book review » This Rhetorical Life

In Networking Arguments, Rebecca Dingo enacts a feminist transnational rhetorical analysis of global policies and conferences that are about women’s role in a global economy. Focusing on three rhetorical commonplaces—gender mainstreaming, fitness, and empowerment—Dingo extends traditional rhetorical analysis to account for how arguments shift rhetorically as they are networked. Our conversation begins by us discussing the differences between the three feminist transnational terms Dingo uses to explain exactly how rhetorics shift: transcoding, ideological trafficking, and interarticulation. As we talk about gender mainstreaming—the development of policies that are intended to promote gender equality and women’s best interests—and women’s empowerment, we discuss how transcoding, ideological trafficking, and interarticulation offer different nuanced ways that these well-intending rhetorics shift and are distorted.

An image of Dingo's book cover: Networking Arguments. A night image of people standing on the sidewalk at Times Square.

Networking Arguments: Rhetoric, Transnational Feminism, and Public Policy Writing

Episode 10 features CCR student Kate Navickas interviewing Rebecca Dingo. A follow-up to the transnational feminism panel held in March (which you can listen to here), Dingo discusses both the theoretical and practical concepts highlighted in her book, Networking Arguments.

To read a PDF of the full transcript, please download it here: Transcript for Episode 10

The music sampled in this podcast is Yacht’s “We Have All We Ever Wanted,” “Emo Step Show” by Custodian of Records, and “Golden” by High Places.

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As writers and composition instructors, we struggle to keep up with the influx of new tools and composing spaces, from Twitter and WordPress to tablets and smartphones. Though the digital age might have us believe we live in a unique era, we have always been multimodal, forced to choose between traditional alphabetic writing and other modes of communication, such as speaking, listening, and image making. Or at least, that’s what Jason Palmeri argues in his engaging new book, Remixing Composition, released last spring by Southern Illinois Press.

Remixing Composition: A History of Multimodal Writing Pedagogy by Jason Palmeri

Episode 4 features Jason Palmeri discussing digital and multimodal composing, the challenges of incorporating multimodality into our curricula, and the importance of interdisciplinarity.

To read a PDF of the full transcript, please download it here: Transcript for Episode 4.

The music sampled in this podcast is “One Word Extinguisher” by Prefuse 73.

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Central to our work in Composition and Cultural Rhetoric is the teaching of first year writing. Regardless of your position in the university, you have inevitably found yourself or still find yourself sitting in a dungeon on the bottom floor of a building in a cubicle grading papers, meeting with students, and chatting with colleagues about how life is really unfair. No doubt during one of those venting sessions you have dreamt about how wonderful it would be to be paid more, to have fewer students in each of your classes, and to have more freedom in your classroom to teach what students want and need to learn.

Dangerous Writing: Understanding the Political Economy of Composition by Tony Scott

Episode 3 features Professor Tony Scott talking about the influence and ongoing relevance of his book Dangerous Writing: Understanding the Political Economy of Composition.

To read a PDF of the full transcript, please download it here: Transcript for Episode 3.

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This Rhetorical Life

Episode 10: Interview with Rebecca Dingo

Episode 4: Interview with Jason Palmeri

Episode 3: The Political Economy of Composition with Tony Scott