The Department of Communication at Wayne State University is pleased to announce the eighth annual Summer Doctoral Seminar (June 16-19, 2013) featuring Professor Dana Cloud:
Communication scholars interested in social change have long suspected emotional appeals, including the mobilization of embodied action, as manipulative and conservative in their import. Such scholars have looked to the critical rationality characteristic of public sphere theory as a model for genuinely democratic deliberation. However, a rationalist paradigm can be disabling to scholars and advocates of social change. While the nationalist-populist rhetorics of the right wing draw upon affective impulses to collectivity and appeal generously to emotion, the Left has sometimes failed to reach "the whole person" in the process of building and motivating movements. Having a strong argument is rarely enough to rally counter-hegemonic forces to undertake movement for change.
At the same time, there are perils in uncritically valorizing affect and emotion in the formation of collective identity and will. Most obvious is the danger that groups will undertake projects that are contrary to their own interests, for example, when ordinary people identify with ruling elites and nationalist priorities rather than questioning blind investment in imperialist wars and the neoliberal imperatives of austerity and privatization. In addition, appeals to affect and emotion may privatize political issues and reduce the repertoire of responses to the therapeutic. This conundrum raises a number of questions that we could explore in this doctoral seminar:
1) How do we define affect and emotion, and what are the stakes in making that distinction?
2) What are the relevant literatures on affect, emotion, embodiment, the public sphere, and social movements that enable us to explore these questions?
3) What are the relationships among affect, emotion, subjectivity, and collective identity?
4) What is the role of embodiment in collective investment?
5) How can critics (and activists) recognize an appeal operating in the interests of those mobilized under it as opposed to appeals that invest audiences to accept social stability?
6) Can we model public spheres and/or modalities that account for affect and emotion in public life?
7) What are the roles of specific rhetorical strategies, especially music, in literally "moving" people to action?
8 What are the ethical and political implications of various kinds of rhetorical motivation and constitution of subjectivity and collective will?
9) Is it possible to identify and employ anything like "reasonable emotion"?
Seminar papers taking up any of these or closely related questions in general (theoretical papers) or specific (papers investigating particular texts or movements) will be considered for inclusion. Readings in public and counterpublic spheres theory, the rhetoric of populism, psychoanalytic criticism, social movement history and theory, and rhetorical scholarship on social movements will be announced and required in advance, and the seminar will include discussion of those readings along with presentation and workshopping of student work.
Dana L. Cloud (Ph.D., University of Iowa, 1992) is an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Texas Austin. The winner of several awards in rhetoric and communication studies, she has published two books (Control and Consolation in American Culture and Politics: Rhetorics of Therapy, Sage, 1998; We ARE the Union: Democratic Unionism and Dissent at Boeing, University of Illinois, 2011) and numerous essays in national communication journals and anthologies. (For a list and access to these works, go to http://commstudies.utexas.edu/faculty/dana-l-cloud and click on the "Publications" tab.) Presently she is researching and writing about the problem of truth claims in political discourse and the limits of fact-checking and the rhetoric of affect and emotion in social movements. Professor Cloud is also a longtime socialist and activist in movements for workers', LGBT, and women's rights; and against racism, imperialism, and war.
Seminar Information
All Ph.D. students interested in being exposed to leading communication research and theory are encouraged to apply. Most expenses for accepted candidates will be paid or reimbursed by the Department of Communication at Wayne State University. Covered expenses for domestic students include airfare, lodging and meals, and course materials. An opening reception and other social events will give participants an opportunity to get to know each other and exchange ideas. A small group of doctoral students will be selected to join this unique program.
Application Procedure
To apply, you will need to complete an online application form (which will be available soon) and submit an essay and vitae by email. The essay should be approximately 500 words that provides information about your area of Ph.D. study as well as a brief description of your research interests, describing how the seminar is relevant to your program of study and/or how the seminar will advance your dissertation project. The vitae should be current.
Application Deadline: March 15, 2013
For more information you may contact the Summer Seminar Committee chair:
Dr. Bryan McCann
bryan.mccann@wayne.edu
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
585 Manoogian Hall
Detroit, MI 48201
Phone: 313.577.5493
Fax: 313.577.6300
Additional information about the seminar is available online at: http://comm.wayne.edu/summerseminar.php
No comments:
Post a Comment