Whether approached as “the study of misunderstanding and its remedies,” “the art of speaking well,” “the art of speaking and listening,” or the “faculty of discovering, in any given case, the available means of persuasion,” rhetoric is an area of study that helps students prepare for a life of meaning and purpose, an active engagement of the rights and responsibilities of civic leaders. As James Boyd White put it, “As the object of art is beauty and of philosophy truth, the object of rhetoric is justice – the constitution of a social world.”

Advent 2023 Course descriptions

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Why study rhetoric at Sewanee?

In Sewanee’s Rhetoric program, students learn to research, compose, and critique public discourse and to do so from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and preceptual traditions. Students take courses in public speaking, argumentation and debate, ancient and modern rhetoric, the history of oratory and public discourse, women’s voices, protest, the rhetoric of mass and social media, propaganda, and the rights and responsibilities of speakers. Accordingly, the study of rhetoric is excellent preparation not only for civic life but also for vocational callings in law, teaching, ministry, activism, advocacy, conflict resolution, diplomacy, and politics, as well as careers in communication, commerce, and the arts. Students have the opportunity to study with award-winning teachers and scholars, conduct, present, and publish undergraduate research, and work in and with our state-of-the-art Center for Speaking & Listening.

Award-Winning Faculty
Next Stop: Teaching, Scholarship, and Mentoring

Rhetoric faculty are award-winning teachers, researchers, and mentors. Our faculty have recently won research grants from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Grant and the McCrickard Faculty Development Fund, along with awards for teaching, scholarship, and mentoring from the Southern States Communication Association and the University of the South.

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Center for Speaking & Listening
Next stop: wisdom and eloquence

The Center for Speaking and Listening offers assistance to members of the campus community who seek help as they investigate, develop, refine, and practice oral presentations–speeches, addresses, arguments, debates, and dialogues–as they seek to understand, through listening, those spoken discourses.

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Undergraduate Research
Next stop: presentations and publications

At Sewanee, rhetoric students engage in undergraduate research. Our students have presented papers at conferences, published their original work in undergraduate journals, presented research at the annual Festival of Speaking & Listening, and collaborated with rhetoric faculty on grant-funded initiatives such as the "Go Tell It on the Mountain" Project.

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Festival of Speaking & Listening
Next stop: compete and celebrate

The Sewanee Festival of Speaking & Listening showcases student speakers from across the university engaging topics of political, legal, social, scientific, cultural, professional, and rhetorical significance. Held each Easter semester, the festival features five contests. Panels of judges select the winners of each contest, and members of the campus and local community are invited to attend.

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Debate at Sewanee
Next stop: research and controversy

Modeled on the Oxford and Cambridge Debate Unions, SDU offers students and faculty a forum for investigating, researching, and debating public controversies on and beyond the Sewanee campus. Dr. O’Rourke advises SDU and faculty and students across the university have participated in campus-wide debates on a host of campus, local, national, and global issues.

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SUMMA Debate Camp
Next stop: theological debate

SUMMA Theological Debate Society and Camp invites high schoolers from all around the country and across faith traditions to come to Sewanee each summer and "speak the truth in love" on a theological proposition. SUMMA campers research at the Center for Speaking & Listening, enjoy our beautiful domain, and form lifelong friendships.

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A Sampling of Courses

Public Speaking
Rhetoric

Study of the principles, precepts, and strategies of informative, persuasive, and ceremonial speaking. Emphasis is placed on assessing the rhetorical situation and researching, composing, practicing, and delivering a speech. Ethical, political, and social questions raised by speaking in public are considered. Students deliver speeches, practice effective listening, and serve as speech critics and interlocutors.

RHET 101
Taught by Dr. Sean Patrick O'Rourke, Dr. Melody Lehn, & Rev. Warren Swenson
Introduction to Rhetoric
Rhetoric

Topical survey of the major questions and controversies in rhetorical theory, criticism, and practice, including rhetorical situations, classical canons of rhetoric, the role of rhetoric in civic life, and the relationship of rhetoric to power, politics, law, education, and ethics. Students consider the rights and responsibilities of speakers and critics. Accordingly, readings include selections from a wide array of rhetorical theorists and critics as well as a diverse and open canon of orators and speakers.

RHET 201
Taught by Dr. Sean Patrick O'Rourke
Voices of American Women
Rhetoric

An examination of the history and criticism of American women's oratory and the history of women’s public discourse in the United States from the colonial period through the present. Considers the historical, social, and cultural significance of women’s rhetorical participation in civic life, as well as issues of authority, reception, and the nature of argument both within and about women’s public address.

RHET 331
Taught by Dr. Melody Lehn
Rhetoric of Mass and Social Media
Rhetoric

Survey of the key topics, questions, issues, and controversies surrounding the rhetoric of mass and social media. Students explore how this rhetoric not only helps us inform, persuade, and move others to action, but also how—and whether—they are informed, persuaded, and moved to act themselves. Topics surveyed may include rhetorical framing, message bias, propaganda, the rhetorical propagation and circulation of misinformation, freedom of expression, protest, and visual rhetoric.

RHET 341
Taught by Dr. Melody Lehn
Rhetoric in the Age of Protest
Rhetoric

Study of the discursive and non-discursive aspects of protest in the period 1948-1973. Focus on the forms and functions of rhetorics and counter-rhetorics in U.S. controversies over communism, civil rights, free speech, war, students’ rights, women’s rights, farm workers’ rights, Native American rights, gay rights, the environment, and poverty. Prerequisite: One course in rhetoric.

RHET 411
Taught by Dr. Sean Patrick O'Rourke
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Contact

Sean Patrick O'Rourke, Ph.D., J.D.
Professor and Chair of Rhetoric and American Studies
Co-Director of the Center for Speaking & Listening

sporourk@sewanee.edu

Gailor Hall 122, Ext. 1252

Melody Lehn, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Women’s & Gender Studies
Co-Director of the Center for Speaking & Listening

mjlehn@sewanee.edu

Gailor Hall 214, Ext. 1291