We are excited to announce that Roderick P. Hart is our Keynote speaker for RhetCanada 2019.
Dr. Hart holds the Allan Shivers Centennial Chair in Communication at the University of Texas at Austin and is the author of over a dozen books on rhetoric, media studies, and civic discourse. His works include Political Keywords: Using Language that Uses Us (2005), Political Tone: What Leaders Say and Why (2013), Modern Rhetorical Criticism (4th ed. 2017), and most recently, Civic Hope: How Ordinary Americans Keep Democracy Alive. His latter work in particular is pertinent to this year’s conference theme, Rhetorics of Hope.
Keynote Description
The world is now beset with new forms of tribalism and old forms of nationalism. New and angry voices abound, with political leaders often appealing to the churlishness within us. What to do? This address presents the concept of civic hope, an expectation (1) that enlightened leadership is possible despite human foibles, (2) that productive forms of citizenship will result from cultural pluralism, (3) that democratic traditions will yield prudent governance, but (4) that none of this can happen without vigorous forms of argument at the grassroots level.
The address draws on my recent book, Civic Hope: How Ordinary Americans Keep Democracy Alive (Cambridge, 2018) that asks (1) Who believes in political hope? (2) Have such feelings changed over the years? and (3) What does political hope sounds like when expressed? Drawing on a twenty-year research project, I focus on what people say about politics, what they say but do not mean, and what they mean but do not say.
My core argument is that the strength of a democracy lies in its weaknesses and in the willingness of its people to address those weaknesses without surcease. If democracies were not shot-through with unstable premises and unsteady compacts, its citizens would remain quiet, removed from one another. Disagreements – endless, raucous disagreements – draw them in, or at least enough of them to have a debate. Political already hope exists. We just need to learn how to recognize it and, after doing so, how to applaud it.
Heather Graves and Roger Graves will present the CSSR keynote address at Congress.
Heather Graves is Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, where she teaches academic and technical and business communication. Her research interests include argument in academic discourse, visual rhetoric, and the rhetoric of science. She has published three academic books: Rhetoric in(to) Science: Style as Invention in Inquiry in 2005; Writing Centres, Writing Seminars, Writing Culture: Writing Instruction in Anglo-Canadian Universities edited with Roger Graves in 2006; and Interdisciplinarity: Thinking and Writing Beyond Borders edited with Roger Graves in 2010; and four writing textbooks: A Strategic Guide to Technical Communication with Roger Graves in 2007/2012; The Brief Penguin Handbook (Cdn Eds) with Lester Faigley and Roger Graves (2008/2011/2014/2016); The Little Penguin Handbook (Cdn Eds) with Lester Faigley and Roger Graves (2009/2012/2015); and Dynamics of Business and Professional Communication: A Case-Based Approach with Roger Graves (2015).
Roger Graves is Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies, and Associate Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Alberta. He is the author, co-author, or editor of eight books and 30+ articles, including Writing Instruction in Canadian Universities. He is a member of the editorial boards for College English and the IEEE Proceedings on Technical Communication, and publisher of Inkshed Publications, the publications initiative of the Canadian Association for the Study of Language and Learning (CASLL/Inkshed). His current research interests include writing assignments across disciplinary fields and the gamification of peer response systems in writing classrooms. Since 2008, he has given over 250 public presentations locally, nationally, and internationally. From 2014-2017 he served on the ISAWR Steering Committee; previously he served on the Executive Committee of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (2010-1202) and of the Canadian Association for the Study of Discourse and Writing (2008-2014).