In order to enhance opportunities for professional research, networking, and collaboration, RSA is piloting a Mini-Institute program in conjunction with the RSA 19th Biennial Conference. For nearly 15 years, RSA has run a summer Institute to deepen rhetorical education. This program will offer two mini-institutes, as detailed below. These full-day conferences to be held on May 21, 2020 are intended to provide an in-depth, intimate professional development experience for approximately 25 participants for each Mini-Institute coming to rhetoric from diverse perspectives, ranks, and locales.
To attend, you must apply and be accepted into a Mini-Institute. Application details and deadlines are. Because they will overlap, you may apply to only one institute, and accepted attendees will be charged a tuition fee based on their membership status (see below). Please note that this fee is separate from the convention registration fee. Once you have been accepted for a Mini-Institute, you will receive an email with a link that allows you to register for the institute and pay the tuition.
Member: $135.00
Graduate Student Member: $110.00
Non-Member: $195.00
Non-Member Graduate Student: $145.00
Mini-Institute I: “Visual Rhetoric: Past and Future Directions”
Organized by Laurie Gries (University of Colorado-Boulder) and Cara Finnegan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), the mini-institute will bring together invited scholars (listed below) with others who apply through this open call for applications. Together, the group will chart a vision for the future of visual rhetorical studies. Pairs of invited scholars will bring working papers to the event for discussion and engagement by all institute participants. Each participant accepted via this open call will read all of the working papers ahead of the event and then be assigned to come with specific discussion questions about one of the working papers in order to guide our conversations. By the end of our day together, the group will have made significant strides toward constructing a concrete, collective vision.
Invited scholars who have committed to attend: David Blakesley, Caitlin Bruce, Anne Demo, Sergio Figueiredo, Kristie Fleckenstein, Leslie Hahner, Robert Hariman, Brian McNely, Christa Olson, Lester Olson, Keon Pettiway, Amy Propen, Rohini Singh, and Michelle Murray Yang.
Questions? Please contact Cara Finnegan (caraf@illinois.edu) or Laurie Gries (legries@colorado.edu).
Click HERE to apply. Deadline November 8, 2019.
Mini-Institute II: “Rhetorics for All: Principles and Practices in the Public Humanities”
Organized by Dave Tell (University of Kansas) and Cindy Koenig Richards (Willamette University).
Rhetoric has always had a disciplinary commitment to public scholarship. From its historical relationship to the U.S. land grant tradition to its enduring investment in questions of citizenship, rhetorical scholarship has always been indexed to public thought. In recent years, the commitment to public scholarship has broadened, sweeping through the humanities with new energy. The Public Humanities is now a term of art, as well as a major locus of federal funding.
In this one-day workshop, we provide a basic orientation to the public humanities. What are the public humanities? Why are they worth considering? Whom do they benefit? What are the unique challenges and opportunities of such work?
In addition to addressing these orienting questions, the workshop will offer opportunities to develop a working knowledge of a range of public humanities projects and build a network of colleagues engaged with the public humanities. By working with examples of public rhetorical projects, the workshop will address the “how” of the public humanities. How do you start/extend a project? How are they funded? How do you reach the public?
Questions? Please contact Dave Tell (davetell@ku.edu) or Cindy Koenig Richards (crichard@willamette.edu).
Click HERE to apply. Deadline November 8, 2019.
Note: Prior experience is with the Public Humanities is not required to participate in the institute; however, if there are specific topics you would like to engage, projects you have experience with or hope to build, and/or relevant experience you bring to the conversation, please include this information in your statement.