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OII Home : Groups : Current Groups
Collaborative in Rhetorical Studies
Description
The Historical Scope of Rhetorical Studies:
Rhetorical studies has, for most of its history, been the integrated
study of persuasion in written and oral communication. Through the
19th century, the American university had not yet fragmented into
contemporary disciplinary structures. As a result, the study of
language, the mind, and society synthesized work now identified as
interdisciplinary.
By 1900, literary studies, psychology and philosophy had
differentiated. By 1920, public speaking coalesced as its own
intellectual field. By the 1960s, scholars in composition studies
began to assert their intellectual independence. As a result, the
rhetorical tradition, as a more-or-less coherent pedagogical and
theoretical tradition, was subdivided. Aspects of rhetorical theory
migrated into philosophy, sociology and psychology of language, as
well as literary criticism. Aspects of pedagogy and criticism
migrated into Departments of Writing Studies and of Communication
Studies.
The Current Scope of the Collaborative in Rhetorical Studies:
Contemporary emphases on interdisciplinary research and teaching offer
us a unique possibility to cross the divides that have fragmented
rhetorical studies. The Collaborative is focused on three goals:
1. The interdisciplinary construction of rhetorical theory, drawing from: (a) the classical tradition;
(b) contemporary critical and social theory; and
(c) cutting edge research in fields like cognitive science and philosophy
2. The interdisciplinary practice of rhetorical criticism of a great
diversity of texts (including and not limited to political, literary,
scientific, professional and popular texts) from a diversity of
critical methods.
3. The interdisciplinary refinement of rhetorical pedagogy for
written, oral and new media teaching.
Leadership
The primary contact for this group is David
Beard (Department of Writing Studies, UM-Duluth, dbeard@d.umn.edu. Richard Graff (Department of Writing Studies, UMTC)is also a member of the leadership team.
Membership
* These members will participate in the Collaborative to the extent permitted by the geographical distance between the Duluth and Twin Cities campuses.
Please direct questions about the new interdisciplinary graduate groups to Vicki Field, Director of The Graduate School’s Office of Interdisciplinary Initiatives, field001@umn.edu or 612-625-6532.
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