Five Sewanee faculty, students, and administrators traveled to Frisco, Texas to participate in the annual Southern States Communication Association Convention (SSCA). This year’s convention theme was “Communicating Belonging” and Sewanee attendees participated in various panels concerned with questions of rhetorical allyship, racial justice, and the place of rhetorical learning in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Sewanee students and Center for Speaking & Listening tutors Jenna Miller and Sloan Rogers had papers competitively selected for presentation at the Theodore Clevenger Undergraduate Honors Conference. Both students presented on the panel “Rhetorical Criticism of Mindfulness, Allyship, Ideology, and the Jeremiad.” Miller, a junior from Chattanooga, TN pursuing a student-initiated major in Rhetoric and Politics, presented her paper “The Black Jeremiad in the 21st Century and the ‘Tennessee Three.’” Miller wrote the paper for Dr. Sean O’Rourke’s RHET 311: U.S. Public Address II: 1865-present class.
Rogers, a junior pursuing a student-initiated major in Rhetoric and Gender, presented her paper “On Divorce: The Rhetoric of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Allyship, and Lived Experience.” Rogers wrote the paper for Dr. Melody Lehn’s RHET 312: U.S. Public Address I: 1620-1865 class. SSCA President Patrick Wheaton attended the panel and exhorted these emerging rhetorical critics to “keep finding your voice and learning to shout.” The students were grateful for the support from Sewanee’s Office of Undergraduate Research for supporting their travel.
Dr. Sibby Anderson-Thompkins, Vice Provost of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, joined Rhetoric faculty members Dr. Sean O'Rourke and Dr. Melody Lehn on the Vice President’s Spotlight panel “Brown v. Board of Education at 70: Rhetoric, Race, and America’s Unfinished Conversation about Race,” sponsored by the Southern Colloquium on Rhetoric. They were joined by colleagues at the University of Georgia, the University of Oregon, and the University of South Carolina-Sumter. Panelists considered the text of the Brown decision in light of recent efforts to suppress voter registration, limit the right to protest, impose government dictates and gag orders on the teaching of slavery, race, American history, and “controversial” or “divisive” issues, and ban books that offer an unsanitized view of America’s long struggle with racism.
Drs. O’Rourke and Lehn also spoke on the panel “Bridging the Gap: Creating and Operating a University Speaking Center” with fellow center directors from Concordia University, Florida Atlantic University, and Louisiana State University. The panelists engaged in a robust discussion and shared insights regarding the inception, development, and operation of a university speaking center. Additionally, Dr. Lehn chaired and participated in the workshop “Building Effective Representative Leaders: Communicating Belonging with Women in Higher Ed Leadership.”
Learn more about undergraduate research opportunities at Sewanee here and the Southern Colloquium on Rhetoric here.
