Fall 2018 Coffee and Klatch Series

Welcome back, Terps!

We hope you had a wonderful summer. Now that the fall semester is in full swing, we cordially invite you to join us for our Coffee and Klatch series.

You may be asking, what is a Coffee & Klatch?

 “A social gathering, especially for coffee and conversation.”

These informal sessions are designed to build community and develop ideas. And drink coffee. Don’t like coffee? No worries. We are emphasizing the community building aspect of the klatch. Keep your eyes peeled for the specific locations, but mark your calendars for our fall schedule:

Friday, Sept. 7 | 11:00 to noon
“Accountabili-buddies”
Establishing productive work habits is a battle. We get it. Join us for help setting up a buddy to keep you accountable for those deadlines.
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Tuesday, Oct. 2 | 1:30 to 3:00 PM
Article Swap
Whatcha workin’ on? Hang out with fellow smarties to get some feedback on that project you’ve been trying to get out forever.
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Thursday, Nov. 1 | 2:00-3:30 PM
Conference Prep
Y’all ready for NCA? Come get ready with us.

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Wednesday, Dec. 12 | 4 to 5 PM
Happy Hour Edition

‘Nuff said!
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Remember, “Klatch” is pretty darn close to “clutch.” We hope you take advantage of this series!

Register for Archival Symposium, April 13 – 15, College Park, MD

Cheló̱na RSA, the University of Maryland’s graduate student chapter of the Rhetoric Society of America, is thrilled to announce the creation of the Cheló̱na RSA Archival Symposium, hosted at the University of Maryland, College Park from Thursday, April 13 to Saturday, April 15.

This three-day event aims to prepare graduate students for archival research, including a trip to one of the many archives in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Graduate students with an interest in archival research will have the opportunity to learn from UMD archivists and experienced faculty members about archival research. While graduate students often recognize departmental or disciplinary expectations to conduct archival research, they frequently lack the training or opportunity to do so. This symposium aims to help close this gap and empower students in their own research areas.

This symposium will include paneled talks with faculty and archivists, as well as a working trip to an archive of the participants’ choice in the Washington, D.C. area. Participants will be able to use public transportation from the University of Maryland. The symposium will close with facilitated roundtable discussions about the opportunities, challenges, and specific research agendas associated with archival research.

Cheló̱na RSA intends this symposium to be an interdisciplinary place where students from across the university are welcomed to learn, explore, and share their work with each other in a collaborative atmosphere. For those who are new to archival research (as many graduate students are) entering the archive can be a daunting task, while those who have sat long hours in reading rooms can attest to the challenges inherent in archival work. With Washington, D.C. as the picturesque backdrop for this meeting of the minds, the Cheló̱na RSA Archival Symposium invites collaboration while supporting a future generation of scholars in their quest for archival literacy.

The symposium will be capped at 30 participants to facilitate a productive, working environment. Interested applicants need to complete the Cheló̱na RSA Archives Symposium Application Form (Name, Institutional information, brief research statement, and archival interest) by 5:00pm Wednesday, March 15. Accepted applicants will be notified by Monday, March 20.
Please direct questions to the Conference Committee Chair, Jaclyn Bruner (jbruner@umd.edu).

Click here to view the symposium schedule.

Fall Reading Group Details Announced!

You are invited to join our reading group!

The Chelona RSA reading group was created to help us stay up-to-date with recent publications in our field. We are starting with Rhetoric Society Quarterly’s first issue of 2016 (46:1). We will meet once a month on Tuesdays: September 20th (Skinner 2127), October 11th, and November 15th (Skinner 3117) from 4:00-5:30 pm.

RSQ’s new editor, Susan Jarratt, comments that “rhetoricians have developed increasingly refined strands of scholarship. These refinements certainly produce ever more interesting pockets of research, but these gains also simultaneously open up distance between scholarly subfields. Where do we meet across those differences?” Her proposal is that we read each issue of RSQ not as four disparate articles, but as “islands… linked into an archipelago” (2). To that end, each issue of RSQ includes a short response that attempts to map common threads and synthesize the articles.

To capitalize on this new format, we will discuss one issue of RSQ at each reading group meeting. But don’t worry; you need only choose one article to read (sign up here), then read Christa Olson’s Response. UMD already has electronic copies of all articles, so they should be easy to access.

Come to the reading group prepared to discuss the article you signed up for. Think particularly about:

  • how the article fits into the field of rhetorical scholarship
  • what it adds to our knowledge of rhetoric
  • points that were especially compelling to you
  • Jarratt’s proposal that we look for intersections in even disparate scholarship and Olson’s response to that (What do we gain by taking this approach? What might we lose?)

See you on September 20th!

Annie Laurie

Annie Laurie Nichols
Chelona RSA Reading Group Chair
alnich@umd.edu


Don’t forget to check out our organization’s calendar and add it to your own Google Calendar to see all of the events, meetings, and deadline reminders in one convenient place!