Chelona RSA | Archives | 2016

Member Spotlight – September

Date August 31, 2016

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As we enter our second year of official RSA graduate chapter-hood, we want to begin spotlighting the fantastic people we have as members. Our members conduct important research, inspire undergraduates, and lead fascinating lives outside of their academic pursuits. Our first member spotlight is second-term Vice President and founding member, Annie Laurie Nichols (COMM, PhD Candidate).

When I moved abroad I had a very small suitcase, so I only took three books with me:

I love to wander (I’ve visited 15 countries and counting!), but also enjoy the comforts of a good day at home eating seed cake (yeah, I’m a foodie), so I brought The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Also I’m a nerd.

To stay grounded, I try to appreciate the beauty in everyday things, so I brought the poignant, whimsical Translations from the Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke.

Finally, I’m fascinated by how we make meaning together, so I brought my favorite book of rhetorical theory: Language as Symbolic Action, by Kenneth Burke.

If you were moving to another continent with a small suitcase and could only bring three books, what would you bring?

Thank you, Annie Laurie, for your service, dedication, and contributions to our organization.

Fall Reading Group Details Announced!

Date August 14, 2016

Posted by Rebecca Alt

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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!

Terps Talk Politics: Symposium on the 2016 Presidential Election

Date August 11, 2016

Posted by Rebecca Alt

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Terps Talk Politics: Symposium on the 2016 Presidential Election

The 2016 Presidential Election has brought us Hillary Clinton’s nomination as the first woman candidate for a major party, Donald Trump’s unexpected success, and a wealth of things to discuss!

As such important civic and democratic exercises, elections are vital to understanding and reflecting on the significance of communicative and rhetorical actions. Fortunately, there are many scholars at the University of Maryland and the surrounding region whose research centers on these very important topics!

Chelóna RSA is proud to host an exciting symposium-style workshop for the University of Maryland campus community the evening of October 27th, 2016 in Francis Scott Key Hall.

This event is sponsored by the University of Maryland Pepsi Enhancement Fund and presented in coordination with the Department of Communication’s Oral Communication Center (OCC). The keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Leticia Bode, assistant professor of political communication and new media at Georgetown University. In addition to Dr. Bode’s address, Terps Talk Politics will feature simultaneous panel presentations and discussions throughout the event.

Hors d’oeuvres and souvenirs will be provided for all attendees.

Admission to this event is completely free, though we do require attendees to register at this link. Once you’re registered, please RSVP on Facebook and share the event with your friends and colleagues! We look forward to a rhetorical discussion of the 2016 Presidential Election with you!

Full program details:

Session 1: 5:00-5:25pm

Key 0103: “The Gender Politics of the 2016 Presidential Debates,” Dr. Carly Woods (COMM)

Key 0120: “Why did Mr. Khizer Khan’s Speech at the DNC go viral?,” Dr. Kathleen Kendall and Dr. Sahar Khamis (COMM)

Session 2: 5:30-5:55pm

Key 0103: “Corpus Approaches to Analyzing Rhetorical Commonplaces in Primary Speeches,” Cameron Mozafari (English)

Key 0120: “Children are Watching”: Political Media Literacy in the 2016 Presidential Election, Thomas McCloskey (COMM)

Session 3: 6:00-6:25pm

Key 0103: “Trump, Twitter, and Public Argument,” Dr. Damien Pfister (COMM)

Key 0120: “’Just so you understand, OK?’: Donald Trump’s Interactive Rhetoric,” Dr. Linda Coleman (English)

Keynote Speaker, Dr. Leticia Bode: 6:30-7:30pm, Key 0106

Session 4: 7:35-8:00pm

Key 0103: “Donald Trump: The Orange Herring,” Hagar Attia and Lauren Hunter (COMM)

Key 0120: “’What are you afraid of?’: Strategic, Civic, and Moral Dimensions of Non-Participation in Presidential Campaign Debate,” Taylor Hahn (JHU) and Jade Olson (COMM)

Key 0106: “’Good news, we’re all moving to Canada’: The 2016 Presidential Election and Political Satire,” Kim Hannah-Prater (COMM)

Session 5: 8:05-8:30pm

Key 0103: “Fear and Loathing in New Hampshire,” Devin Scott, Katie Brown, and Will Howell (COMM)

Key 0120:“Campaign Rhetoric in the Digital Age,” Dr. Sarah Oates (Journalism)

Key 0106: Presentation of PARCS, Presidential Advertising White Paper: Campaign 2016