RhetCanada 2022 Conference Programme
Note: If you are registered for the conference, you should have received an email with instructions to access the Conference Site. If you have not received an email, please contact Bruce Dadey (badadey@uwaterloo.ca) for instructions.
Note: All times EDT (Toronto) Time. Adjust for your time zone: -3 BC | -2 AB/SK | -1 MB | +1 Maritimes (+1.5 NL)
Wednesday, June 1
Thursday, June 2
| Time | Session |
| 9:00-10:00 | Political Tropes |
| 10:15-11:15 | Historical and Contemporary Indigenous Rhetoric |
| 11:45-12:45 | Musical Rhetorics |
| 1:00-2:00 | Two Studies of Visual Rhetoric |
| 2:15-3:00 | Burkean Parlor
What has the pandemic taught us about rhetoric? |
Friday, June 3
Note: The sessions from 9:00-9:40 a.m. are based on pre-recorded on-demand presentations that will be available in our Team site’s On Demand Recordings folder on May 26. Please view the presentations before these sessions, which are discussion about the papers.
| Time | Session |
| 9:00-9:20 | Classical Themes |
| 9:20-9:40 | The Rhetoric of Fiction |
| 10:00-11:00 | Sporting Rhetoric
|
| 11:15-12:15 | Rhetoric of Patients |
| 12:45-1:45 | Rhetoric and Technology
|
| 2:00-2:45 |
Burkean Parlor
What are the benefits of and issues around applying the term “rhetoric” to the communication practices of non-western cultures? |
| 3:00-3:15 | Bruce Dadey, Closing remarks |
Descriptions
UNESCO and its Global Partners in the reshape of Education: A Post-Pandemic Herculean Task?
Andrea Valente
This presentation analyses and discusses rhetorical elements in a recent report issued by UNESCO, “Acting for recovery, resilience and reimagining education” in order to identify how they frame themselves as global players, based on pillars and missions seen as metaphors to express their potency and authority to disseminate educational services.
Proleptic Logics, Emotion, and Ethics in Climate Communications
Sarah Doody, Carolyn Eckert, Sarah Forst, Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher, Brad Mehlenbacher
Prolepsis, as anticipation, is a commonly used figure in communication about the climate emergency, demanding attention in its various deployments, configurations, and, importantly, rhetorical inducements. Such inducements may rely upon feelings of hope or fear, and this study examines the rhetorical and ethical conditions prolepsis may generate.
“im gonna destroy the world before it destroys me:” Rhetoric and Construction Grammar
Queenie Chen, Romina Hashemi, and Randy Harris
Based on an analysis of a small family of figurative constructions, exemplified in our title, “im gonna destroy the world before it destroys me,” we argue for a convergence of cognitive rhetoric and construction grammar.
Reading from Multiple Contexts: Metaphor analysis and rhetorical genre studies
Natalia Toronchuk
A joint metaphor analysis and rhetorical genre studies project on Japanese Canadian museum exhibition panels will be explored. This convergent approach may further understanding of meaning-making, communication, reconciliation and acknowledgement of difficult historical topics. The analysis emphasizes the roles, relationships and responsive behaviour of museum writers and visiting readers.
Re-Storying Intelligent Bodies: Toward Reflective Rhetorics of Reconciliation
Wendy Shilton
This presentation addresses the core need for decolonizing rhetorics to recognize Indigenous Traditional Knowledge as a distinct, highly developed, deeply integrated knowledge system at the root of Euro-western colonization if transformative processes toward Reconciliation are to succeed.
Entelechies of Commemoration: Remembering the Tracadie and D’Arcy Island Lazaretti
John Moffatt and Tess Laidlaw
Racism and xenophobia fuelled the establishment of leper colonies at Tracadie, New Brunswick and D’Arcy Island, British Columbia in the 1800s. The current pandemic’s exposure of racist ideologies regarding disease enables an entelechial analysis of promotional discourse for these historic sites as a potential counter-rhetoric resisting racialization of disease.
The Phenomenology of Feeling Like Shit: Apology and Reconciliation in the Wake of the “MeToo” Movement
Eryn Holbrook
Is it possible to craft an apology so perfect that it guarantees acceptance? The number of reference manuals on the subject suggests that there may be a magic formula. Using the example of a public apology offered by a celebrity in the wake of the MeToo movement, I will evaluate whether it deserved to be called a “masterclass in apology”.
Learning from Allies and Champions: A Transformative Study on the Recruitment and Retention of Women in Saskatchewan Mining and Engineering
Jocelyn Peltier-Huntley
Researchers interviewed active allies and equity champions to capture examples and best practices of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) implementations in workplaces and institutions. We will share actions and learnings from the 17 participants and offer interventions and strategies being developed to further activate workplace allies.
Reconciling Rhetorical and Social Theories of Influence
Jonathan Doering
Exploring rhetoric’s relationship to ‘social theory’ (e.g. sociology and anthropology), this paper suggests how and why rhetoric scholars might adapt social theories of influence or meet in the middle between disciplines. To this end, what should we concede?
Beyond Cultural Inheritance: Reconfiguring Genres Through Cultural Rhetoric’s Perspectives
Stephen Dadugblor
Examining genres adopted and adapted cross-culturally, this paper critiques rhetorical genre studies’ commitments to genres as cultural inheritance and argues for the integration of cultural rhetorics perspectives that reconfigure our understanding of genres as they move from one cultural domain to another.
Becoming Trudeau 2.0: The Rhetorical Influence of Instagram of Canada’s Federal Leaders’ Debates, Comparing 2015 to 2019
Monique Kampherm
In examining social media, Canada’s 2015 Maclean’s Leaders’ Debate, and Canada’s 2019 English-Language Leaders’ Debate, I chart how the rhetorical figures prosopopoeia and ethopoeia, moderately used in 2015 and more pronounced in 2019, have assisted in spurring Trudeau’s resilience as Canada’s Prime Minister and his robust digital social media following.
Mandela’s Provocative Troping of Peace, Truth, and Reconciliation
Patricia Ofili
Nelson Mandela’s constitution of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is an embodiment of kairotic ontology and an example of his communal troping. The TRC is provocative because instead of seeking retribution for the apartheid injustices, Mandela seeks peace through truth-telling and reconciliation.
Indigenous Voices and Discursive Hybridity in Early French Travel Accounts of Hudson Bay (1682-1713)
Constance Cartmill
Indigenous discourse in early French travel accounts of Hudson Bay demonstrated an ability to exploit Indigenous culture for the purposes of colonization. A rhetoric of suffering, used as a tool of Indigenous diplomacy, was misinterpreted by the French newcomers, contributing to the familiar trope of “white saviourism”.
“Round Dance Revolution”: The Rhetorical Impacts of Idle No More-Affiliated Round Dances
Maša Torbica
This paper examines how Idle No More-affiliated round dances, which leverage public affirmation of Indigeneity to form symbolic and embodied critiques of settler colonialism, also meaningfully challenge the heteropatriarchal constraints of coloniality by foregrounding the leadership and participation of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.
The Rhetoric of Reconciliation in the Music of Ubu and the Truth Commission
Máire Slater
An analysis of the musical rhetoric in Ubu and the Truth Commission uncovers a problematization of the concept of reconciliation through instrumentation, the use of protest music, and harmonic function, which defamiliarizes the idea of ‘home’ and reveals Pa Ubu’s powerful position through his identification with the dominant (V) pitch and tonality.
Rapping on Or Over the Sonic Line? Voice and Sound in Eminem’s “Venom”
Mohsina Shafqat Ali
In my presentation, I will look at the voice and sound of rap music by paying close attention to Eminem’s song, “Venom.” I will argue how pathos (emotions) enables him to build on his ethos (character) in that by expressing his emotions, he is able to showcase his authenticity. As a result, Eminem is ultimately able to renegotiate his racial identity.
“Picturing Akwaaba Girl”: Studio Photography and the Circulation of National Sentiment in Ghana
Elias Adanu
An iconic photograph of a young Ghanaian woman dressed in rich traditional clothing has been quietly circulating in homes and public spaces in Ghana and abroad since 1999. My paper tracks the rhetorical trajectory of this image and how its consumption, circulation, and appropriation discursively advance the myth of “Ghanaian hospitality.”
“MCDAically” Unearthing the Rhetorical Force of Campbell’s Book Cover
Maab Alkurdi
My presentation uses Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) to examine the rhetorical power of the cover of Métis writer Maria Campbell’s book Halfbreed.
From Rhetoric to cliché ? Non-combatants’ Representation in ancient Descriptions of Sieges
Benoît Sans
As the description of cities’ capture and destruction was a popular theme in ancient rhetoric and historiography, this paper will try to study the influence of the first on the second by focusing on the depiction of noncombatants characters. It will also try to unveil the goal of such representations.
Welcome to Atopia: A Comparative Topical Analysis of the Nixon/Kennedy and Trump/Biden Debates
Bruce Dadey
The metaphor of place underpins both classical and modern conceptions of topic theory, but a shift from a Cartesian to a socially constructed conception of place allows modern topical analysis to illuminate not only logical strategies but also the complex relationship of rhetor, audience, and context. I illustrate this through a comparative topical analysis of two sets of presidential debates.
Rethinking Resilience: Music and Isolation in Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out
Ryan McGuckin
Virginia Woolf’s 1915 debut novel The Voyage Out presents a transatlantic journey of countermeasures. Where English respectability poses limits on female autonomy, music rhetorically engenders female social defiance. In this talk I describe how Woolf’s music rhetorically shapes reluctant, and resilient, female selves amid social constraints and tragic outcomes abroad.
Conversation in Carver: Rhetorical Narration in “So Much Water So Close to Home”
Aldijana Halilagic
I will examine the rhetorical aspects of Raymond Carver’s fictional style by drawing on concepts from Gerard Genette’s book, Narrative Discourse, particularly focalization and narrative distance.
“I was Robbed” – Election as Title Match
David Beard
Donald Trump learned from professional wrestling to shape his political strategy. We use software to analyze Trump’s rally speeches (on January 4 and 6, 2021) and tweets from the election until January 6 and to demonstrate that Trump communicates in ways significantly overlapping with pro Wrestlers Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. We end with an invitation to discuss a preliminary analysis of Justin Trudeau’s speeches using the same metrics.
Kneeling out of (Dis)Respect: The (Re)Interpretation of a Gesture
Sigrid Streit
This study considers kneeling—from the Memphis Kneel-Ins and MLK Jr.’s kneeling during the Selma to Montgomery marches to the NFL’s Colin Kaepernick taking a knee—as a rhetorical gesture and explores the reinterpretation of the gesture’s meaning from respectful and submissive to disrespectful, ungrateful, and unpatriotic.
The Recovery of the Patient: Kairos, Scientific Consensus, and Lyme Disease in Canada
Loren Gaudet
This paper undertakes a “kairology”—a rhetorical history—of the shifting contours of scientific consensus about Lyme Disease in Canada. Drawing on public discourse in Canadian newspapers for the years 2009-2016, I show that patient advocate groups worked to disrupt the concept of consensus established in the Consensus Conference on Lyme Disease in 1991, and recover the centrality of patient experience in the rhetoric of Lyme Disease.
How to Talk so that Doctors will Listen
Shivaun Corry
A 2019 study by K.A. Phillips et al recognized that doctors interrupt patients after a median of only eleven seconds. Drawing on intersectionality theory, research on persuasion, and interviews with patients and doctors, this paper offers advice on how to speak so that doctors will listen.
Procedural Rhetoric for Optical Military Technologies: Producing a Weaponized Subject
Paula de Villavicencio
This paper borrows from Ian Bogost’s procedural rhetoric to examine how military optical technologies such as the optical rangefinder and the F-35 helmet mounted display persuade users to look in new ways and produce weaponized subjects.
Rhetorical Reconsideration of Smartphones: Constancy, Customizability, and Consequentiality in the Digital Age
Shannon Lodoen
This presentation explores how the smartphone functions rhetorically. I propose three aspects unique to the smartphone’s rhetorical address, arguing that this address is so persuasive and pervasive because: it is constant, it is customizable, and it reduces the perceived consequentiality of interactions conducted through and with our devices.
Cicero Meets LXD: Teaching Classical Rhetoric with the Elements of Learning Experience Design
Douglas Hayes
This paper describes the outcomes of teaching a third-year university course in classical rhetoric in an online format using the principles of Learning Experience Design. It details the ways in which LXD can aid and revitalize the teaching of classical rhetoric in an online context for 21st-century students.