Activism and Rhetoric
Theories and Contexts for Political Engagement
This volume examines the role of rhetoric in today’s culture of democratic activism. The volume takes on two of the most significant challenges currently facing contemporary rhetorical studies: (1) the contested meanings and practices of democracy and civic engagement in global context, and (2) the central role of rhetoric in democratic activist practices. In presenting a variety of political and rhetorical struggles in their specific contexts, editors Seth Kahn and JongHwa Lee allow contributors to reflect on and elaborate possibilities for both activist approaches to rhetorical studies, and rhetorical approaches to activist projects, facilitating better understanding the socio-political consequences of this work.
With contributors from widely known scholars in communication and composition studies, the collection offers practical cases that highlight how rhetoric mediates, constitutes, and/or intervenes in democratic principles and practices. It also considers theoretical questions that acknowledge profound voids in the rhetorical tradition (e.g., Western, neo-Aristotelian, liberal) and expand the horizon of traditional rhetorical perspectives. It advocates new knowledge and practices that further promote civic engagement, social change and democracy in the global context.
Activism and Rhetoric will be appropriate for scholars and students across disciplines, including rhetoric, composition, communication studies, political science, cultural studies, and women’s studies.
Contents
Foreword: Philip C. Wander
Introduction: Seth Kahn and JongHwa Lee
Part I. (Re)Framing Rhetorical Activism: How Activists Theorize Rhetoric and Vice Versa
Chapter 1: The Only Conceivable Thing To Do: Reflections on Academics and Activism
Dana L. Cloud
Chapter 2: Reflections on Activist Scholarship: The Consequences We All Have to Face
Jonghwa Lee
Chapter 3: The Work of a Middle-Class Activist: Stuck in History
Charles Bazerman
Chapter 4: Speaking Truth to Power: Observations from Experience
Lee Artz
Chapter 5: Gadugi: Where the fire burns
Ellen (Drew) Cushman
Chapter 6: Intervention and Rhetorics of War: Classical Insights for Contemporary Activists
Melissa Dey Hasbrook
Part II. Contexts for Rhetorical Activism, Part One: Activism in Non-Academic Settings
Chapter 7: A Conservative Pundit in Liberal Surroundings: An Uneven Odyssey
Richard E. Vatz
Chapter 8: The Role of Communism in Democratic Discourse: What Activist Rhetoricians Can Learn from the World Bank
Catherine Chaput
Chapter 9: (Re) Politicizing the Writing Process: An Exhortation and a Cautionary Tale
Seth Kahn
Chapter 10: "Looking for the Left in Russia"
Katie Feyh
Part III. Contexts for Rhetorical Activism, Part Two: Activism within Academic Institutions
Chapter 11: Developing Activist Rhetorics on Israel-Palestine: Resisting the Depoliticization of the American Academy
Matthew Abraham
Chapter 12: Democracy and the Academy: Ethnographic Articulations and Interventions for Social Change
Paige Pettyjohn Edley & Nina Maria Lozano-Reich
Chapter 13: Against Decorous Civility: Acting as if You Live in a Democracy
M.J. Braun
Chapter 14: You Can’t Get There from Here: Higher Education, Labor Activism, and Challenges of Neoliberal Globalization
Kevin Mahoney
Part IV. Contexts for Rhetorical Activism, Part Three: Activist Pedagogy
Chapter 15: Practicing Democracy: An Experience-Based Approach
Ruth Ray, Gwendolyn Gorzelsky, Stephanie Hall-Sturgis, LaWanda Dickens, Thomas Trimble, Kim Davis, Karen Keaton Jackson, Justin Vidovic, Sally Chandler
Chapter 16: BREAKING NEWS: Armchair Activists Access Their Power
Shelley DeBlasis and Teresa Grettano
Chapter 17: Activism in the Ivory Tower: Finding Hope for Academic Prose
Rebecca Jones
Chapter 18: Reclaiming Activism for Students
Amy Pason
