BE A FORCE FOR GOOD IN THE WORLD:
RHETORIC IN ACTION

June 17–18, 2022 in Provo, Utah

Proposal Deadline: March 1, 2022

The Applied Rhetoric Collaborative is an interdisciplinary group of scholars who practice, teach, and study applied rhetoric—defined as a rhetorically grounded method for and study of action-oriented research, teaching, and service in live situations that solves problems and achieves positive ends in communities. Our summer symposia allow us to gather to examine how rhetoric is enacted in our professional and non-professional spaces. Symposium topics have ranged from how a researcher used rhetoric as a member of community task force meetings regarding mental health to analyzing how rhetoric in a specific document affects the production of free-speech rules in universities.

For this, the fourth symposium, we will continue the work of our third symposium, which took the form of a virtual mini-symposium, and ask participants to further develop and define the ideas of applied rhetoric. To do this, we ask symposium participants to emphasize how people (researchers, practitioners, community members, and everyone in between) bring rhetoric into the world. How do people use the theories and skills of rhetoric to do things in our professional and non-professional spaces? How can we extend and explain rhetoric to the people and situations around us, whether that be in the public sphere, the academic sphere, or the private sphere? How can we be a force for good in the world as we put our rhetoric into action?

We are interested in work of various types that discusses how to be a force for good in the world with rhetoric. Potential topics of interest may include, but are not limited to:

• What does it look like for academics to take their knowledge of rhetoric into public spaces?

• How do community members enact rhetoric and rhetorical principles to get things done?

• How do rhetorical principles affect ideas, events, and/or outcomes in nonprofit organizations?

• How do people enact rhetoric in legal spaces for the good or ill of all involved in the legal system?

• How do academics encourage and enable students to enact rhetoric out in the world, either on their own or as part of an academic enterprise?

• How does one learn to do rhetoric out in the world? How does one teach students to do rhetoric out in the world?

• How do people enact rhetoric online to affect positive or negative change? How can positive change be further amplified or developed? How can negative change be combated or counteracted?

• How do people balance the desire to enact rhetoric out in the world with the other professional and non-professional commitments that they have?

The second focus of the symposium is on building community around those who enact applied rhetoric. The Applied Rhetoric Symposium is a symposium focused on collaboration, coordination, networking, and friendship. We include multiple plenary sessions and ample time during and between sessions to discuss work with symposium attendees. We want to see those who seek to do rhetoric out in the world find a community of support. We also are strongly supportive of student work, and encourage student-scholars to apply.

The Applied Rhetoric Symposium is hosted by The Applied Rhetoric Collaborative, an ongoing gathering of people who enact a particular type of rhetorical work (applied rhetoric) in their professional and/or non-professional spaces. The ARC offers a para-professional space for support, feedback, collaboration, and encouragement to those who seek to solve problems and achieve positive ends in communities. These meetings are held via a yearly symposium and ongoing digital connections.

FORMATS

Works in Progress (30 minutes each)

Not a presentation, not quite a workshop. Works in Progress sessions are a time to get feedback on how to finish a project that seems stuck or how to start working on a good idea that seems overwhelming.

Traditional (20 minutes each)

You know what we're talking about. Strict time limits, but followed by an extended open discussion after each set of 3 presentations.

Quick Hits: Rhetoric in Practice (10 minutes each)

A lightning round of sorts in which participants review or critique applications of rhetoric in their work, communities, or society at large. Quick hits will be followed by open discussion sessions.

Hybrid Delivery

The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and we acknowledge that scheduling summer travel may be difficult or daunting right now. Therefore, we are committed to making the conference accessible both in-person in Provo and online via hybrid delivery methods. We're still working out the details, but we want to assure all attendees that effective hybrid delivery is a core focus of our planning efforts.