Rhetoric+of+Social+Movements

J Haynes Minor Research Exam: The Rhetoric of Social Movements Examiner: Lois Agnew

The creation of women’s studies as an academic department explicitly designed to connect the academic, pedagogical, and political, produced a flurry of rhetoric concerning the role of education and the place of progressive pedagogies within the academy. As these programs are often positioned as an extension of a larger public social movement by both advocates and opponents alike, their creation should be examined through the lens of a rhetoric of social movements. This exam will consider the relationship between the feminist arguments within the academy concerning the need for and arguments justifying the creation of women’s studies programs, and those within the larger, public feminist movement during the early 1970s. How do the feminist rhetorics deployed in both the academy and the larger public sphere intersect and mutually support or resist overarching feminist goals? What can we learn about the nature of social change and the role that the interplay between academic and public arguments play in supporting such change? More specifically, what is the conceptual framework which will allow me to analyze the relationship between Feminist rhetorics deployed in the academy and those deployed in the public sphere?

All of the above questions lead to a more central question concerning how the interrelationship between academic feminism and social political feminism affect the ways that certain voices and experiences are positioned as legitimate. By focusing specifically on the connections between academic feminism and the broader feminist movement, this exam will provide a further understanding of the forms and methods of institutional power and constraints that affect progressive efforts within the academy as well as the academy’s influence on public rhetorics.

The readings for this exam have been divided between scholarship on the rhetoric of social movements and scholarship on feminism and the creation of women’s studies programs. The latter section includes both historical scholarship analyzing the creation of women’s studies programs and texts published during the early years of women’s studies programs.


 * Bibliography**

Biesicker, Barbara. “Coming to Terms with Recent Attempts to Write Women into the History of Rhetoric.” Philosophy & Rhetoric 25.2 (1992): 140-161.
 * Part I: Rhetoric of Social Movements**

Bitzer, Lloyd. "The Rhetorical Situation." Philosophy and Rhetoric, 1 (January, 1968), 1-14.

Bowers, John W., Donovan J. Ochs, and Richard J. Jenson. The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control. 2nd ed. (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland 1993).

Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs. "The Rhetoric of Women's Liberation: An Oxymoron." Quarterly Journal of Speech 59 (1973): 74–86.

Ferree, Myra and David Merrill. "Hot Movements, Cold Cognition: Thinking about Social Movements in Gendered Frames." Contemporary Sociology 29 (2000): 454-462.

Goodwin, Jeff, James Jasper, and Francesca Polletta, eds. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. U of Chicago P, 2001.

Griffen, Leland. "The Rhetorical Structure of the 'New Left' Movement, Part I." Quarterly Journal of Speech 50 (1964): 113-135.

Hauser, Gerard A. and Susan Whalen. "New Rhetoric and New Social Movements." Emerging Theories of Human Communication. Ed. Branislav Kovacic. Albany: SUNY UP, 1997. 115-40.

Herndl, Carl G. and Dan A. Bauer. "Speaking Matters: Liberation Theology, Rhetorical Performance, and Social Action." CC 54.4 (2003): 558-585.

Jensen, Richard. "Analyzing Socia Movement Rhetoric." Rhetoric Review 25.4 (2006): 372-375.

McGee, Micheal Calvin. "In Search of 'The People': A Rhetorical Alternative." Quarterly Journal of Speech 61 (1975): 235-249.

Meyer, David S. "Social Movements: Creating Communities of Change." Conscious Acts and the Politics of Change. Ed. Robin L Teske and Mary Ann Tretreault. Columbia: U of Sourth Carolina P, 2002.

Morris, Charles E. III and Stephen Howard Browne, eds. Readings on the Rhetoric of Social Protest. State College, PA: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2006.

Naples, Nancy A. “Materialist Feminist Discourse Analysis and Social Movement Research: Mapping the changing context for ‘Community Control.’” //Social Movements: Identity, Culture, and the State.// Ed. David Meyer et al. New York: Oxford UP, 2002: 226-246.

Pezzullo, Phaedra C. “Resisting ‘National Breast Cancer Awareness Month’: The Rhetoric of Counterpublics and their Cultural Performances.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 89.4 (1993): 345-365.

Polletta, Francesca. It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics. U of Chicago P, 2006.

Sowards, Stacey K. and Valerie R Renegar. "Reconceptualizing Rhetorical Activism in Contemporary Feminist Contexts." Howard Journal of Communications 17 (2006): 57-74.

Stewart, Charles J. "Championing the Rights of Others and Challenging Evil: The Ego Function in the Rhetoric of Other-Directed Social Movements." Southern Communication Journal 64 (1999): 91-105.

Stewart, Charles J., Craig Allen Smith, and Robert E. Denton. Persuasion and Social Movements, 4th ed. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc., 2001.

Triece, Mary E. "Rhetoric and Social Change: Women's Struggles for Economic and Political Equality." Women's Studies in Communication 23 (2000): 238-260.

Vatz, Richard E. "The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation." Philosophy and Rhetoric 6 (1973): 154-61.

Boxer, Marilyn J. (1998). //When Women ask the Questions: Creating Women's Studies in America//. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press
 * Part II: Feminism and the Creation of Women’s Studies**

Ginsberg, Alice E., ed. //The Evolution of American Women’s Studies: Reflections on Triumphs, Controversies, and Change//. New York: Palgrave Macmillion, 2008.

Howe, Florence, ed. //Female Studies//: No 2. 1970.

Howe, Florence, ed. //The Politics of Women's Studies: Testimony from Thirty Founding Mothers//. New York: Feminist Press, 2001

Messer-Davidow, Ellen, //Disciplining Feminism : From Social Activism to Academic Discourse//, Durham, NC etc. : Duke University Press, 2002

Rosen, Ruth. //The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America//. Penguin, 2006.

Wiegman, Robyn (editor), //Women's Studies on Its Own: A Next Wave Reader in Institutional Change//, Duke University Press, 2002.

//Women’s Studies Quarterly//. “Looking Back, Moving Forward: Twenty Five Years of Women’s Studies History.” 25.1-2 (1996).

RSM Response 1