Current Symposium

Rhetoric and Its Masses

American Society for the History of Rhetoric Symposium May 24-25, 2012

Loews Hotel, Philadelphia

"There are in fact no masses; there are only ways of seeing people as masses."

Raymond Williams, 1958

In virtually every epoch of its history, rhetoric has understood the masses as a topoi of central concern. The "masses" has a history as fluid as "rhetoric" itself: in every age it has captured different ideas, been entangled with different politics, signaled different segments of the population, and intersected with rhetoric in historically specific ways.

The 2012 Symposium will focus on these intersections, seek to recapture the historically specific ways in which rhetoric and the masses have been articulated, and pay special attention to the political motives attending these articulations.

The Symposium seeks to understand rhetoric and its masses from as wide a perspective as possible. Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to: rhetorics both to and from the masses, anxieties about the hoi polloi and/or the dêmos, various understandings of "mass communication" and the technologies that underwrite them, propaganda studies, publicity, and the invocations of crowds, mobs, herds, classes, imagined communities, the people, publics, counter-publics, etc. Further, the Symposium welcomes attention to the anxieties that have historically attended invocations of the masses: contagions, vulgarity, disorder, devaluation, chaos, regimentation, etc.

Keynote Addresses:

Christopher Johnstone, Pennsylvania State University, Richard Graff, University of Minnesotta, on the spaces and sounds of ancient Greek oratory

Michael Keller, South Dakota State University, on Ezra Pound’s conflicted relationship with modernity

Susan Jarratt, UC Irvine, on the history of rhetoric as it illuminates the Arab Spring

Call for Papers

The American Society for the History of Rhetoric invites papers to be presented at our 2012 Symposium on "Rhetoric and Its Masses." The Symposium will be held at the Loews Hotel, Philadelphia, May 24-25, 2012, immediately prior to the Rhetoric Society of America Convention. The day and a half meeting will feature keynote addresses and approximately four panels of competitively selected papers. Historically speaking, the ASHR Symposium has been a site of rich intellectual work animated by a collaborative ethos. AHSR prides itself on creating an environment in which scholars of all ages and all ranks join together for a sustained inquiry into a given topic. Whether you are a seasoned veteran or a new graduate student, please consider joining us for a day and a half of inquiry into "Rhetoric and its Masses."

To be considered for the Symposium, please submit a one-page, single-spaced abstract to Dave Tell: davetell@ku.edu. All submissions should relate to the Symposium theme (elaborated below), be composed in English, stripped of author identification, and submitted as either a Word Document or a PDF. All submissions must be received by September 30, 2011. Authors will be notified by the end of the year.

There is not cost to attend the Symposium, although all presenters must be a member of ASHR. If you are not currently a member, you will be given an opportunity to join if your paper is accepted for the Symposium.

Please Join us!

Past Symposia

2011 ASHR Workshop: Mass Communication in Rhetorical History. June 24-26, 2011. (Click here for summary.)

2010 ASHR Symposium: Rhetorics of Reason and Restraint: Stoic Speech from Antiquity to the Present

May 27-28, Minneapolis, MN (Click Here for program)

2009 ASHR Workshop: History Matters: Materials and Methods for Scholarship in the History of Rhetoric, RSA Institute, Penn State. (Click here for CFP.)

2008 ASHR Symposium: Thinking through Rhetoric: A Symposium on Rhetoric, Cognition, and Culture, November 20, San Diego. (Click here for program.)

2007 ASHR Symposium: Rhetoric and Revolution, November 14, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago. (Click here for program).

2006 ASHR Symposium: Translation, Tradition, and Transaction: Language, the Foreign, and the History of Rhetoric, November 15, Hilton Palacio del Rio, San Antonio. (Click here for program.)

2005 ASHR Symposium: Performance in the History of Rhetoric: Display, Spectacle, Persuasion, and Power, November 16, Emerson College, Boston. (Click here for program.)

2004 ASHR Symposium: Rhetoric and its Institutions, November 10, Chicago. (Click here for program.)

2003 ASHR Symposium: Rhetoric and Aesthetics: From the Polis to Postmodernism, Miami Beach. (Click here for program.)

2002 ASHR Symposium: Rhetoric and Culture, November 20, New Orleans. (Click here for program.)

2001 ASHR Symposium: Rhetoric and Style, October 31, Emory University, Atlanta. (Click here for program.)

2000 ASHR Symposium: Rhetoric and Emotion, November 8, University of Washington, Seattle. (Click here for program.)

1997 ASHR Symposium: The Centrality of Rhetoric, November 19, Chicago. (Click here for program.)

1995 ASHR Symposium: Historiography & Rhetoric in Aristophanes, San Antonio.

1991 ASHR Symposium: Rosenmeyer’s “Apate” in Gorgias and Aeschylus, A Celebration of Henry Johnstone,

1990 ASHR Symposium: The Principle of Kairos in the History of Rhetoric, October 31 - November 1. Chicago, IL. (Click here for program.)

1987 ASHR Symposium: “Ars componendi, ars persuadendi,” November 4-5, Emerson College, Boston

1986 ASHR Symposium: “Tradition and Innovation in the History of Rhetoric,” November 12-13, Chicago