Deadline: February 1, 2015
The Rhetoric Society of America calls for innovative proposals for the fourth annual graduate student webinar, an event designed to be accessible to all student members of RSA. The webinar may focus on a topic of scholarly interest or professional development. The principal consideration in selecting a webinar proposal will be the extent to which the topic invites wide interest and bridges institutional affiliations (i.e. English and Communication). The webinar should seek to incorporate an interactive forum for participants, regardless of its specific format (e.g. scholarly talk, panel discussion, roundtable). Themes could draw on issues of shared professional concern, such as publishing, getting a job, or applying for grants. Alternatively, the webinar may function as an opportunity to explore broad disciplinary questions, with participation from senior rhetoric scholars. Another option may be to organize the webinar around a book selected for the RSA annual book award.
The student chapter that sponsors the webinar will be responsible for facilitating the webinar and sponsoring the necessary technology. In keeping with RSA’s goal of creating more opportunities for graduate student collaboration and conversation across campuses throughout the year, the webinar must be made available to all RSA student members. RSA will assist with promoting the event, which would ideally take place in the second quarter of 2015.
Last year’s graduate student webinar featured an interactive talk, “Spectacular Rhetorics” by Professor Wendy Hesford hosted by Pittsburgh University. Hesford’s talk analyzed the discourse of human rights, cultural mediations of the story of Malala Yousafzai, and argued that children play a crucial role as agents in the political machinery of rights and discursive protocols of global engagement. When last checked, the live stream and the archived video had received nearly 150 views. For more information about previous webinars, please go to #SpectacularRhetorics and https://rsawebinar.wordpress.com/.
Webinar proposals should be submitted online no later than February 1, 2015. Proposals must include a principal contact person, a rationale for the webinar (500 words or fewer), and a description of the technology that will be used. Submissions may also choose to include an event budget (if requesting financial support). CLICK HERE to submit your proposal.
Selected proposals will be notified by February 28, 2015. Questions may be directed to Katherine Lind and Sarah Frank at rsagrad@gmail.com.
RSA Webinar Archive 