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Sarah Casey Wins the 2024 Michael Purves-Smith Paper Award

Congratulations to Sarah Casey, who has won RhetCanada’s 2024 Michael Purves-Smith Paper Award for the best paper presented by a graduate student at the RhetCan annual conference, and to Rachel Roy, who received a runner-up prize for the award.

In her winning paper, “Risk as a Common Topos,” Sarah described how communication and scholarship often treat risk as an idion topos for discussing uncertainty and hazards. She argues that it has become a koinon topos in our social discourse, one where we find technical arguments for risk management… or where we find arguments for managing all kinds of other things.

In her runner-up paper, “Locating Recuperative Ethos: Students with Disabilities Navigate University Accommodations,” Rachel identified the rhetorical moves that students make as they access the university, and argued that students perform “recuperative ethos” and “agile epistemologies” (Molloy) as they reconstruct these rhetorical moves.

As always, the conference featured an array of impressive student papers, and the judges would like to express their appreciation to all the students who presented.

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Kyle Gerber Wins 2023 Michael Purves-Smith Paper Award

Kyle Gerber has received RhetCanada’s Michael Purves-Smith Student Paper Award for his paper, “Re-imagining the Rhetorical Powers of Prayer,” presented at the 2023 RhetCanada conference. The committee offered the following comments:

Kyle’s study of prayer as devotional practice and theological site (with reference to Amish programs of spiritual formation and attitude) was interesting and demonstrated a sustained engagement with the thinking of Kenneth Burke. His paper provided a sustained, textured rhetorical treatment, and  his delivery was engaged, confident, and  invested in his topic. The work had a depth and maturity and commitment.

Congratulations Kyle!

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RhetCanada Student Paper Award Winners 2022

We’re pleased to announce the RhetCanada student paper award winners for 2022.  The quality of the graduate and undergraduate presentations this year was outstanding, so congratulations to the winners and thanks to all those who presented!

Michael Purves-Smith Student Paper Award

The winner of the Michael Purves-Smith Student Paper Award for an outstanding paper by a graduate student was Máire Slater, for her paper “The Rhetoric of Reconciliation in the Music of Ubu and the Truth Commission”:

It is with great pleasure that the Student Prize Committee congratulates Máire Slater of the University of Waterloo on winning this year’s Michael Purves-Smith Student Paper Award, for her paper and presentation entitled “The Rhetoric of Reconciliation in the Music of Ubu and the Truth Commission.” The committee was unanimous in its decision, agreeing that Máire’s paper was not only of excellent quality in its written and presented forms, but also applied a very high standard of rhetorical scholarship to the analysis of a significant artefact. The clarity of the integration of musical theory in a manner accessible to non-specialists, and the attentiveness to the rhetorical dimensions of composition and performance were outstanding.

This award is given in honour of the late Michael Purves-Smith, and the Committee also wishes to acknowledge how Michael, with his deep commitment to the rhetorical possibilities of music, would have appreciated Máire’s paper and presentation. Máire’s engaged and nuanced  investigation of music as a site of and vehicle for rhetorical action would reassure Michael that RhetCanada continues to attract a breadth of scholarship of the highest calibre.

RhetCanada Undergraduate Paper Award

The winners of the RhetCanada Undergraduate Paper Award are Queenie Chen and Romina Hashemi for their paper “‘im gonna destroy the world before it destroys me’: Rhetoric and Construction Grammar”:

The RhetCanada Student Prize Committee is very pleased to announce that Queenie Chen and Romina Hashemi of the University of Waterloo are the 2022 winners of the RhetCanada Student Paper Award, for their paper “‘im gonna destroy the world before it destroys me’: Rhetoric and Construction Grammar.”

This well-prepared and engagingly presented paper offered a thought-provoking introduction to the role of grammatical structure in the construction and deployment of rhetorical figures. Queenie and Romina were attentive to the needs of an audience whose approach to rhetorical theory and criticism is diverse; they grounded their discussion of construction grammar as an approach and of the rhetorical figures such as chiasmus, antimetalepsis, and mesodiplosis in accessible terms which pointed the audience to exciting new directions for rhetorical inquiry.

We congratulate Queenie and Romina on their fine work and hope they will continue to share their important scholarship with RhetCanada in the future.

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Michael Purves-Smith Student Paper Award Winners 2021

Congratulations to the two co-winners of RhetCanada’s Michael Purves-Smith Student Paper Award for 2021:

  • Maab Alkurdi, for her paper “Bitterly Rhetorical: Terror in the Autobiography of Zainab Salbi”
  • Shannon Lodoen, for her paper “Where is ‘Here’ and Who is ‘We’? Rhetorically Constructing a Unified Canada”

Congratulations as well to Maša Torbica, who won the Honourable Mention prize for her paper “Connective Activism: #Ottawapiskat and the Third Space of Sovereignty”

There were a number of outstanding papers this year, so the committee’s work was especially challenging. Thanks to all who presented!

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RhetCanada 2019 Graduate Student Prize Winner: Nicolas Noble

Attendees at RhetCanada’s 2019 annual meeting in Vancouver heard papers from senior scholars and emerging graduate students for the RhetCanada Graduate Student Prize. Judging the grad student prize was challenging once again.  Judges David Beard, incoming RhetCanada President Bruce Dadey, and outgoing RhetCanada President Tania Smith awarded this year’s prize to Nicolas Noble for his paper “Myths of Community: Legal Fictions and Rhetoric in Canadian Religious Freedom.”  Noble focused on the provincial and federal hearings related to Trinity Western University’s recent legal bid to open a law school.  The presentation explored the rhetorical strategies formulated by Trinity Western’s leadership in advancing their legal case.

Congratulations Nicolas.

RhetCanada looks forward to next year’s grad student presentations in London, Ontario!

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RhetCanada 2018 Graduate Student Prize Winner: Monique Kampherm

Grad students were out in force at this year’s annual RhetCanada meeting at Congress 2018. Members were treated to grad presentations on a wide variety of topics, including papers on the rhetorics of social media rankings, utopias and dystopias, and science advocacy on Reddit. Judging the grad student prize was particularly challenging. Four students qualified after submitting the draft and final versions by the pre-conference deadlines. The entrants were impressive, both in terms of their papers, whose subjects ranged from from Mennonite martyrology to gender-focused media analysis to the recruitment of women in Canadian mining, and in terms of the polish of their presentations, which often showed evidence of students’ previous work as professional communicators.

In the end, judges John Moffat and Bruce Dadey and advisor Tania Smith awarded this year’s prize to Monique Kampherm for her paper “Democratic Prosopopoeia: The Rhetorical Influence of Embodying a Political Statement Online.” Monique’s paper drew from a wide variety of rhetorical critics and adroitly integrated figurative analysis, digital technology studies, and political studies to examine the rhetorical effects of image filter use on social media during the 2015 Canadian election. While her paper drew on a specific case, it also spoke more generally to the rhetorical implications of how text and image are integrated on social media. Congratulations Monique, and we look forward to next year’s crop of grad student presentations in Vancouver!

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Kyle Gerber Wins RhetCanada Prize for Best Student Conference Paper / Kyle Gerber a remporté le prix de la meilleure communication proposée par un étudiant/doctorant octroyé par RhetCanada

Kyle Gerber, a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Waterloo, has won RhetCanada’s student prize for best student conference paper for “‘On Earth as it is in Heaven’: Transitive Action in The Lord’s Prayer.”

Kyle’s paper is an extension of interests he developed while completing an HBA in English at Wilfrid Laurier University and an MA in Rhetoric and Communication Design at the University of Waterloo. Working under Dr. Randy Harris, Kyle studies patterns of rhetorical figures in Mennonite writing on forgiveness, attending to cognitive implications for these patterns. He has published and presented in the areas of Mennonite identity, theology, and literature, and is interested in intersections of rhetorical, cognitive, and Mennonite studies. Kyle’s research is funded by a SSHRC doctoral grant.

When not working on his dissertation, Kyle splits his time between learning how to be a father to his 7-month-old daughter Gretchen and moonlighting as a mandolin player in his bluegrass band.

According to Kyle, “I’m grateful to be working in a department that fosters diverse modes of inquiry, surrounded by remarkable people, and connected to the broader community of RhetCanada. I’m grateful for Randy’s inspiration, guidance, and supervision, and for the collegial support of the peers in our writing group, Devon, Monique, Saeed, and George; any success I have is a product of what these individuals contribute to my life and scholarship.”

Congratulations, Kyle Gerber and the University of Waterloo.

 Kyle Gerber, doctorant dans le département d’anglais de l’université de Waterloo, a remporté le prix de la meilleure communication proposée par un étudiant/doctorant octroyé par RhetCanada pour sa présentation intitulée: « ‘On Earth as it is in Heaven’: Transitive Action in the Lord’s Prayer ».

Il y propose un développement de thématiques qu’il a eu l’occasion d’aborder dans son bachelier en anglais à l’Université Wilfrid Laurier et de son master en Rhétorique et Communication à l’Université de Waterloo. Travaillant sous la supervision du Professeur Randy Harris, Kyle étudie les modèles de figures rhétoriques dans les écrits mennonites au sujet du pardon, avec une attention particulière pour les implications cognitives de ces figures. Gerber a publié et présenté des travaux dans les domaines de l’identité mennonite, de la théologie et de la littérature. Il s’intéresse aux croisements possibles entre la rhétorique, les sciences cognitives et les études mennonites. Sa recherche est financée par une bourse doctorale du SSHRC.

Lorsqu’il ne travaille pas à sa thèse, Kyle partage son temps entre son rôle de père pour Gretchen, sa petite fille de sept mois et joue de la mandoline dans un groupe de Bluegrass.

Kyle a déclaré : « Je suis reconnaissant d’avoir l’opportunité de travaillé dans un département qui encourage différentes formes d’approches, entouré de personnes admirables, et en connexion avec la communauté plus large de RhetCanada. Je remercie Randy de m’inspirer, de guider et d’orienter ma recherche, ainsi que pour le soutien de mes collègues dans notre groupe d’écriture, Devon, Monique, Saeed et Georges; tous mes succès sont le fruit de ce que ces personnes ont pu m’apporter, tant sur le plan personnel que professionnel ».

Félicitations à Kyle Gerber et à l’Université de Waterloo.