Be a Force for Good in the World: Rhetoric in Action

We ask symposium participants to emphasize how people (researchers, practitioners, community members, and everyone in between) bring rhetoric into the world. How do people use the theories and skills of rhetoric to do things in our professional and non-professional spaces? How can we extend and explain rhetoric to the people and situations around us, whether that be in the public sphere, the academic sphere, or the private sphere? How can we be a force for good in the world as we put our rhetoric into action?

We are interested in work of various types that discusses how to be a force for good in the world with rhetoric. Potential topics of interest may include, but are not limited to:

What does it look like for academics to take their knowledge of rhetoric into public spaces?
How do community members enact rhetoric and rhetorical principles to get things done?
How do rhetorical principles affect ideas, events, and/or outcomes in nonprofit organizations?
How do people enact rhetoric in legal spaces for the good or ill of all involved in the legal system?
How do academics encourage and enable students to enact rhetoric out in the world, either on their own or as part of an academic enterprise?
How does one learn to do rhetoric out in the world? How does one teach students to do rhetoric out in the world?  
How do people enact rhetoric online to affect positive or negative change? How can positive change be further amplified or developed? How can negative change be combated or counteracted?
How do people balance the desire to enact rhetoric out in the world with the other professional and non-professional commitments that they have?

Proposal deadline: February 28, 2019

Questions? Contact Jennifer Veltsos (drjenniferveltsos at gmail.com)