ABSTRACT

The second edition of this formative collection offers analysis of the work rhetoric plays in the principles and practices of today’s culture of democratic activism.

Editors JongHwa Lee and Seth Kahn—and their diverse contributors working in communication and composition studies both within and outside academia—provide explicit articulation of how activist rhetoric differs from the kinds of deliberative models that rhetoric has exalted for centuries, contextualized through and by contributors’ everyday lives, work, and interests. New to this edition are attention to Black Lives Matter, the transgender community, social media environments, globalization, and environmental activism.

Simultaneously challenging and accessible, Activism and Rhetoric: Theories and Contexts for Political Engagement is a must-read for students and scholars who are interested in or actively engaged in rhetoric, composition, political communication, and social justice.

Chapters 1, 6, and 13 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDF at https://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. 

part I|54 pages

Activism Where We Work

chapter 1|15 pages

Borders of Engagement

Rethinking Scholarship, Activism, and the Academy

chapter 2|12 pages

Rhetorical Activism

Responsibility in the Ivory Tower

chapter 4|14 pages

A Time to Remember

Rhetorical Pedagogy, Commemoration, and Activism 1

part II|48 pages

Voices from the Margin(alized)

chapter 5|13 pages

Alt-Country Rhetorics

Relearning (Trans) Activism in Rural Indiana

chapter 6|11 pages

Recognizing and Saving Black Lives, Recognizing and Saving Palestinian Lives

The Power of Transnational Rhetorics in Locating the Commonality of Liberation Struggles

chapter 7|7 pages

Gadugi

Where the Fire Burns (Still)

chapter 8|15 pages

Memory War

Activist Rhetoric for Historical Justice

part III|46 pages

Modalities and Audiences

chapter 9|15 pages

Raging Media

Investing in an Infrastructure for Resistance

chapter 10|11 pages

A Conservative Professorial Pundit in Liberal Surroundings

An Uneven Odyssey Projected through 2020 1

part IV|80 pages

Re-Theorizing Activist Rhetoric

chapter 13|14 pages

Speaking the Power of Truth

Rhetoric and Action for Our Times

chapter 14|17 pages

Tradition and Transformation in Jane Addams’s New Federalism

Creating Community Sphere by Empowering Municipalities

chapter 15|11 pages

The Work of a Middle-Class Activist

Stuck in History

chapter 17|16 pages

[Still] The Only Conceivable Thing to Do

Reflections on Academics and Activism

chapter 18|8 pages

Afterword Meet Me at the Gates

Calling for Scholar-Activism Where You Are, Now!