53 episodes

Rhetoricity is a quasi-academic podcast that draws on rhetoric, theory, weird sound effects, and the insights of a lot of other people. It's something that's a little strange and, with luck, a little interesting. The podcast's description will evolve along with it. So far, most episodes feature interviews with rhetoric and writing scholars.

The podcast is a project of Eric Detweiler, an assistant professor in the Department of English at Middle Tennessee State University. For more on Rhetoricity and his other work, visit http://RhetEric.org.

Rhetoricity Eric Detweiler

    • Education

Rhetoricity is a quasi-academic podcast that draws on rhetoric, theory, weird sound effects, and the insights of a lot of other people. It's something that's a little strange and, with luck, a little interesting. The podcast's description will evolve along with it. So far, most episodes feature interviews with rhetoric and writing scholars.

The podcast is a project of Eric Detweiler, an assistant professor in the Department of English at Middle Tennessee State University. For more on Rhetoricity and his other work, visit http://RhetEric.org.

    Podcasting in the Classroom: A Roundtable on the Humanities Podcast Network’s Teaching Manual

    Podcasting in the Classroom: A Roundtable on the Humanities Podcast Network’s Teaching Manual

    This episode features a roundtable conversation by contributors to Teaching Students to Podcast, an open-access, lesson plan-based manual on integrating podcasts into humanities courses. That manual was written by members of the Humanities Podcast Network's pedagogy working group. The discussion features six of its coauthors: Ulrich Baer, Robin Davies, Eric Detweiler, Emmy Herland, Beth Kramer, and Harly Ramsey. They discuss how they came to podcasting and teaching podcasts, their respective sections of the manual, and the possibilities and challenges of having students make podcasts in courses in and around the humanities.
    This episode features a clip from Ketsa's "I Hear Echoes."
    Episode Transcript

    • 55 min
    "The Path Chose Me": Keith Gilyard on His Career, Writing, and Legacy

    "The Path Chose Me": Keith Gilyard on His Career, Writing, and Legacy

    This episode features an interview with Dr. Keith Gilyard conducted by guest host Dr. Derek G. Handley during the 2023 Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute at Penn State University. They discuss Gilyard's path to a career in rhetoric, writing, and composition studies; his writing process and creative writing; academic mentorship and leadership; and his legacy and contributions to the field of African American rhetoric.
    Keith Gilyard is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English and African American Studies at Penn State University. He formerly was a member of the faculty at Syracuse University and at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York. He served as Thomas R. Watson Visiting Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Louisville and as Presidential Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Oklahoma. The author of twenty-four books, his works include the education memoir Voices of the Self (1991), Composition and Cornel West (2008), On African American Rhetoric (with Adam Banks, 2018), biographies of John Oliver Killens (2011) and Louise Thompson Patterson (2017), the novella The Next Great Old-School Conspiracy (2015), and the poetry collections Impressions (2021) and On Location (2023). Gilyard is a former Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication and former president of the National Council of Teachers of English. He is the recipient of two American Book Awards, the CCCC Exemplar Award, the NCTE Distinguished Service Award, and the RSA Cheryl Geisler Award for Outstanding Mentor.
    This episode features a clip from "Super Glue" by Plushgoolash.
    Episode Transcript
     

    • 1 hr 6 min
    Food, Feelings, and Other Rhetorical Sensitivities: An Interview with Jennifer LeMesurier

    Food, Feelings, and Other Rhetorical Sensitivities: An Interview with Jennifer LeMesurier

    This episode features an interview with Jennifer Lin LeMesurier. The conversation, recorded at this year's Conference on College Composition and Communication, focuses on her 2023 book Inscrutable Eating: Asian Appetites and the Rhetorics of Racial Consumption. That book explores how the rhetorical framing of food and eating underpins our understanding of Asian and Asian American identity in the contemporary racial landscape.
    Dr. LeMesurier is Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at Colgate University. Her areas of expertise include bodily and material rhetorics, genre theory, discourse analysis, qualitative research, and affect theory. In addition to Inscrutable Eating, she co-edited Writing in and about the Performing and Visual Arts: Creating, Performing, and Teaching with Steven J. Corbett, Betsy Cooper, and Teagan E. Decker. To date, she has published articles in College Composition and Communication, Peitho, POROI, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric Review, and Rhetoric Society Quarterly.
    This episode features a clip from "Just a Taste" by Beat Mekanik.
    Episode Transcript

    • 29 min
    AI Goes to College: Large Language Models and the Teaching of Writing

    AI Goes to College: Large Language Models and the Teaching of Writing

    This episode of Rhetoricity features members of the MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force on AI and Writing: Antonio Byrd, Holly Hassel, Sarah Z. Johnson, Anna Mills, and Elizabeth Losh. The task force also includes Leonardo Flores, David Green, Matthew Kirschenbaum, and A. Lockett. In July 2023, that task force published a working paper laying out issues, principles, and recommendations related to the effects of generative artificial-intelligence tools on the college writing courses.
    In this episode's roundtable discussion, these task force members clarify some of the terminology around AI technologies, reflect on the process of writing the working paper, and discuss the pedagogical, historical, and labor implications of large language models for students and teachers working in higher education.
    This episode is part of The Big Rhetorical Podcast Carnival 2023, which runs from August 28–31. The theme of this year's carnival is "Artificial Intelligence: Applications and Trajectories," and it features a keynote by Dr. Isabel Pedersen. Other participating podcasts include 10-Minute Tech Comm; Defend, Publish and Lead; Kairoticast; Live Theory; Neurodissent; Pedagogue; TC Talk; and Writing Remix.
    Here's a list of some of the materials referenced in this episode:
    The task force's Quick Start Guide TextGenEd: Teaching with Text Generation Technologies, including Antonio Byrd's chapter "Using LLMs as Peer Reviewers for Revising Essays" Anna Mills's How Arguments Work Black in AI Kate Crawford's Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence The White House's Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights Kathryn Conrad's "A Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights for Education" Hugging Face The Wall Street Journal's "Cleaning Up ChatGPT Takes Heavy Toll on Human Workers" The Washington Post's "Behind the AI Boom, an Army of Overseas Workers in 'Digital Sweatshops'" Memes of the brawl in Montgomery, Alabama This episode features a clip from "Artificial Problems" by Smoked Meat Fax Machine.
    Episode Transcript
     

    • 59 min
    Rhetoricians Assemble: A Roundtable of Black Rhetoric Faculty

    Rhetoricians Assemble: A Roundtable of Black Rhetoric Faculty

    This is the third Rhetoricity episode guest-hosted by Dr. Derek Handley. It's also part of The Third Annual Big Rhetorical Podcast Carnival.
    The episode was recorded at the 2022 Rhetoric Society of America Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, and marks the two-year anniversary of the protests against anti-Black police violence that took place in the summer of 2020. Moderated by Dr. Handley, it features a roundtable of Black rhetoricians: Tamika Carey, David Green, Andre Johnson, Ersula Ore, and Gwendolyn Pough. They share the paths and choices that led them to become rhetoric scholars, reflect on the limitations of antiracist initiatives in higher education since 2020, and discuss the extra work colleges and universities often demand of Black faculty as well as the ongoing work and importance of supporting Black students and faculty across educational institutions.
    This episode features clips from the following:
    "Circle Round" by Spinning Clocks "I'm Going to Go Back There Someday" from The Muppet Movie Episode Transcript

    • 1 hr 25 min
    Futures in the Present Tense

    Futures in the Present Tense

    Today's episode was originally broadcast as part of The Big Rhetorical Podcast Carnival 2020, but is finding its way to the Rhetoricity feed in full for the first time. Focus on the carnival's theme of "The Digital Future of Rhetoric and Composition," the episode draws on shows like Adventure Time and Lovecraft Country as well as the present and future realities of the COVID pandemic, racism, and climate change to consider what our disciplinary futures might hold.
    This episode includes clips and quotations from the following:
    “Come Along With Me” – Adventure Time The Fire Next Time – James Baldwin “Future Peace” – Uuriter “Future You” – Chad Crouch “Future’s Entry” – Lately Kind of Yeah “How Long ‘til Black Future Month” – N. K. Jemisin “Our Future” – Sergey Cheremisinov “Simon & Marcy” – Adventure Time “Sundown” – Lovecraft Country Episode Transcript

    • 24 min

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