Recap: Dr. David Zarefsky Ars Rhetorica Luncheon

The Ars Rhetorica luncheon with RSA President Dr. David Zarefsky of Northwestern Unviersity was a great success. He spoke about the contemporary state of rhetoric and opened up the floor for a Q&A. Dr. Zarefsky’s disciplinary wisdom shined through as he addressed where the discipline is heading, how to excel as a rhetoric graduate student, and even gave specific suggestions for our own RSA Student Chapter Ars Rhetorica.

Dr. Zarefsky held a sense of grounded optimism about the field of Rhetoric throughout his talk. "As humanities continues to take language seriously more and more disciplines have a growing interest in rhetoric,” said Zarefsky. While the job market for rhetoricians may be tight, unlike many areas of the humanities, Dr. Zarefsky believes that the area of rhetoric is expanding.

Commenting on rhetoric as a stabilized discipline Dr. Zarefsky repeatedly emphasized a discipline is pragmatically “created by the people that exist within it.” Thus, rhetoric is both stabilized and expanded based on the production of its scholars. This also means, added Dr. Zarefsky, that rhetoric growth evidences how “it has not allowed itself to be [methodologically] constricted by the university system.”

Practically he encouraged graduate students to dive deep within the “roots” of a focused trajectory. In this way students can get a concrete grasp on phenomena that can lead to an expanded audience of one's rhetorical findings - such as the audience a book provides.

Concerning Ars Rhetorica specifically he encouraged us to continue to “be as active and visible as you can.” “As you grow within KU,” said Dr. Zarefsky, “you’ll also grow in prestige nationally concerning other organizations like RSA.”

The talk was quite an optimistic, yet grounded, look at the rhetorical field. While we may have departmental overlap it is our generation's task to work together. So as KU Ars Rhetorica moves on, lets push to be more visible locally and nationally. Let’s actively participate in the discourse of rhetoric and stay tuned for the specific ways in which we can expand together.