required Texts

A packet of readings,which will include:

• Chapters/Articles written like Erik Doxtader’s “Reconciliation—A Rhetorical Conception” or With Faith in the Works of Words: The Beginnings of Reconciliation in South Africa 1985-1995; Ellen Gorsevski’s Peaceful Persuasion: The Geopolitics of Nonviolent Communication; John P. Lederach’s The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace; and James J. Kimble “John F. Kennedy, the Construction of Peace, and the Pitfalls of Androgynous Rhetoric.”
• Speeches/Texts written by politicians like John F. Kennedy’s “The Strategy of Peace,” national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi’s speech on the eve of the last fast and Martin L. King’s “I have a Dream”, and recognized activists like Rigoberta Menchú’s I, Rigoberta Menchú, 

What does culture have to do with rhetoric? This question taps into a crucial force that impacts rhetorical practices and scholarship, and this intersection of rhetoric and culture has attracted the attention of scholars especially since second half of the 21^st century, resulting in the development of comparative rhetoric. In this course we will study the conception, development and practice of rhetoric in different and mainly non-Western cultural traditions. For example, we will survey research on rhetorical traditions like ancient Indian, Egyptian, and Rhodian, demonstrating how they predate, relate to and differ from those in Greece and Rome. We will also discuss the objectives, achievement, and potential of research in comparative rhetoric as well as challenges posed by this kind of research. 

Course Requirements, Assignment and Grade Distribution

Class Activities and Discussions (20%)

- Participating in and/or leading class discussion

- Peer review workshops

- Oral report/presentation of research

- Short Assignments

Short Papers (20%)

- Writing five short response/reflection papers to further explore and engage topics and questions addressed in class.

Two Research Papers (30% each)

- Further explore and reflect on issues raised by the course drawing on outside research.  Both papers will involve producing multiple drafts.

More detailed instructions, expectations and grading criterion will be provided at the beginning of the semester, and might be modified based on students’ performance.

Attendance

Attendance policy will be detailed at the beginning of the semester.

Potential Texts

- Selections from George Kennedy’s Comparative rhetoric (1998)

- Selections from Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s two edited collections titled Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks (2004)and Ancient Non-Greek Rhetorics (2009)

- Packet of readings

The study of rhetoric, one of the original seven Liberal Arts (along with logic, grammar, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music), has a  long and proud history, stretching back to the 5th century BCE and up to the present day.  Both a productive and interpretive art, it is decidedly cross-disciplinary: the principles of rhetoric (audience, context, kairos, exigency, ethos, pathos, logos, and so forth) are consistently employed, for example, not only in literary analysis but in law, politics, education, science, and religion.

This course introduces students to common rhetorical principles and to the disciplinary history of rhetoric and writing studies.  Assignments in the class will offer students the chance to identify and apply these rhetorical principles while composing, interpreting, and presenting “texts”—oral, print, and/or electronic.   The course will meet all necessary requirements to qualify as an writing flag course.

At the end of the term, students should be able to:

(1) Write an effective rhetorical analysis.

(2) Write a responsible argument relevant to a contested issue.

(3) Discourse about some of the major issues in the field (such as: What is the relationship between truth and language? How do technologies of communication affect discourse? What is "good" public argument? What constitutes a quality rhetorical education? and so on.)

(4) Situate the significance of some of the canonical figures in rhetorical studies.

(5) Apply the basic principles of rhetorical study, as mentioned above, to contemporary situations.

In this course, we will examine how rhetoric has been theorized, taught, practiced and revisited. Throughout its history, different voices have shaped what rhetoric is and its function in a community. At times, these different understandings of rhetoric expanded and at others narrowed rhetorical territory. Moreover, social, political, intellectual, historical changes can facilitate and mandate a revision and a retelling of rhetoric.

In this course, we will revisit and critically engage the contribution of key figures exemplifying rhetoric in antiquity; medieval; renaissance; enlightenment periods. We will also explore modern times, needs and challenges, studying how the work of, for example, Kenneth Burke, Chaim Perelman, Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, Jacquline Royster and others impact our conception of rhetoric today.

Focusing on how rhetoric is revisited and retold, we will explore some influential revisions of rhetoric. These revisions continue to expand rhetoric’s territory beyond that conceived in antiquity. We will investigate revisions that uncovered women’s rhetorical contributions (Royster; Glenn); different rhetorical traditions; the intersections of culture, race, nation, etc. and rhetoric. For example, we will explore how scholars continue to shed light on the nuances of rhetoric especially when it intersects with facets of our experiential, relational and material lives including culture, ability, race, etc.

Assignments and Grading

Students’ performance will be assessed based on an achievement rubric detailed at the beginning of the semester.   

Major assignments will include:

-       Two researched, peer reviewed, and substantially revised research papers

-       Short assignments

-       Participation (class participation, oral report/leading class discussion/individual or group presentation)

-       Attendance (attendance policy detailed at the beginning of the semester)

Required Texts and Course Readings

• A history of rhetoric book
• A course reader including selections from Cheryl Glenn’ s Rhetoric Retold, Andrea Lunsford’s Reclaiming Rhetorica, Molly Wertheimer’s Listening to Their Voices, Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s Ancient Non-Greek Rhetoric and Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks.

Graduate Seminar: Feminism, Historiography, and Rhetoric

Overview

As we undertake this study of the history of rhetoric, we will consider a variety of rhetorical practices from antiquity until modern times, recovering rhetorical practices of women from the West, Near East, and Far East including women like, Enheduanna, Aspasia, Christine de Pizan, Mary Astell, Sojourner Truth, Rigoberta Menchú, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, and many others. We will also explore how rhetoric theorists revisit the economy and ideologies that support/impede the perspectives and practices of women rhetors.

In addition to exploring the rhetorical practices of women speakers/writers, this seminar focuses on the intersection of feminist scholarship, historiography, and the study of rhetoric across cultures. The three lines of inquiry converge to underline a commitment to re-visit and re-tell the history of rhetoric, an investment that we see slowly emerging in the late 1970s and gaining momentum since the late 1990s. To explore the rationale and telos of this convergence, we will recover women’s contributions to and perspectives on rhetoric (theory and practice) and re-examine our conception of the rhetor, definition of and expectations for rhetorical practices, and stances that women adopt/adapt to realize their goals and aspirations.

The ultimate goal of our exploration is to

• build on your knowledge of feminisms and the critique of the canon;
• deepen your appreciation of how rhetors respond to, critique, and challenge the affordances and constrains of their communities; and
• address on-going controversies that energize rhetorical studies, reflecting on the possibilities and limits of historiographic methods and assumptions.

Readings

- A Reader:

• Selected articles/book chapters written by Deborah Atwater, Reem Bassiouney, Lindal Buchanan, Sue Carter, Rebecca Dingo, Wendy Hesford, Gwen Pough, Malea Powell, Elaine Richardson, and Eileen E. Schell
• Selected primary texts from Gloria Anzaldua, Mary Cavendish, Christine de Pizan, Audre Lord, Sojourner Truth, and Alice Walker

- Books

• Ballif, Michelle, ed. Theorizing Histories of Rhetoric. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2013.
• Glenn, Cheryl. Rhetoric Retold: Regendering the Tradition from Antiquity through the Renaissance. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997.
• Jarratt, Susan. Rereading the Sophists: Classical Rhetoric Refigured. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991.
• Pough, Gwendolyn. Check it while I Wreck it: Black Womanhood, Hip Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004.
• Rami?rez, Cristina Devereaux. Occupying our Space: The Mestiza Rhetorics of Mexican Women Journalists and Activists, 1875-1942. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2015.
• Rawson, K., and Eileen E. Schell. Rhetorica in Motion: Feminist Rhetorical Methods & Methodologies. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010.
• Royster, Jacqueline Jones, and Gesa Kirsch. Feminist Rhetorical Practices: New Horizons for Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy Studies. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2012.

- Journal Special Issues

• Hesford, Wendy S., and Eileen E. Schell. "Configurations of Transnationality: Locating Feminist Rhetorics." College English 70.5 (2008

Requirements

Besides regular attendance and reflective engagement, you will be expected to

• Lead class discussion (10%),
• Present a book report (10%) (Reading list will be provided),
• Conference Proposal (10%) (You will choose a conference relevant to your area of study),
• Seminar Paper (70%): Develops 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 conference with me will provide opportunities to share ideas and to get feedback.

Very often we invoke peace as a desirable state of being and of the world. But, what is peace? What does it take to be peaceful? To what extent does our criticism of violence help us get closer to peace? What does peace have to do with rhetoric? We will use these questions to begin our explorations of the rhetoric of peacemaking. The discipline of rhetoric has an enduring investment in countering injustice and pursuing justice and peace.

In this course, we will explore this enduring investment. In specific terms, we will study the (1) relation between rhetoric, violence, and peacemaking, (2) ways in which our rhetorical practices can cause/exacerbate conflict or guide us to peacemaking, and (3) rhetorical choices, practices and stances that are consistent with developing peaceful communication styles.

As we reflect on the rhetoric of peacemaking, we will read scholarship on the rhetoric of nonviolence, reconciliation, and (human) rights. We will also read/read about illustrative speeches, texts, and rhetorical practices that critique injustice and advocate for justice and peace.

Major Assignments and Grading

Two researched and substantially revised papers: 60% (30% each)

Two presentations: summarizing research undertaken and major findings: 10% (5% each)

Participation & Short Writing Assignments: class participation/leading class discussions, responses to freewriting prompts, and/or short writing assignments: 20%

Portfolio: comprises a revised research paper and another short writing 10%

Required Texts

A packet of readings,which will include:

• Chapters/Articles written like Erik Doxtader’s “Reconciliation—A Rhetorical Conception” or With Faith in the Works of Words: The Beginnings of Reconciliation in South Africa 1985-1995; Ellen Gorsevski’s Peaceful Persuasion: The Geopolitics of Nonviolent Communication; John P. Lederach’s The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace; and James J. Kimble “John F. Kennedy, the Construction of Peace, and the Pitfalls of Androgynous Rhetoric.”
• Speeches/Texts written by politicians like John F. Kennedy’s “The Strategy of Peace,” national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi’s speech on the eve of the last fast and Martin L. King’s “I have a Dream”, and recognized activists like Rigoberta Menchú’s I, Rigoberta Menchú, 

In this course, we will examine how rhetoric has been theorized, taught, practiced and revisited. Throughout its history, different voices have shaped what rhetoric is and its function in a community. At times, these different understandings of rhetoric expanded and at others narrowed rhetorical territory. Moreover, social, political, intellectual, historical changes can facilitate and mandate a revision and a retelling of rhetoric.

In this course, we will revisit and critically engage the contribution of key figures exemplifying rhetoric in antiquity; medieval; renaissance; enlightenment periods. We will also explore modern times, needs and challenges, studying how the work of, for example, Kenneth Burke, Chaim Perelman, Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, Jacquline Royster and others impact our conception of rhetoric today.

Focusing on how rhetoric is revisited and retold, we will explore some influential revisions of rhetoric. These revisions continue to expand rhetoric’s territory beyond that conceived in antiquity. We will investigate revisions that uncovered women’s rhetorical contributions (Royster; Glenn); different rhetorical traditions; the intersections of culture, race, nation, etc. and rhetoric. For example, we will explore how scholars continue to shed light on the nuances of rhetoric especially when it intersects with facets of our experiential, relational and material lives including culture, ability, race, etc.

Assignments and Grading

Students’ performance will be assessed based on an achievement rubric detailed at the beginning of the semester.   

Major assignments will include:

• Two researched, peer reviewed, and substantially revised research papers
• Short assignments
• Participation (class participation, oral report/leading class discussion/individual or group presentation)
• Attendance (attendance policy detailed at the beginning of the semester)

Required Texts and Course Readings

• A history of rhetoric book
• A course reader including selections from Cheryl Glenn’ s Rhetoric Retold, Andrea Lunsford’s Reclaiming Rhetorica, Molly Wertheimer’s Listening to Their Voices, Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s Ancient Non-Greek Rhetoric and Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks.

What does culture have to do with rhetoric? This question taps into a crucial force that impacts rhetorical practices and scholarship, and this intersection of rhetoric and culture has attracted the attention of scholars especially since second half of the 21st century, resulting in the development of comparative rhetoric. In this course we will study the conception, development and practice of rhetoric in different and mainly non-Western cultural traditions. For example, we will survey research on rhetorical traditions like ancient Indian, Egyptian, and Rhodian, demonstrating how they predate, relate to and differ from those in Greece and Rome. We will also discuss the objectives, achievement, and potential of research in comparative rhetoric as well as challenges posed by this kind of research. 

Course Requirements, Assignment and Grade Distribution

Class Activities and Discussions (20%)

• Participating in and/or leading class discussion
• Peer review workshops
• Oral report/presentation of research
• Short Assignments

Short Papers (20%)

• Writing five short response/reflection papers to further explore and engage topics and questions addressed in class.

Two Research Papers (30% each)

• Further explore and reflect on issues raised by the course drawing on outside research.  Both papers will involve producing multiple drafts.

More detailed instructions, expectations and grading criterion will be provided at the beginning of the semester, and might be modified based on students’ performance.

Attendance

Attendance policy will be detailed at the beginning of the semester.

Potential Texts

• Selections from George Kennedy’s Comparative rhetoric (1998)
• Selections from Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s two edited collections titled Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks (2004)and Ancient Non-Greek Rhetorics (2009)
• Packet of readings

Very often we invoke peace as a desirable state of being and of the world. But, what is peace? What does it take to be peaceful? To what extent does our criticism of violence help us get closer to peace? What does peace have to do with rhetoric? We will use these questions to begin our explorations of the rhetoric of peacemaking. The discipline of rhetoric has an enduring investment in countering injustice and pursuing justice and peace.

In this course, we will explore this enduring investment. In specific terms, we will study the (1) relation between rhetoric, violence, and peacemaking, (2) ways in which our rhetorical practices can cause/exacerbate conflict or guide us to peacemaking, and (3) rhetorical choices, practices and stances that are consistent with developing peaceful communication styles. 

As we reflect on the rhetoric of peacemaking, we will read scholarship on the rhetoric of nonviolence, reconciliation, and (human) rights. We will also read/read about illustrative speeches, texts, and rhetorical practices that critique injustice and advocate for justice and peace.

Major Assignments and Grading

• Two researched and substantially revised papers: 60% (30% each)
• Two presentations: summarizing research undertaken and major findings: 10% (5% each)
• Participation & Short Writing Assignments: class participation/leading class discussions, responses to freewriting prompts, and/or short writing assignments: 20%
• Portfolio: comprises a revised research paper and another short writing 10%

 Required Texts

A packet of readings,which will include:

• Chapters/Articles written like Erik Doxtader’s “Reconciliation—A Rhetorical Conception” or With Faith in the Works of Words: The Beginnings of Reconciliation in South Africa 1985-1995; Ellen Gorsevski’s Peaceful Persuasion: The Geopolitics of Nonviolent Communication; John P. Lederach’s The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace; and James J. Kimble “John F. Kennedy, the Construction of Peace, and the Pitfalls of Androgynous Rhetoric.”
• Speeches/Texts written by politicians like John F. Kennedy’s “The Strategy of Peace,” national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi’s speech on the eve of the last fast and Martin L. King’s “I have a Dream”, and recognized activists like Rigoberta Menchú’s I, Rigoberta Menchú,

Are there women rhetors? Are there female theorists of rhetoric? What do rhetoric scholars have to say about these two questions? In this class, you will mainly focus on finding out answers to these three questions.  In this exploration the class will focus on three central concepts: feminist scholarship; historiography; and rhetoric. We will study feminist historiography of rhetoric that seeks to recover the work of female rhetors and theorists of rhetoric. They reread and rewrite the history of rhetoric to

• recover the contribution of women to rhetoric,
• reexamine our definition(s) of rhetoric, and
• revise our understanding of the functions, forms and goals of rhetoric.

As they take a rhetorical approach to the study of rhetoric, feminist scholars analyze a variety of rhetorical practices from antiquity until modern times, recovering rhetorical practices of women from the West, Near East and Far East including women like, Enheduanna, Aspasia, Christine de Pizan, Mary Astell, Sojourner Truth, Rigoberta Menchú, Zitkala-Ša and many others.

Assignments and Grading

• Two researched and substantially revised papers (70% of the total grade).
• Two presentations (10%): Overview of research undertaken and major findings.
• Participation (20%): Class participation/leading class discussions, responses to freewriting prompts, and short writing assignments.

Required Texts and Course Readings

All reading materials will be made available on Blackboard. Readings will include:

• Chapters from edited collections and books like  Lindal Buchanan and Kathleen J. Ryan’s Walking and Talking Feminist Rhetorics: Landmark Essays and Controversies; Eileen Schell and Kim Rawson’s Rhetorica in Motion; Andrea Lunsford’s Reclaiming Rhetorica: Women in the Rhetorical Tradition; Chandra Mohanty’s Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity; Jacqueline Jones Royster and Ann Marie Mann Simpkins’ Calling Cards: Theory and Practice in the Study of Race, Gender, and Culture; Jacqueline Jones Royster’s Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change among African American Women.   

• Primary Texts include speeches, articles, and hymns like Sojourner Truth’ “Ain’t I a woman;” an article by Zitkala-Ša; a hymn by Enheduanna; an excerpt from Rigoberta Menchú’s testimonio.

The study of rhetoric, one of the original seven Liberal Arts (along with logic, grammar, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music), has a  long and proud history, stretching back to the 5th century BCE and up to the present day.  Both a productive and interpretive art, it is decidedly cross-disciplinary: the principles of rhetoric (audience, context, kairos, exigency, ethos, pathos, logos, and so forth) are consistently employed, for example, not only in literary analysis but in law, politics, education, science, and religion.

This course introduces students to common rhetorical principles and to the disciplinary history of rhetoric and writing studies.  Assignments in the class will offer students the chance to identify and apply these rhetorical principles while composing, interpreting, and presenting “texts”—oral, print, and/or electronic.   The course will meet all necessary requirements to qualify as an writing flag course.

At the end of the term, students should be able to:

(1) Write an effective rhetorical analysis.

(2) Write a responsible argument relevant to a contested issue.

(3) Discourse about some of the major issues in the field (such as: What is the relationship between truth and language? How do technologies of communication affect discourse? What is "good" public argument? What constitutes a quality rhetorical education? and so on.)

(4) Situate the significance of some of the canonical figures in rhetorical studies.

(5) Apply the basic principles of rhetorical study, as mentioned above, to contemporary situations.

In this course, we will examine how rhetoric has been theorized, taught, practiced and revisited. Throughout its history, different voices have shaped what rhetoric is and its function in a community. At times, these different understandings of rhetoric expanded and at others narrowed rhetorical territory. Moreover, social, political, intellectual, historical changes can facilitate and mandate a revision and a retelling of rhetoric.

In this course, we will revisit and critically engage the writings of key figures exemplifying rhetoric in antiquity; medieval; renaissance; enlightenment periods. We will also explore modern times, needs and challenges, studying how the work of, for example, Kenneth Burke, Chaim Perelman, Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, Jacquline Royster, Susan Jarratt and others impact our conception of rhetoric today.

Focusing on how rhetoric is revisited and retold, we will explore some influential revisions of rhetoric. These revisions continue to expand rhetoric’s territory beyond that conceived in antiquity. We will investigate revisions that uncovered women’s rhetorical contributions (Royster; Glenn); different rhetorical traditions; the intersections of culture, race, nation, etc. and rhetoric. For example, we will explore how scholars continue to shed light on the nuances of rhetoric especially when it intersects with facets of our experiential, relational and material lives including culture, ability, race, etc.

Requirements and Grading Policy

Students’ performance will be assessed based on an achievement rubric detailed at the beginning of the semester.   

Major assignments will include:

-       Two researched, peer reviewed, and substantially revised research papers

-       Short assignments

-       Participation (class participation, oral report/leading class discussion/individual or group presentation)

-       Attendance (attendance policy detailed at the beginning of the semester)

Texts May Include (but will not be limited to):

-       A history of rhetoric book

-       Primary readings will include Aristotle’s Rhetoric, Plato’s Gorgias, Cicero’s De Oratore

-       A course reader including selections from Keith Gilyard, Cheryl Glenn, Martin Bernal, Krista Ratcliffe, Susan Jarrett, LuMing Mao, Jackie Royster, and others.

Very often we invoke peace as a desirable state of being and of the world. But, what is peace? What does it take to be peaceful? To what extent does our criticism of violence help us get closer to peace? What does peace have to do with rhetoric? We will use these questions to begin our explorations of the rhetoric of peacemaking. The discipline of rhetoric has an enduring investment in countering injustice and pursuing justice and peace.

 In this course, we will explore this enduring investment. In specific terms, we will study the (1) relation between rhetoric, violence, and peacemaking, (2) ways in which our rhetorical practices can cause/exacerbate conflict or guide us to peacemaking, and (3) rhetorical choices, practices and stances that are consistent with developing peaceful communication styles.

As we reflect on the rhetoric of peacemaking, we will read scholarship on the rhetoric of nonviolence, reconciliation, and (human) rights. We will also read exemplary speeches critiquing injustice and advocating for justice and peace.

Major Assignments and Grading

Two researched and substantially revised papers: 70% (35% each)

Two presentations: overview of research undertaken and major findings: 10% (5% each)

Participation: class participation/leading class discussions, responses to freewriting prompts, and short writing assignments: 20%

Required Texts

A packet of readings,which will include:

• Chapters from books like Erik Doxtader’s With Faith in the Works of Words: The Beginnings of Reconciliation in South Africa 1985-1995; Ellen Gorsevski’s Peaceful Persuasion: The Geopolitics of Nonviolent Communication; and Colleen E. Kelley and Anna L. Eblen’s Women Who Speak for Peace; and John P. Lederach’s The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace.
• Journal articleslike Do Kyun Kim’s “Embodied Hope: Nonviolent Rhetoric and Peacemaking Actions” and James J. Kimble “John F. Kennedy, the Construction of Peace, and the Pitfalls of Androgynous Rhetoric.”
• Speeches like John F. Kennedy’s “The Strategy of Peace,” Mahatma Gandhi’s  speech on the eve of the last fast, and Martin L. King’s “I have a Dream.”

What does culture have to do with rhetoric? This question taps into a crucial force that impacts rhetorical practices and scholarship, and this intersection of rhetoric and culture has attracted the attention of scholars especially since second half of the 21st century, resulting in the development of comparative rhetoric. In this course we will study the conception, development and practice of rhetoric in different and mainly non-Western cultural traditions. For example, we will survey research on rhetorical traditions like ancient Indian, Egyptian, and Rhodian, demonstrating how they predate, relate to and differ from those in Greece and Rome. We will also discuss the objectives, achievement, and potential of research in comparative rhetoric as well as challenges posed by this kind of research. 

Course Requirements, Assignment and Grade Distribution

 Class Activities and Discussions (20%)

- Participating in and/or leading class discussion

- Peer review workshops

- Oral report/presentation of research

- Short Assignments

Short Papers (20%)

- Writing five short response/reflection papers to further explore and engage topics and questions addressed in class.

Two Research Papers (30% each)

- Further explore and reflect on issues raised by the course drawing on outside research.  Both papers will involve producing multiple drafts.

More detailed instructions, expectations and grading criterion will be provided at the beginning of the semester, and might be modified based on students’ performance.

Attendance

Attendance policy will be detailed at the beginning of the semester.

Potential Texts

- Selections from George Kennedy’s Comparative rhetoric (1998)

- Selections from Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s two edited collections titled Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks (2004)and Ancient Non-Greek Rhetorics (2009)

- Packet of readings

Very often we invoke peace as a desirable state of being and of the world. But, what is peace? What does it take to be peaceful? To what extent does our criticism of violence help us get closer to peace? What does peace have to do with rhetoric? We will use these questions to begin our explorations of the rhetoric of peacemaking. The discipline of rhetoric has an enduring investment in countering injustice and pursuing justice and peace.

In this course, we will explore this enduring investment. In specific terms, we will study the (1) relation between rhetoric, violence, and peacemaking, (2) ways in which our rhetorical practices can cause/exacerbate conflict or guide us to peacemaking, and (3) rhetorical choices, practices and stances that are consistent with developing peaceful communication styles.

As we reflect on the rhetoric of peacemaking, we will read scholarship on the rhetoric of nonviolence, reconciliation, and (human) rights. We will also read exemplary speeches critiquing injustice and advocating for justice and peace.

Major Assignments and Grading

Two researched and substantially revised papers: 70% (35% each)

Two presentations: overview of research undertaken and major findings: 10% (5% each)

Participation: class participation/leading class discussions, responses to freewriting prompts, and short writing assignments: 20%

Required Texts

A packet of readings,which will include:

• Chapters from books like Erik Doxtader’s With Faith in the Works of Words: The Beginnings of Reconciliation in South Africa 1985-1995; Ellen Gorsevski’s Peaceful Persuasion: The Geopolitics of Nonviolent Communication; and Colleen E. Kelley and Anna L. Eblen’s Women Who Speak for Peace; and John P. Lederach’s The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace.
• Journal articleslike Do Kyun Kim’s “Embodied Hope: Nonviolent Rhetoric and Peacemaking Actions” and James J. Kimble “John F. Kennedy, the Construction of Peace, and the Pitfalls of Androgynous Rhetoric.”
• Speeches like John F. Kennedy’s “The Strategy of Peace,” Mahatma Gandhi’s  speech on the eve of the last fast, and Martin L. King’s “I have a Dream.”

Are there women rhetors? Are there female theorists of rhetoric? What do rhetoric scholars have to say about these two questions? In this class, you will mainly focus on finding out answers to these three questions.  In this exploration the class will focus on three central concepts: feminist scholarship; historiography; and rhetoric. We will study feminist historiography of rhetoric that seeks to recover the work of female rhetors and theorists of rhetoric. They reread and rewrite the history of rhetoric to

• recover the contribution of women to rhetoric,
• reexamine our definition(s) of rhetoric, and
• revise our understanding of the functions, forms and goals of rhetoric.

As they take a rhetorical approach to the study of rhetoric, feminist scholars analyze a variety of rhetorical practices from antiquity until modern times, recovering rhetorical practices of women from the West, Near East and Far East including women like, Enheduanna, Aspasia, Christine de Pizan, Mary Astell, Sojourner Truth, Rigoberta Menchú, Zitkala-Ša and many others.

Assignments and Grading

• Two researched and substantially revised papers (70% of the total grade).
• Two presentations (10%): Overview of research undertaken and major findings.
• Participation (20%): Class participation/leading class discussions, responses to freewriting prompts, and short writing assignments.

Required Texts and Course Readings

Chapters from edited collections and books like  Lindal Buchanan and Kathleen J. Ryan’s Walking and Talking Feminist Rhetorics: Landmark Essays and Controversies; Eileen Schell and Kim Rawson’s Rhetorica in Motion; Andrea Lunsford’s Reclaiming Rhetorica: Women in the Rhetorical Tradition; Chandra Mohanty’s Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity; Jacqueline Jones Royster and Ann Marie Mann Simpkins’ Calling Cards: Theory and Practice in the Study of Race, Gender, and Culture; Jacqueline Jones Royster’s Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change among African American Women.

Primary Texts include speeches, articles, and hymns like Sojourner Truth’ “Ain’t I a woman;” an article by Zitkala-Ša; a hymn by Enheduanna; an excerpt from Rigoberta Menchú’s testimonio.

In this course, we will examine how rhetoric has been theorized, taught, practiced and revisited. Throughout its history, different voices have shaped what rhetoric is and its function in a community. At times, these different understandings of rhetoric expanded and at others narrowed rhetorical territory. Moreover, social, political, intellectual, historical changes can facilitate and mandate a revision and a retelling of rhetoric.

In this course, we will revisit and critically engage the writings of key figures exemplifying rhetoric in antiquity; medieval; renaissance; enlightenment periods. We will also explore modern times, needs and challenges, studying how the work of, for example, Kenneth Burke, Chaim Perelman, Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, Jacquline Royster, Susan Jarratt and others impact our conception of rhetoric today.

Focusing on how rhetoric is revisited and retold, we will explore some influential revisions of rhetoric. These revisions continue to expand rhetoric’s territory beyond that conceived in antiquity. We will investigate revisions that uncovered women’s rhetorical contributions (Royster; Glenn); different rhetorical traditions; the intersections of culture, race, nation, etc. and rhetoric. For example, we will explore how scholars continue to shed light on the nuances of rhetoric especially when it intersects with facets of our experiential, relational and material lives including culture, ability, race, etc.

Requirements and Grading Policy

Students’ performance will be assessed based on an achievement rubric detailed at the beginning of the semester.   

Major assignments will include:

-       Two researched, peer reviewed, and substantially revised research papers

-       Short assignments

-       Participation (class participation, oral report/leading class discussion/individual or group presentation)

-       Attendance (attendance policy detailed at the beginning of the semester)

Texts May Include (but will not be limited to):

-       A history of rhetoric book

-       Primary readings will include Aristotle’s Rhetoric, Plato’s Gorgias, Cicero’s De Oratore

-       A course reader including selections from Keith Gilyard, Cheryl Glenn, Martin Bernal, Krista Ratcliffe, Susan Jarrett, LuMing Mao, Jackie Royster, and others.

Intercultural Rhetoric: From Incommensurability to Rhetorical Possibilities

What does culture have to do with rhetoric and writing? A careful examination of this question taps into the complex concept culture and uncovers a crucial force, informing and impacting rhetoric and writing practices and scholarship. That is why, the intersection of rhetoric/writing and culture has attracted the attention of scholars especially since the late 1960s, resulting in the development of contrastive rhetoric and comparative rhetoric. These two bodies of knowledge have two varied disciplinary orientations, yet they seem to converge in numerous ways.

Both seek to explore the role of culture in the practices and pedagogies of rhetoric and writing. To a great extent culture continued to be defined as “received culture.” However, current scholarship has more expansive definitions of culture and its influence on how we conceive, theorize and practice rhetoric and writing. This shift to a more nuanced and a fuller understanding of culture coincided with (a) increasing interest in other rhetorics, (b) reflections on the canonization of rhetoric and increasing interest in revisionist historiography, (3) re-visiting the role of continuity and discontinuity in shaping rhetorical agendas.

Course Objectives and Goals

This course has three focuses:

(1) studying the rise and convergence of comparative rhetoric, contrastive rhetoric, intercultural rhetoric, and transnational rhetoric,

(2) exploring rhetoric as manifest in different traditions and

(3) understanding the role of comparative/contrastive/intercultural/transnational rhetoric in current scholarship in rhetoric and writing theory, history of rhetoric, and their teaching.

In this seminar, we will

• trace the development, growth and transformation of contrastive, comparative, and intercultural rhetoric, drawing on different bodies of literature
• reflect on how interest in transnational rhetoric
• converges with comparative and contrastive rhetoric and
• affirms yet poses some challenges to the study of the intersection of culture, nation, and rhetoric.
  • Finally, we will engage the two main dimensions of intercultural rhetoric as we explore the disciplinary and instructional possibilities and challenges of (inter)cultural rhetorics.

Potential Books & Journal Special Issues

Ulla Connor, Contrastive Rhetoric: Cross-Cultural Aspects of Second Language Writing (Cambridge University Press, 1996)

Ronald L. Jackson II Elaine B. Richardson (eds.), Understanding African American Rhetoric: Classical Origins to Contemporary Innovations (Routledge, 2003)

 Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley (eds.),  

• Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks (SUNY, 2004) and
• Ancient Non-Greek Rhetorics (Parlor Press, 2008)

Lu Ming Mao, Reading Chinese Fortune Cookie: The Making of Chinese American Rhetoric (Utah State University Press, 2006)

Ernest Stromberg (editor), American Indian Rhetorics of Survivance, Word Medicine, Word Magic (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006)

Victor Villanueva, Bootstraps: From an American Academic of Color (National Council of Teachers of English, 1993)

Writing, Rhetoric, and Latinidad. College English (Vol. 71, No.6, July 2009)

Feminist Rhetorics and Transnationalism . College English (Vol.70, No.5, May 2008).

Cross-Language Relations in Composition College English (Vol. 68, No. 6, July 2006)

?

Very often we invoke peace as a desirable state of being and of the world. But, what is peace? What does it take to be peaceful? To what extent does our criticism of violence help us get closer to peace? What does peace have to do with rhetoric? We will use these questions to begin our explorations of the rhetoric of peacemaking. The discipline of rhetoric has an enduring investment in countering injustice and pursuing justice and peace.

In this course, we will explore this enduring investment. In specific terms, we will study the (1) relation between rhetoric, violence, and peacemaking, (2) ways in which our rhetorical practices can cause/exacerbate conflict or guide us to peacemaking, and (3) rhetorical choices, practices and stances that are consistent with developing peaceful communication styles.

As we reflect on the rhetoric of peacemaking, we will read scholarship on the rhetoric of nonviolence, reconciliation, and (human) rights. We will also read exemplary speeches critiquing injustice and advocating for justice and peace.

Major Assignments and Grading

Two researched and substantially revised papers: 70% (35% each)

Two presentations: overview of research undertaken and major findings: 10% (5% each)

Participation: class participation/leading class discussions, responses to freewriting prompts, and short writing assignments: 20%

Required Texts

A packet of readings,which will include:

• Chapters from books like Erik Doxtader’s With Faith in the Works of Words: The Beginnings of Reconciliation in South Africa 1985-1995; Ellen Gorsevski’s Peaceful Persuasion: The Geopolitics of Nonviolent Communication; and Colleen E. Kelley and Anna L. Eblen’s Women Who Speak for Peace; and John P. Lederach’s The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace.
• Journal articleslike Do Kyun Kim’s “Embodied Hope: Nonviolent Rhetoric and Peacemaking Actions” and James J. Kimble “John F. Kennedy, the Construction of Peace, and the Pitfalls of Androgynous Rhetoric.”
• Speeches like John F. Kennedy’s “The Strategy of Peace,” Mahatma Gandhi’s  speech on the eve of the last fast, and Martin L. King’s “I have a Dream.”

What does culture have to do with rhetoric? This question taps into a crucial force that impacts rhetorical practices and scholarship, and this intersection of rhetoric and culture has attracted the attention of scholars especially since the late 1950s, resulting in the development of comparative rhetoric. In this course we will study the conception, development and practice of rhetoric in different and mainly non-Western cultural traditions. For example, we will survey research on rhetorical traditions like ancient Indian, Egyptian, and Rhodian, demonstrating how they predate, relate to and differ from those in Greece and Rome. We will also discuss the objectives, achievement, and potential of research in comparative rhetoric as well as challenges posed by this kind of research.  

Course Requirements, Assignment and Grade Distribution

Class Activities and Discussions (20%)

- Participating in and/or leading class discussion

- Peer review workshops

- Oral report/presentation of research

- Short Assignments

Short Papers (20%)

- Writing five short response/reflection papers to further explore and engage topics and questions addressed in class.

Two Research Papers (30% each)

- Further explore and reflect on issues raised by the course drawing on outside research.  Both papers will involve producing multiple drafts.

More detailed instructions, expectations and grading criterion will be provided at the beginning of the semester, and might be modified based on students’ performance.

Attendance

Attendance policy will be detailed at the beginning of the semester.

Potential Texts

- Selections from George Kennedy’s Comparative rhetoric (1998)

- Selections from Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s two edited collections titled Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks (2004) and Ancient Non-Greek Rhetorics (2009)

- Packet of readings

In this course, we will examine how rhetoric has been theorized, taught, practiced and revisited. Throughout its history, different voices have shaped what rhetoric is and its function in a community. At times, these different understandings of rhetoric expanded and at others narrowed rhetorical territory. Moreover, social, political, intellectual, historical changes can facilitate and mandate a revision and a retelling of rhetoric.

In this course, we will revisit and critically engage the writings of key figures exemplifying rhetoric in antiquity; medieval; renaissance; enlightenment periods. We will also explore modern times, needs and challenges, exploring how the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, Kenneth Burke, Chaim Perelman, Michel Foucault and others impact our conception of rhetoric today.

Focusing on how rhetoric is revisited and retold, we will explore some influential revisions of rhetoric. These revisions continue to expand rhetoric’s territory beyond that conceived in antiquity. We will investigate revisions that uncovered women’s rhetorical contributions (Royster; Glenn); different rhetorical traditions; the intersections of culture, race, nation, etc. and rhetoric. For example, we will explore how scholars continue to shed light on the nuances of rhetoric especially when it intersects with facets of our experiential, relational and material lives including culture, ability, race, etc.

Requirements and Grading Policy

Students’ performance will be assessed based on an achievement rubric detailed at the beginning of the semester.   

Major assignments will include:

-- Two researched and substantially revised research papers (7 to 10 pages), each peer reviewed
-- Short assignments
-- Participation (class participation, oral report/leading class discussion/individual or group presentation)
-- Attendance (attendance policy detailed at the beginning of the semester)

Texts May Include (but will not be limited to):

-- Primary readings will include Aristotle’s Rhetoric, Plato’s Gorgias, Cicero’s De Oratore.
-- A course reader including selections from Keith Gilyard, Kenneth Burke, Chaim Perelman, Saint Augustine, Erasmus, Glenn, Martin Bernal, Krista Ratcliffe, Wayne Booth, Susan Jarrett, George. Kennedy, LuMing Mao, Jackie Royster, and others.

What does culture have to do with rhetoric? This question taps into a crucial force that impacts rhetorical practices and scholarship, and this intersection of rhetoric and culture has attracted the attention of scholars especially since the late 1950s, resulting in the development of comparative rhetoric. In this course we will study the conception, development and practice of rhetoric in different and mainly non-Western cultural traditions. For example, we will survey research on rhetorical traditions like ancient Indian, Egyptian, and Rhodian, demonstrating how they predate, relate to and differ from those in Greece and Rome. We will also discuss the objectives, achievement, and potential of research in comparative rhetoric as well as challenges posed by this kind of research.  

Course Requirements, Assignment and Grade Distribution

Class Activities and Discussions (20%)
- Participating in and/or leading class discussion
- Peer review workshops
- Oral report/presentation of research
- Short Assignments

Short Papers (20%)
- Writing five short response/reflection papers to further explore and engage topics and questions addressed in class.

Two Research Papers (30% each)
- Further explore and reflect on issues raised by the course drawing on outside research.  Both papers will involve producing multiple drafts.

More detailed instructions, expectations and grading criterion will be provided at the beginning of the semester, and might be modified based on students’ performance.

Attendance
Attendance policy will be detailed at the beginning of the semester.

Potential Texts
- Selections from George Kennedy’s Comparative rhetoric (1998)
- Selections from Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s two edited collections titled Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks (2004) and Ancient Non-Greek Rhetorics (2009)
- Packet of readings

What does culture have to do with rhetoric and writing? This question taps into a crucial force that impacts rhetoric and writing practices and scholarship. That is why, the intersection of rhetoric/writing and culture has attracted the attention of scholars especially since the late 1960s, resulting in the development of contrastive rhetoric and comparative rhetoric. To a great extent culture continued to be defined as “received culture.” However, current scholarship has more expansive definitions of culture and its influence on how we conceive, theorize and practice rhetoric and writing. This shift to a more nuanced and a fuller understanding of culture coincided with (a) increasing interest in other rhetorics, (b) reflections on the canonization of rhetoric, (3) re-visiting the role of continuity and discontinuity in shaping rhetorical agendas.

In this seminar, we will trace the development and transformation of contrastive, comparative, and intercultural rhetoric. We will engage the two main foci of intercultural rhetoric, namely research and education, and we will explore the disciplinary and instructional possibilities and challenges of (inter)cultural rhetorics.

Requirements

• Lead class discussion; book report
• Four short response/reflection papers
• Conference proposal
• A formal paper that further explores and reflects on an issue raised by the course

Readings

• Ulla Conner, Contrastive rhetoric
• Selections from Ulla Connor, Ed Nagelhout, and William V. Rozycki (eds.), Contrastive Rhetoric: Reaching to Intercultural Rhetoric
• Suresh Canagarajah, Resisting Linguistic Imperialism
• Clayann G. Panetta (ed.), Contrastive Rhetoric Revisited and Redefined
• Selections from Richard Graff, Arthur Walzer and Janet Atwill (eds.), The Viability of the Rhetorical Tradition
• George Kennedy, Comparative Rhetoric
• Selections from Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley (eds.), Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks; and selections   from Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley (eds.) Ancient non-Greek Rhetorics
• R. Scallon and S. W. Scallon, Intercultural Communication
• C. Severino, Juan Guerra and Johnnella Butler (eds.), Writing in Multicultural Settings
• Packet of readings

What does culture have to do with rhetoric? This question taps into a crucial force that impacts rhetorical practices and scholarship, and this intersection of rhetoric and culture has attracted the attention of scholars especially since the late 1950s, resulting in the development of comparative rhetoric. In this course we will study the conception, development and practice of rhetoric in different and mainly non-Western cultural traditions. For example, we will survey research on rhetorical traditions like ancient Indian, Egyptian, and Rhodian, demonstrating how they predate, relate to and differ from those in Greece and Rome. We will also discuss the objectives, achievement, and potential of research in comparative rhetoric as well as challenges posed by this kind of research.  

Course Requirements, Assignment and Grade Distribution

Class Activities and Discussions (20%)
- Participating in and/or leading class discussion
- Peer review workshops
- Oral report/presentation of research
- Short Assignments

Short Papers (20%)
- Writing five short response/reflection papers to further explore and engage topics and questions addressed in class.

Two Research Papers (30% each)
- Further explore and reflect on issues raised by the course drawing on outside research.  Both papers will involve producing multiple drafts.

More detailed instructions, expectations and grading criterion will be provided at the beginning of the semester, and might be modified based on students’ performance.

Attendance
Attendance policy will be detailed at the beginning of the semester.

Potential Texts
- Selections from George Kennedy’s Comparative rhetoric (1998)
- Selections from Carol Lipson and Roberta Binkley’s two edited collections titled Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks (2004) and Ancient Non-Greek Rhetorics (2009)
- Packet of readings