Rhetoric Commons^™

A Meta-Analysis Of The Cultural Propositions About Conflict Management Styles In Face-Negotiation Theory, Peter Cardon, Ephraim Okoro

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Among the most influential intercultural communication theories is Ting-Toomey's face-negotiation theory. The theory has undergone a number of refinements over the past two decades and has emerged as one of the most cited theories in intercultural business communication research. The theory posits that face or “identity respect and other-identity consideration” is maintained and negotiated in communications and interactions of members of all cultures; however, it is perceived and enacted differently across cultures as a function of the cultural dimensions of individualism-collectivism, power distance, and low-context/high-context orientation. Our study is a meta-analysis of all research during the past two decades about …

Editor's Introduction To The First Edition: Eight Needed Developments And Eight Critical Contexts For Global Inquiry, Barry Thatcher

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

In this introduction, I articulate critical gaps, needed developments, and opportunities for rhetoric and professional communication in global contexts. My tone is intentionally provocative and personal, laying out my positions and concerns based on almost 20 years of experience working in both rhetoric/professional communication and intercultural/global studies. In this introduction, I also demonstrate the power (and beauty) of intercultural and global inquiry to expose unexamined assumptions and problems in current theory, research, and practice in rhetoric and professional communication. The first section introduces eight needed developments for global theory, research, and practice, based on current approaches in rhetoric and professional …

Understanding The Importance Of Statues: Symbols Of Racism In Modern Society, Theresa Vanwormer

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

Whether it is a monument, statue, plaque, or mural, the values and ideologies that are memorialized on public land reflect what reality the people of a country are choosing to remember. The United States’ political and racial history has led to the creation of controversial memorials, including memorials that honor the Confederacy and its leaders, influencing moral concepts based in racism, violence, and oppression. The continued veneration of these symbols on public land sends the message to the Black community that their oppressors are honored as heroes and that the society they live in still allows for their abuse. Annette-Gordon …

Critical Thinking As A Pedagogical Approach: Using Critical/Cultural Studies To Analyze Music Videos, Lukas John Pelliccio, Timothy Brown

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Teaching undergraduate students how to critically analyze a text is an important experience. However, it is not easy to do this because readings are often dense, and the process of writing and presenting a critique can be challenging for some students. In light of this, we have developed an assignment where students critically analyze music videos for their ideologies. In the assignment, students select three specific overt or latent content pieces from a music video and explain how those manifestations influence a particular ideology in a paper. Then they are asked to show the music video to their peers and …

Intergroup Dialogue As Praxis For Engaging The Intercultural World, Jennifer E. Potter, Erin L. Berry-Mccrea

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) is a formalized program that centers dialogue among students in the classroom. The IGD program uses Martin Buber’s (1970) concept of dialogue, and this semester-long project situates dialogue as a useful addition to an Intercultural Communication course. Bringing components of a formal dialogue program into the classroom as a part of a course allows students to engage with difficult topics, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and ability, among others, in a way that helps students process and better understand perspectives different from their own. This essay provides specific opportunities for meaningful dialogue and concludes an …

The Grid: A Long-Form Exercise In Forensic Peer Coaching, C. Austin Mcdonald Ii, Andrew Boge

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

As directors of forensics grapple with thoughts of burnout or exiting the activity (Carmack & Holm, 2013), peer coaching practices may offer ways of relieving the well-documented coaching burden (Gill, 1990; Keefe, 1991; McDonald, 2001; Rogers & Rennels, 2008). We offer a long-form individual events team exercise called “The Grid” which aims to foster a culture of peer coaching, to reduce the need for coaches, and to encourage students to take ownership of their forensic event development.




The authors give full credit of The Grid's core ideas to the Gustavus Adolphus College forensics teams under the direction of Cadi Kadlecek …

Art Intervention Amid A Pandemic: A Pentadic Analysis Of The Vermillion Street Piano, Bailey Quanbeck

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

The Vermillion Street Piano was an art intervention introduced to the community of Vermillion, South Dakota during the COVID-19 pandemic. By applying Burke’s (1945/1962) pentad to this artifact and analyzing the scene-act ratio, I argue that the materialistic (i.e., scenic) constraints surrounding the piano meaningfully shaped and motivated the community experiences facilitated by the instrument. As street art situated in an outdoor, unsupervised location, the piano invited creative engagement from the community while suffering damages. The scenic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic both augmented the therapeutic experiences offered through this art piece and presented risks for community members seeking interaction. …

Finding Common Ground: Analyzing Thomas A. Daschle’S Senate Leadership Speeches As A Model For Bipartisanship, Rebecca A. Kuehl, Olivia R. Knippling

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

The 2016 U.S. presidential election highlighted the contentiousness of U.S. politics. As rhetorical scholars invested in establishing common ground in U.S. politics, we analyzed the leadership speeches of Senator Thomas A. Daschle. Daschle is worthy of study because he is the only person in U.S. history to have served as both Senate majority and minority leader. Our research question is: How did Senator Thomas A. Daschle use his leadership speeches to work across the political aisle? This study uses the method of close textual analysis to analyze 23 of Daschle’s leadership speeches. We suggest Daschle offers a model of bipartisanship. …

The Rhetoric Of Parody And Persona: The Rhetorical Construction Of Donald Trump Through Parody In The 2016 Election, James Lyle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The intent of this dissertation is to explore the rhetorical nature of parody in the context of the American electoral process. This work draws on existing research in the field to show how humor is an important method for engaging the public sphere. This project develops the rhetorical nature of humor, works through existing research on conceptualizations of humor and its importance for societal dialogue, and then addresses the specific contributions to the study of parody offered by Mikhail Bakhtin and Kenneth Burke to demonstrate the potential for parody to act as a form of rhetorical illumination of existing rhetorical …

Feminine Discursive Authority Through Symbolism, Allegory And Exemplum: A Study Of Christine De Pizan, A Rhetor Of The Late Middle Ages, Kathleen Burk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rhetorical studies are deeply concerned with the way that human beings use language and symbols to interact and persuade others to follow a particular point of view, or plan of action. In the male dominant culture of 15^th century France, Christine de Pizan recognized the limitations of speaking as a woman in her own voice. Therefore, she directed her voice through a cadre of allegorical divine beings, most of whom were women. These allegorical mentors held the divine authority to profess the virtue of women, as Christine, the narrator, humbly listened. This was a time in history when few …

Civil Religion And The Second Amendment, Shivaun Corry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The American approach to legal hermeneutics emerged from the covenant theology of the Puritans. American civil religion understands the Constitution to be based in natural laws: a secularized conception of God-given rights. To change the text would collapse the epistemological framework of the nation. When a nation sees its constitution as a sacred text, then the answer to contemporary problems cannot be to change that text; rather, it must be to return to the text with an even more fundamentalist hermeneutic. Both gun rights advocate Charlton Heston, and gun control advocate Barak Obama, argued their cases using a fundamentalist hermeneutic, …

Rhetoric And Philosophy Of Communication In Jorge Luis Borges' Metaphysical Obsession With Time, Aurora M. Pinto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project begins with the assumption that through storytelling we humans make sense of the world around us. Language and communication are powerful in defining who we are and allowing individuals to “become a self” (Taylor The Language 318). Drawing from Schrag, I argue that rhetoric is inextricably linked to discourse but is also situated beyond its classical persuasive function. Rhetoric evokes a response from the other, based on reflection and deliberation. Since that other might be a reader of texts of fiction, there is a rhetorical connection to interpretation that situates literature as an exemplar of communicative engagement.

This …

Presidential Rhetoric And Media's Contribution To The Subjective Nature Of Truth In American Democracy, Bianca Miccolis

English Honors Theses

This thesis examines the role of media on the subjectivity of truth in presidential rhetoric and its ethical implications. In my three case studies, I find that there is some form of deception by each president in their chosen form of media. I analyze Roosevelt’s use of the radio, which he uses to hide his disability and gain more executive power to combat the Great Depression. I examine Reagan’s use of television and how he fabricates an intimate relationship with the American people to enact tax reform. Finally, I investigate Trump’s use of Twitter to deflect negative publicity as he …

Communication As Change: Marshall Mcluhan And A Transformation Model Of Communication, Lane Grafton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The work synthesizes Marshall McLuhan’s transformation model of communication with a trivium-based educational model and challenges the modern-day position of unreflective mediated communication. McLuhan’s transformation model demonstrates that communication is more than the transfer of content; rather, it is a transformation of perception. This work broadens the analysis and suggests that figure and ground relationships are integral to seeing the whole of media transformations. Through figure and ground relationships, communication unfolds as a study of perceptual change. The work explores perceptual change within the context of McLuhan’s conversion to the Catholic Church and underscores the importance of a unified mind …

An Exploration Of Embodiment, Narrative Identity, And Healing In Dungeons And Dragons, Joshua D. Crigger

Masters Theses, 2020-current

An Exploration of Embodiment, Narrative Identity, and Healing in Dungeons and Dragons is composed of two sister articles: the first is titled Me, Myself, and My D&D Character: The Recursive Process of Embodiment and Narrative Identity in Dungeons and Dragons, and the second is titled Dungeons and Dragons as a Site of Healing: Towards Embodied Writing as Healing. Dungeons and Dragons, or D&D, is a fantasy role-playing game where a Dungeon Master, leader and rules referee, leads a group of players acting as fantasy characters, or avatars, through a story together where outcomes are determined by rolling dice. …

Ecofascist “Snakeoil” And The Imperative Of Racializing Environmental Justice For The 21st Century: A Burkean Rhetorical Criticism Of Contemporary Ecofascist Manifestos, Lantz Shifflett

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Ecofascism of the 21^st century is a revival of centuries-old white nationalist fascism integrated with a concern for environmental issues from the last few decades. Designated by their writers as “manifestos,” three ecofascists have widely disseminated their documents online just before committing acts of racially motivated terrorism in three different countries. Furthermore, these manifestos provide a lens into contemporary ecofascist conspiracies as well as their own concocted “snakeoils” that present their ecofascist agendas in the form of rhetorical “curatives” to environmental issues of pollution. These “cures” are grounded in a new “green nationalism” that attempts to disguise the white …

On Narrative Approaches To Conspiracy Theory, John Hydrisko

Honors Theses

This thesis handles narrative approaches to conspiracy theory. It provides an overview of conspiracy theory and narrative before affirming a relationship between the two. It then introduces Fenster’s work on conspiracy narrative before engaging with the considerations therein. After discussing the tradition of visualizing narrative structure, it applies these practices to conspiracy narrative. This application allows for a discussion of recent innovations within conspiracy narrative. By using the QAnon as a case study, the paper investigates the emergence of protagonism and non-narrativism within the genre. Ultimately, this investigation suggests that contemporary conspiracy narrative is both better suited to the modern …

Feminist Rhetorics: Theory And Practice Of Strategic Silence, Paolena Comouche

English (MA) Theses

Building upon the concepts discussed by Cheryl Glenn in her book Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silence, I conduct a thorough exploration of how silence can be used rhetorically as a unique and powerful form of communication. Because traditional rhetorical theory is rooted in patriarchal bias that “embodies ‘experiences and concerns of the white male as a standard,’” traditional rhetoric is exclusive of groups outside of those that have dominated the discipline (Glenn 155). As a result, it is important to explore rhetoric beyond traditional theory with consideration of feminist and multicultural perspectives, as the exclusion of these perspectives limits the …

Ancestral Pursuits: A Multicultural Celebration Of Identity & Race, Charlotte Cates Castro

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using critical historical rhetorical methods along with critical race and decolonial theory, this project situates ancestral pursuits as a communication-centered discursive formation by investigating the rhetorical strategies modern biotech and genealogy companies utilize to influence contemporary discourse around identity and belonging and narrate ethnicity and genealogy as acts of consumption. Through direct-to-consumer DNA testing and complimentary services, modern day biotech and genealogy companies like Ancestry and 23andMe market personalized insights into ancestry, genealogy, inherited traits, and health data that promise to connect users to their past, as well as to situate them in present-day society, through a deeper understanding of …

The Rhetorical Mediator: Understanding Agency In Indigenous Translation And Interpretation Through Indigenous Approaches To Ux, Nora Karina Rivera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In 2018, I became involved in a collaborative community-based project to co-organize an event with the purpose of collecting resources to help in the professionalization efforts of Indigenous translators and interpreters. Drawing on Indigenous and decolonial theories, this interdisciplinary study examines the work done during this event through a user experience (UX) research lens that analyzes the various ways in which Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) and Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS) can better support Indigenous language practices. The colonization of the Americas brought a layer of issues that continue to affect the way in which Indigenous communities conduct their …