Spring Course Announcement: Rhetoric and the Public Sphere

COMS 930: Rhetoric and the Public Sphere

Spring 2013              Bailey 401      Tuesdays 6 pm to 9 pm

Professor Jay Childers

Historically, the public sphere has been the space outside of the personal realm where members of a community (i.e., the public) come to communicate with one another about shared concerns, form and maintain a collective identity, and engage in the struggle over who gets what, when and how—to borrow Harold Lasswell’s famous definition of politics.  But, who is this public?  Where is this public sphere?  Do different types of public spheres create different modes of communication?  Do different modes of communication create different types of public spheres?  Can different modes of communication and different types of public spheres create different kinds of publics?  These are the questions underlying the study of rhetoric and the public sphere.

As a way to begin answering some of these questions, this seminar will focus on accomplishing two objectives.  First, the course will introduce students to seven key texts in the study of publics and public spheres.  Indeed, the bulk of the course will focus on foundational books by John Dewey, Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas, and others.  Second, the course will also explore the many ways in which communication and rhetorical scholars have been working to make sense of the public sphere in recent years.  To do so, the final five weeks of class will be devoted to reading contemporary essays on topics that include deliberative democracy, public modalities, constitutive rhetorics, and counterpublics.  The hope is that students will leave this course with an in-depth understanding of some of the key works on the public sphere and a solid grasp of the contemporary issues that communication and rhetorical scholars continue to grapple with today.

Required Texts:

Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958/1998).

John Dewey, The Public & Its Problems (Athens, OH: Swallow Press, 1927/1954).

Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1962/1991).

Gerard Hauser, Vernacular Voices (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1999).

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, 2nd ed. (New York: Verso, 1985/2001).

Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (New York: Free Press, 1925/1997).

Michael Warner, Publics and Couterpublics (Brooklyn, NY: Zone Books, 2002).

In addition to smaller assignments, the seminar will ultimately require a publishable length essay on a topic related to the study of communication/rhetoric and the public sphere.  If you have any questions, please contact the instructor: jaychilders@ku.edu.

Spring Course Announcement: Foucault Seminar

Graduate Seminar Announcement:

COMS 930: Michel Foucault and Biopolitics

Spring 2013 – Wednesdays 9:00am – 12:00pm – Bailey, Room 401

Professor: Dave Tell

Nearly thirty years after his passing, Michel Foucault remains one of the most-cited intellectuals across the humanities and social sciences. In the past five years a once-overlooked Foucauldian concept has proved particularly fecund: biopolitics. Through the efforts of Judith Butler, Giorgio Agamben, Nikolas Rose, and others, biopolitics now sits at the forefront of the Foucauldian imagination. 

This seminar has two primary goals.

1. Introduce students to the work of Michel Foucault. The course is offered as an introduction; no previous engagement with Foucault is required. After beginning with the 1969 Archeology of Knowledge, we will focus on the famous works of the mid-1970s: Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality, vol. 1. We will supplement these works with various interviews and essays in which Foucault grapples with the ideas at play in the major works.
2. Introduce biopolitics. Foucault introduced the term in 1976 (in the last chapter of The History of Sexuality) and, in various ways, grappled with it for his remaining eight years. Because the years 1976-1984 constitute a conspicuous gap in Foucault’s major works, we will be forced to trace the development of biopolitics through his lectures and secondary works. From Foucault, we will read Security, Territory, Population (the 1978 lectures) and The Birth of Biopolitics (the 1979 lectures). We will also consider the uptake of biopolitics by Bulter, Agamben, and, perhaps, Rose and Latour. If time allows, we will turn to the final two volumes of Foucault’s History of Sexuality.  

A Preliminary and Tentative List of Texts:

Agamben, Giorgio, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life

Butler, Judith, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence

---. Frames of War: When is Life Grievable

Foucault, Michel, The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language

---. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

---. The History of Sexuality, Volume One: An Introduction

---. Security Territory Population: Lectures at the Collège de France

---. Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France

---. The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France

---. Power/Knowledge: Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977

Latour, Bruno, The Politics of Nature

The seminar will require a paper of publishable length as well as other, smaller writing assignments. Questions? Please ask me: davetell@ku.edu

RSA Institute Deadline

Word!

The deadline is fast approaching for RSA Institute and you should sign up now!

On top of the fact that it'll be held at our very own lovely campus (quite the honor in itself), and that you'll save tons in travel/hotel fees (since you probably already live here), there is a huge added bonus for KU students to sign up--there is a phat discount! On a personal note...I went two summers ago and it was an invaluable experience.

So, yeah, if you get a chance, at LEAST do a workshop.

Check out the message below from the lovely director (our very own Dave Tell).
-------------
Dear KU GRAD STUDENTS,

As you know, KU is hosting the Rhetoric Society of America Institute in the Kansas Union and Oread Hotel June 2-9, 2013. This is good news for all of us for a lot of reasons. I want to bring one reason to your immediate attention.

Although it has not been publically advertised, there is a special rate for KU grad students to attend the Institute. You can attend even if you are serving on the "local team" helping to arrange the conference. You SHOULD take advantage of this. It is the cheapest way to be a part of an RSA Institute.

If you haven't taken the time yet to learn about the Institute, check it out here.

Check out the amazing list of leaders we are bringing in (and the amazing topics we will cover). As you will see, we are bringing over 50 senior scholars to campus from across the country (and the world!). About half of them come from English depts, half from COMS depts.

Finally, apply here.

The application deadline is only days away, so act quickly.

The $ Lowdown: How cheap is it? KU grad students may attend a Seminar for $305, that's $210 off the published non-member price. KU grad students may attend a Workshop for $205, that's $110 off the published non-member price.

Do you have questions? Please ask me!

Dave

KUAR Meeting Minutes, 9/11/12

KU Ars Rhetorica Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

4:00-5:00PM, Bird Dog Bar @ The Oread Hotel

Meeting start: 4:15PM

Our meeting began with KUAR Chair Evan Center, initiating round-table introductions. We were delighted to see new faces from both the COMS and ENGL departments.

We then discussed upcoming conferences and deadlines for submitting to conferences. 4Cs is in March next year, and deadlines have passed, but the NCA and CSCA are upcoming, and everyone still has the opportunity to submit to CSCA seeing as the deadline is within the next couple of weeks.

Also, some of our new members announced CFPs from the Pop Culture association - so members may want to look into that opportunity.

Our yearly goals are many. On the forefront of our list is to host social and scholarly events. Our first social is scheduled for Sept. 28 (event details TBA), and we would love suggestions for scholarly events. Currently, ideas are circulating for an academic paper workshop, involving KUAR members and COMS and ENGL faculty. Other ideas would be gladly accepted, as well.

One of our more pressing goals is to bring a guest speaker or two to campus. We passed around a list of speaker nominations at the meeting. Contact KUAR Co-Chair Jennifer Nish or Treasurer Chelsea Graham if you would like to weigh-in on the vote or if you have a suggestion for a speaker you'd like to see visit KU.

KUAR will be applying for two grants this year to help see some of these plans to fruition.

Further, KUAR would like to plan a service project within the year (more than likely Spring). We had discussed perhaps a collaboration with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, but we are open to suggestions.

KU will be host to the RSI (Rhetoric Society of America Institute) in June 2013, and there will be plenty of opportunity for KUAR to have a presence. We strongly urge all who are interested to apply to be a part of the conference. As the institute is hosted at KU, and KUAR members are all graduate students, we can receive a discount for the conference registration fees. A list of visiting scholars is available online at this address: http://associationdatabase.com/aws/RSA/pt/sp/institute_seminars. Dr. Dave Tell in COMS is the contact for RSI for more information.

KUAR wants to emphasize campus expansion. Rhetoric is a highly interdisciplinary subject, so spreading the word to departments cross campus is essential. We want people to get involved and to know about our group so that we can usher in new event ideas and create opportunities for individual and group involvement.

If anyone has any suggestions for or would like to actively rally for KUAR funding, please contact KUAR Chair Evan Center or Treasurer Chelsea Graham.

Meeting end: 5:00PM

Rhetoric, Space, and Postmodernity

Dr. Dave Tell will be offering a fantastic seminar titled "Rhetoric, Space, and Postmodernity." IMHO it'll be one of the best classes in rhetoric offered during my time at KU. It's not too late to sign up and it should be great for both American Studies, Rhet Comp, and Coms Rhetoric. Here is a brief description:

Briefly stated, this course will focus on what is sometimes called "the spatial turn": the accellerated development of spatial theory in the last 30 years (with a couple exceptions, the last 20 years). This "turn" was, unsurprisingly, born in the spatial disciplines (geography, urban planning, etc) but it has since captured the entirety of the humanities by storm. We are going to focus on this diffusion of spatial theory. In particular, I want to focus on the movements/slippages between spatial theory and two additional modes of theory: postmodern theory and rhetorical theory. Consider the slippage between spatial theory and postmodern theory: is it coincidental that a (critical) geographer (David Harvey) wrote The Condition of Postmodernity. Or is it coincidental that a number of pomo theorists (Latour, Foucault, and Lyotard come to mind) rely heavily on spatial theory? I think not.

Now add a third term: rhetorical theory. Or, if you prefer, communication theory. Spatial theory is far more than a fad in the literature of communication studies (although it is that too). Spatial theorists talk about communication relentlessly (Latour and Castells come to mind). And rhetorical theorists (even Aristotle) constantly resort to spatial theory. I'll argue that the two fields feed on each other symbiotically, that it is virtually impossible to define one without the other: to think rhetorically is to think spatially and vice-versa. 

In any case, I hope to focus this course on the curious overlappings b/t these three modalities of theory: rhetorical theory, spatial theory, and postmodern theory... 

For more email Dave Tell at davetell@ku.edu and/or simply enroll (COMS 930 #26541) and contact him about the readings. 

Seriously, it may be life changing...

-E

Spring Scholarly Event: Robert Asen

KU Ars Rhetorica has collaborated to secure the funding to bring in super-scholar Dr. Robert Asen from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Come join as he will be doing several events:

• 7:00pm on Monday March 5th Dr. Asen will deliver a lecture titled "Notes on the Relationship Between Deliberation and Trust." His lecture will be in 100 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
• 1:00pm on Tuesday March 6th Dr. Asen will join the Rhetoric and Counterpublics class being co-taught by Frank Farmer (Dept. of English) and Dave Tell (Dept. of Communication Studies).
• 4:00pm on Tuesday March 6th Ars Rhetorica will be hosting a happy-hour meet-and-greet with Dr. Asen at The Bird Dog in The Oread. Come grab a drink and talk shop with Dr. Asen about anything and everything!

The full press release is posted here.

Beers, Rhetoric, and our Springtime Meeting!

Hello KU Rhetoricians!

Mark your calendars and join us on Thursday, February 23rd 2:30-3:30pm for our first meeting of the semester at the Oread restaurant (/Bird Dog Bar). We will be discussing Dr. Robert Asen's visit March 5-7th, our upcoming social, the 2013 Summer Institute, and other rhetorically-relevant topics!

We hope to see you then!

Rachel Bloom

KUAR Chair