Chelona RSA | Tag | undergraduates

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

Welcome to the official page of Cheló̱na RSA!

We are the University of Maryland’s graduate student chapter of the Rhetoric Society of America. Cheló̱na (the Greek, χελώνα) means “turtle.” Terp pride!

RSA is dedicated to bringing scholars of rhetoric together across traditional university and field boundaries, and it is our mission to do the same at Maryland.

Why is this important? At the Biennial RSA Institute last June, the joint-keynote speakers emphasized this message: Inter-, Intra-, or Trans- disciplinarity encourages the most fruitful academic conversations. The speakers jokingly lamented that Communication rhetoricians and English rhetoricians “don’t understand each other.” The truth of that statement reinforces the exigence for RSA, and consequently, university student chapters that support the future academics in the field of rhetoric.

Along with our parent organization, we strive to make scholarly and pedagogical collaboration between Comm and English rhetoricians not only possible, but regular. Through various programs, workshops, colloquia, and other initiatives, we hope to foster an academic climate in rhetoric that supports the interests, needs, and desires of our graduate students at Maryland.

Our mission is not solely about enriching our own experiences. Cheló̱na RSA also recognizes the number of undergraduate students at the University of Maryland who are interested in studying rhetoric now and possibly later in graduate education. These are our students, and their ideas, issues, and needs matter to us. We seek to support them through mentoring programs and by providing opportunities for their academic growth and advancement.

We also hope to engage in the wider scholarly and civic communities we are a part of. Our Conferences and Rhetorical Community Activism committees ensure that our members are taking advantage of opportunities to attend national, regional, and local conferences as well as opportunities to serve our university community and the neighborhoods in which we live and work.

Members of Cheló̱na RSA have a shared belief in not only the work we do as professionals, but the manner in which we do that work. Crossing arbitrary disciplinary and university boundaries demonstrates the commitment to meaningful scholarship, valuable networking, and collegiality.

We hope to continue this work for many years to come at the University of Maryland.

Rebecca Alt
2015/2016 President

Tag Archives: undergraduates

Terps Talk Politics: Symposium on the 2016 Presidential Election

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