Rhetoric Before and Beyond Post-Truth: Afterwords
Rhetoricity
This special episode of Rhetoricity features a roundtable that also serves as the "Afterwords" for a forthcoming collection entitled Rhetoric Before and Beyond Post-Truth. That collection is edited by Scott Sundvall, Caddie Alford, and Ira Allen and will be published by the in 2026. The featured panelists are James Ball, Barbara Biesecker, Omedi Ochieng, Robin Reames, and Ryan Skinnell. See below for more detailed bios of the panelists. The roundtable focuses on key questions from Rhetoric Before and Beyond Post-Truth: what we mean by “post-truth,” how it intersects with rhetoric, and...
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No End to the Struggle: An Interview with Derek G. Handley
Rhetoricity
This episode features an interview with , author of the book . Dr. Handley is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He is also affiliated faculty in the African and African Diaspora Studies Department and in the Urban Studies program. Before that, he was a Chamberlain Project Fellow in English and Black Studies at Amherst College and a Predoctoral Mellon Fellow at the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference at Emory University. He has taught at Lehigh University, the United States Naval Academy, and the...
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Sensitivity, Solidarity, and Higher Education: An Interview with Kendall Gerdes
Rhetoricity
This episode features an interview with . Dr. Gerdes is an associate professor in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies at the University of Utah, where she also serves as president of the local chapter of the American Association of University Professors. This interview focuses on her book , which won the Conference on College Composition and Communication’s 2025 Outstanding Book Award. In addition to Sensitive Rhetorics, Dr. Gerdes coedited the collection and has published articles in such journals as Philosophy & Rhetoric, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and Kairos. The...
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Where the Writing Is: An Interview with Ashley J. Holmes
Rhetoricity
This episode features an interview with . Dr. Holmes is Associate Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning at Oregon State University, where she leads the Center for Teaching and Learning in supporting effective, innovative, and scholarly teaching that engages students in meaningful learning experiences. She has published books, articles, and chapters in writing studies. One of those books is 2023's , which was also the focus of Dr. Holmes' keynote at the 2024 , an annual event hosted at Middle Tennessee State University. This interview was recorded during her visit for that symposium. In adding...
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Rhetorical, Material, Critical Bodies: An Interview With Christina Cedillo
Rhetoricity
This episode features an interview with . Dr. Cedillo is an associate professor at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, where she recently won the 2024 President’s Research Award. Her research lies at the intersections of race, gender, and disability. She examines how legal, scientific, and popular discourses circumscribe the embodied lives of marginalized populations, and how those populations enact rhetorical presence and engage in rehumanization practices using multimodality and digital technologies. In this episode, she discusses a number of her projects. Those include focused on...
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Podcasting in the Classroom: A Roundtable on the Humanities Podcast Network’s Teaching Manual
Rhetoricity
This episode features a roundtable conversation by contributors to , an open-access, lesson plan-based manual on integrating podcasts into humanities courses. That manual was written by members of the 's pedagogy working group. The discussion features six of its coauthors: , , , , , and . They discuss how they came to podcasting and teaching podcasts, their respective sections of the manual, and the possibilities and challenges of having students make podcasts in courses in and around the humanities. This episode features a clip from Ketsa's
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"The Path Chose Me": Keith Gilyard on His Career, Writing, and Legacy
Rhetoricity
This episode features an interview with conducted by guest host during the 2023 Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute at Penn State University. They discuss Gilyard's path to a career in rhetoric, writing, and composition studies; his writing process and creative writing; academic mentorship and leadership; and his legacy and contributions to the field of African American rhetoric. Keith Gilyard is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English and African American Studies at Penn State University. He formerly was a member of the faculty at Syracuse University and at Medgar Evers College...
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Food, Feelings, and Other Rhetorical Sensitivities: An Interview with Jennifer LeMesurier
Rhetoricity
This episode features an interview with . The conversation, recorded at this year's Conference on College Composition and Communication, focuses on her 2023 book . That book explores how the rhetorical framing of food and eating underpins our understanding of Asian and Asian American identity in the contemporary racial landscape. Dr. LeMesurier is Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at Colgate University. Her areas of expertise include bodily and material rhetorics, genre theory, discourse analysis, qualitative research, and affect theory. In addition to Inscrutable Eating, she...
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AI Goes to College: Large Language Models and the Teaching of Writing
Rhetoricity
This episode of Rhetoricity features members of the : , , , , and . The task force also includes Leonardo Flores, David Green, Matthew Kirschenbaum, and A. Lockett. In July 2023, that task force published a laying out issues, principles, and recommendations related to the effects of generative artificial-intelligence tools on the college writing courses. In this episode's roundtable discussion, these task force members clarify some of the terminology around AI technologies, reflect on the process of writing the working paper, and discuss the pedagogical, historical, and labor...
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Rhetoricians Assemble: A Roundtable of Black Rhetoric Faculty
Rhetoricity
This is the third Rhetoricity episode guest-hosted by . It's also part of . The episode was recorded at the 2022 Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, and marks the two-year anniversary of the protests against anti-Black police violence that took place in the summer of 2020. Moderated by Dr. Handley, it features a roundtable of Black rhetoricians: , , , , and . They share the paths and choices that led them to become rhetoric scholars, reflect on the limitations of antiracist initiatives in higher education since 2020, and discuss the extra work colleges and universities often demand of Black...
info_outlineThis episode features an interview with Dr. Ryan Skinnell, assistant professor at San José State University and editor of the recent collection Faking the News: What Rhetoric Can Teach Us About Donald J. Trump. That collection is the focal point of the episode.
This interview was recorded at the 2018 Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Because Faking the News is meant to speak to audiences beyond academia, we tried to approach the interview in a way that would be accessible for those who don't have advanced degrees in rhetoric and writing. We discuss what exactly rhetoric and demagoguery are, what sets rhetoric scholars apart from other academic experts, and strategies for maintaining momentum on writing projects. Oh, and pajama pants.
In addition to editing Faking the News, Skinnell is the author of the book Conceding Composition: A Crooked History of Composition's Institutional Fortunes, coeditor of a forthcoming collection called Reinventing (with) Theory in Rhetoric and Writing Studies, and an editor for the website Citizen Critics, which brings rhetoric scholarship to bear on the news of the day for a mainstream audience. He’s also currently researching and writing about rhetoric and guns and fascist rhetoric. And last but not least, he’s editing a forthcoming special issue of the journal Rhetoric Society Quarterly entitled “Rhetoric’s Demagogue | Demagoguery’s Rhetoric.”
This episode features a clip of the song "Grifted" by Literature.