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Episode 29: Reflections on Rhetoric and Citizenship

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Oct 262015

I just don’t understand why we have to talk about every mode of belonging as some kind
of citizenship. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. I’m interested in people’s practices of
resistance. I’m interested in people’s practices of belonging. […] I’m interested in people’s practices of world-making. — Karma Chavez

I’m increasingly persuaded by those who argue citizenship is a toxic concept and a toxic term. When I do talk about folks who appeal to citizenship, I’m very aware of how often those appeals to citizenship are built on the constitutive exclusions of others, and that if we really want to mobilize a productive, an emancipatory sense of civic obligation and of civic duty, we’ve got to figure out a way to do it without buying into a privileging conception of citizenship. — Cate Palczewski

In Episode 29, we extend a conversation from the 2015 RSA Summer Institute Seminar on Rhetorics of Citizenship. Karrieann Soto and Kate Siegfried host the discussion with co-seminarians Karma Chavez and Cate Palczewski. The episode asks that we critically question rhetorics of citizenship in our scholarship and in daily life. For a full transcript, click here.

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Episode 26: Conversations about Academic Labor, Academic Freedom, and Palestine

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Dec 182014

There’s a certain set of conceits around academic freedom that limit its functionality and its practice, and those conceits often have to do with critiques of state power, critiques of colonization, critiques of structural violence. –Steven Salaita

I think using academic freedom as a way to open these more political conversations and more potentially more transformative conversations about Palestine and about labor, and allowing people to see the connections between these issues is really important. –Vincent Lloyd

Organizing around solidarity communities and connecting with allies and creating networks of solidarity in that way is so crucial. We cannot resist in isolation. –Carol Fadda-Conrey

Steven Salaita, Vincent Lloyd, and Carol Fadda-Conrey

How do the precarious conditions of academic labor affect the conversations that are possible in the academy? How does academic freedom protect—or fail to protect—academics from doing politicized work? How do questions of Palestine in particular affect our understandings of academic labor and academic freedom—and vice versa? In episode 26, Steven Salaita, who lost a tenured job offer after writing a series of tweets condemning Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge,” talks about the rhetorical commonplaces of civility in the academy, and the stakes of circulating critiques of state power on various media platforms. Assistant professor of religion Vincent Lloyd, and associate professor of English Carol Fadda-Conrey—who helped to organize a talk by Salaita on SU’s campus this fall—reflect on their academic trajectories and political work, offer suggestions for how young scholars can build networks of support, and remind us to realize the critical potential of our discipline.

To access a PDF of the full transcript, please click here: Transcript for Episode 26

The music sampled in this podcast is akaUNO’s “Hidden Leaves,” and “Another Word” by The Left Curve.

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Episode 22: (Social) Media Representations of Venezuela Protests

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May 272014

[T]he danger of [sharing posts] is getting swept up when there’s this frantic information exchange, and you find yourself endorsing values and agendas that you would not normally agree with, and that’s a little bit scary. But I think there’s also potential there. This is not to demonize social media as a site of exchange—I think it has tremendous potential. The question here is how to have meaningful conversations. —Yanira Rodriguez

Image of "The Game Changed in Venezuela Last Night" blog post--shows image of San Cristobal on fire and the first two paragraphs of the post.

“The Game Changed in Venezuela Last Night” via Caracas Chronicles

Episode 22 features a conversation between Ben Kuebrich and Yanira Rodriguez about the representations of the Venezuela protests earlier this year, focusing particularly on how the protests and political situation was represented through the February 20th blog post, “The Game Changed in Venezuela Last Night – and the International Media Is Asleep at the Switch.” Kuebrich and Rodriguez raise questions about international news coverage, the representation and circulation of news on social media, and how we can read news articles more critically.

To access a PDF of the full transcript, please click here: Transcript for Episode 22

The music sampled in this podcast is “As Colorful as Ever” by Broke for Free, “Adventure, Darling” by Gillicuddy, and “Y por qué no hacer una canción de Facebook y cantarla en un camión?”

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Episode 21: Reflections on Latin@ Rhetorics

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May 092014

“The ethos of Latina/o Rhetoric is embodied in many of the traditions of resistance that link back to first contact with Europeans in the Americas spanning across time and space to current moments and sites of resistance. Whether it’s the colonialism of Columbus or the neocolonialism of states like Arizona, Latina/o rhetoricians are not lacking in moments of kairos or polemics in the polis that necessitate rhetorical invention to communicate and respond to dominant systems of power.” – Cruz Medina

Episode 21 features a collaboration with the Fall 2013 special issue of Reflections: “Latin@s in Public Rhetoric, Civic Writing, and Service-Learning” about how scholars are defining Latina/o rhetorics and why it’s an important issue for the field right now.

To read a PDF of the full transcript, please download it here: Transcript for Episode 21

The music sampled in this podcast is “The Afterlife” by YACHT, “Readers! Do You Read?” by Chris Zabriskie, “Tea Top” by ROW, and “Separate Ways Remix” and “Walking All Day Long” by Willbe.

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Episode 16: A One-Woman Show with Elaine Richardson

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Dec 042013

[P]eople say things around you all the time that make you feel like you’re not normal, and so even though people probably look at that, “Well how can you say that you loved a pimp?” Or, “How could you even think that a pimp loved you?” Like I said, people put you in a box and label you, and nobody really is normal. How do we know what that is? What does that mean? We’re all human beings. What does that mean that we’re not normal, you know what I mean? We all feel love, pain, hate. We feel all the things that human beings can feel—jealousy, everything! When you consume that abnormality from the people around you, you believe it. It’s complicated.

Image shows Elaine Richardson dancing--arm outstretched and head turned to the side. Her mouth is open as she sings. Behind her is a projected image of her mother with an accompanying news article.

Elaine Richardson dancing and singing during her one-woman show at Syracuse University, October 17, 2013

Episode 16 features a lively interview with Elaine Richardson who performed her one-woman show based on excerpts from her recent memoir—PHD to PhD: How Education Saved My Life—at Syracuse University on October 17th. In this interview, she and CCR’s Seth Davis discuss the memoir, African American rhetoric and language diversity, the George Zimmerman trial, and even RuPaul (and his rhetorical agility!).

To read a PDF of the full transcript, please download it here: Transcript for Episode 16. Thanks for listening to This Rhetorical Life.

The music sampled in this podcast is “Lost Tape” by Loopez and “ZootSuit” by Tab & Anitek.

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Episode 14: Interview with Cristina Ramirez

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Nov 012013

So we’re starting by defining the topic or the term of latina. Who is being included in that? Then we’re looking at questions of who are we going to include? Why are we going to include them? And which works are significant and important in talking about nationalism and feminism?

Image of a sign on a building that reads, "Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies / The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection"

The Benson Latin American Collection (cristinadramirez.com)

Episode 14 features an interview with Cristina Devereaux Ramírez at the 2013 Feminism and Rhetorics Conference at Stanford University. In this episode, Ramírez discusses her upcoming book project Mestiza Rhetoric: Ocupando Nuestro Puesto (Claiming Our Space), an anthology collaboration with Jessica Enoch on Mexican women journalists, and the choices we make as archival researchers about whose voices to include and how these voices can contributely positively not only to the field of rhetoric and composition but also to young latina students.

To read a PDF of the full transcript, please download it here: Transcript for Episode 14

The music sampled in this podcast is “As Colorful as Ever” by Broke for Free and “From Stardust to Sentience” by High Places.

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Episode 13: Uncivil Rhetoric

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Oct 092013

I think that when we look at rhetorical means in relation to people who are making decisions that are destroying the planet, that are destroying people’s lives, that are immiserating and incarcerating large numbers of especially people of color around the country and around the globe, we should not be concerned about making them comfortable. We should not be concerned about finding a seat at their table. We should be thinking about how it is that we get together so that collectively we can make them very uncomfortable so that we can change them and—again—to do this collectively, democratically in a way that we discover ourselves and each other. — Nancy Welch

[W]e’re part of this larger national movement, and so when we’re in Syracuse and we have this opportunity in front of us, my thought was that anyone in the country who has been paying attention to the treatment of Bradley Manning should take the opportunity to, you know, call out President Obama on this issue because he ultimately has the power. — Ursula Rozum

Image from August 22nd Interruption of Obama at Henninger High School in Syracuse. Amelia Ramsey-Lefevre shouts through cupped hands as she and Ursula Rozum are escorted out of the gymnasium.

Amelia Ramsey-Lefevre shouts through cupped hands as she and Ursula Rozum are escorted out of Obama’s speech in Syracuse, August 22nd.

Episode 13 is a two-part episode that features an interview with Nancy Welch discussing the motivation for her scholarly work, composition’s activist roots, and the importance of participating in activist collaborations once tenured. The second part features an interview with Ursula Rozum and Amelia Ramsey-Lefevre who interrupted President Obama’s speech at Henninger High School on August 22, 2013 in order to ask Obama to pardon Private Manning through nonviolent free speech action. This podcast blends activism in both academic and public contexts, highlighting the ways that particular rhetorical acts are treated as un/civil.

To read a PDF of the full transcript, please download it here: Transcript for Episode 13

The music sampled in this podcast is “Biomythos” by Revolution Void, “Indyair” by Springtide, “Note Drop” by Broke for Free, and “Subterranean Zerbie” by The Mork Quartet.

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Episode 10: Interview with Rebecca Dingo

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Jul 162013

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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Episode 9: Overcoming Cancer

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May 242013

Overcoming rhetoric is not limited to disability—we see it in motivational messages every day that ask people not to let obstacles get in their way, as if they can so simply choose to make those decisions. And while Jolie’s op-ed is not about disability per se, there are strong overlaps here to how we make choices about our bodies, how we represent our bodies, and how we literally (through reconstructive surgery) construct our bodies to fit the norms set for them by societal conceptions of “beauty” and “women.”

Billboard image that reads, "Threw cancer a curve ball. Overcoming. Pass it On." Image of a boy in a baseball uniform with one leg.

Billboard image: “Threw cancer a curve ball. Overcoming. Pass it On.” (image via values.com)

This episode addresses the overcoming rhetoric around cancer and the expectations that we set for women’s bodies—a conversation that stems from Angelina Jolie’s May 14th New York Times op-ed titled “My Medical Choice.”

To read a PDF of the full transcript, please download it here: Transcript for Episode 9.

The music sampled in this podcast is “Quartz Boy” and “Cartoon Friend” by Pixie Lord.

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Episode 8: “The Silent Protest” with John Carlos

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May 042013

The video provides details referenced in Carlos’s remarks over the next hour, the conditions of racism that John Carlos’s actions responded to, his childhood in Harlem, how he got involved with the Olympic Project for Human Rights, and other details about how the silent protest was developed and interpreted in its time.

The John Carlos Story (image via johncarlos68.com)

Episode 8 features a recording of Dr. John Carlos’s featured session at CCCC in Las Vegas this past March (read the description here). Shannon Carter, Associate Professor of English from Texas A&M-Commerce, has been working closely with Carlos and introduces his keynote by identifying three themes that are relevant to our field: time, collective action, and reciprocity. In his address, Carlos offers insights into the 1968 Mexico City silent protest, his experiences facing racial prejudice, and the choices we all make as writers working for social justice.

To read a PDF of the full transcript, please download it here: Transcript for Episode 8.

The music sampled in this podcast includes Prefuse 73, J Dilla, Digable Planets, Curtis Mayfield, & Mos Def.

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