Tomorrow, Friday January 25, marks Wabash’s 8^th annual Celebration of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work.  There will be a record 86 presentations of student work at the Celebration, covering every academic area of study at the college.  Included among those oral and poster presentations will be five presentations of research developed in Rhetoric courses. 

At 1:30 in Detchon Hall 209, junior Rhetoric major Grant Gussman will present “What's Wrong with History? An Ideological Analysis of Miracle.”  Grant’s project, developed in Professor Todd McDorman’s Rhetoric of Sport course, raises questions of ideology and collective memory in an examination of rhetorical strategies employed in the 2004 Disney film, which chronicles the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team’s Gold Medal performance (“The Miracle on Ice”). Grant contends that in the film history was re-envisioned in order to advance an ideology of American superiority and to make the film more appealing to contemporary audiences.

At 2:40 in Detchon 220, senior Rhetoric major Jared Conaway will present his Senior Project, “The Ideology of Roger Goodell: Ensuring Great Football Players are Great Men.”  Jared’s project examines the rhetoric of National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell in reference to player conduct issues. Jared contends that in reaction to a well publicized rash of incidents involving player misconduct, Goodell has adopted a “law and order” ideology that stresses personal responsibility and citizenship, using this ideology as part of a corrective action strategy to reassure football fans of the moral value of the NFL as a source of family entertainment.

Three Rhetoric-themed presentations will be presented in Detchon 211 from 2:40 to 3:40. At 2:40, senior History major Richard Roomes will present “Ballot or the Bullet,” a rhetorical analysis of the famous Malcolm X speech.  In the project, which Richard developed in Public Speaking with Professor Jennifer Abbott, a contemporary perspective on the continued meaning of the speech for society, race, and politics is offered.

Following Roomes, English major Shayne Dube will present “Hip Hop: A Survival of the Secrecy Tradition in African American Expressive Culture,” a project he developed last spring in the African American Rhetoric and Expressive Culture course taught by Professors David Timmerman and Tim Lake.  In the project Shayne examines coded methods of communicating via music developed by African Americans in Antebellum America and considers how Hip Hop represents the survival of this tradition.  Then, at 3:20, Mathematics major Marquise Triplett will present “African American Social Dancing,” a project also developed in the Timmerman and Lake immersion course last spring. Marquise examines the role of dance in displays of personality and identity and in terms of its significance in African American social history.

The Celebration of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative work is scheduled from 1:00 to 4:20 in Detchon Hall.  All presentations are free and open to the public.

Posted by Todd McDorman at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Parliamentary Union successfully opened 2008 by claiming several awards at the “Bulldog Battle,” a Speech and Debate competition held at Butler University on January 19.

In an academic replication of the battle for the Monon Bell, Wabash and DePauw faced off in the final round of parliamentary debate to determine the tournament champion.  The spirited debate over whether the federal government should respond to the home mortgage crisis concluded with a DePauw victory. Thus, Robert Bloss ’09 and Jonathan James Torrez ’10 took home the second place trophy (or, in this case, large stuffed bulldogs that were given out as awards).  Bloss and Torrez’s performance also earned Wabash a second place finish (and a trophy this time) in the team competition.

In individual events, Wabash finished with three award winning performances.  Victor Nava '10 finished fifth place in Poetry.  Two Wabash competitors also participated in an experimental event held at the tournament. The event, entitled No Little Black Book, challenged performance conventions for oral interpretation.  Steve Ellis ’09 took second place in the event while Nava finished third (each also earning a large stuffed bulldog).

The Parliamentary Union looks to build upon its early year success with upcoming competitions at the Indiana State Individual Events Tournament (at the University of Indianapolis on February 23) and the DSR-TKA national tournament (at the University of Florida, March 7-9).

Posted by Todd McDorman at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

2007 is over—and 2008 is almost two weeks old.  As a final summation of the year that was, here is a list of some Rhetoric Department related events from 2007. 

Spring: Todd McDorman was on leave as the McLain-McTurnan-Arnold Research Scholar for his project “Transforming Death: Rhetoric and the Right-to-Die.”

February: Senior rhetoric major Tim Schirack wins the 133rd Baldwin Oratorical Contest.

February: The Parliamentary Union records a 4th place team finish at the Indiana State Individual Events Tournament, hosted by Butler University. Wabash was led by Kevin Billups '10, Grant Gussman '09, Kevin Travis McLaughlin '09, Victor Nava '10, and Jonathan Torrez '10.

Spring: Jennifer Abbott has the lead article in the new volume of Women’s Studies in Communication: “The Positive Functions of ‘Negative’ Rhetoric: Feminists’ Expository Campaign Against the Promise Keepers.”  Women’s Studies in Communication 30 (2007): 1-33.

March: The Parliamentary Union scores a 6th place team finish at the DSR-TKA national tournament.  Kevin Travis McLaughlin ’09 and Stephen Anthony Ellis Jr. ’09 win the DSR-TKA national championship in Parliamentary debate while award winning performances were also turned in by Victor Nava ’10, Ian Bisbee ’07, and Kevin Billups ’10.

April: For his essay, “History, Collective Memory, and the Supreme Court: Debating ‘the people’ through the Dred Scott Controversy,” Todd McDorman is presented with the Rose B. Johnson SCJ Article Award for Volume 71 (2006) of the Southern Communication Journal.

April: James Coleman McGuffey is awarded the Joseph O’Rourke Jr. Award in Rhetoric in recognition of the best Senior Project for the class of 2007.

May: An impressive set of Rhetoric majors graduate: Ian Bisbee, Frank Knez, James Coleman McGuffey, Chris McNicholas, Matt Plachta, Ryan Pritchard, T.J. Schaffer, Tim Schirack, H. Jake Turner, Robert Van Kirk, Geoff Walker, and Drew Weintraut. Post-Wabash destinations range from Eli Lilly Corp to law school to graduate school to yet other locations in the private sector.

July 1: David Timmerman becomes Chair of the Fine Arts and Humanities Division.

The Rhetoric and Public Affairs Series at Michigan State University Press accepts for publication,  Todd F. McDorman and David M. Timmerman, eds.  Rhetoric and Democracy: Essays in the Tradition of W. Norwood Brigance.  To be released in Fall 2008. 

November 17, 2007: On the 111^th anniversary of his birth, W. Norwood Brigance is recognized as a Distinguished Scholar in Communication.  Brigance was one of four scholars elected to this honor in 2007.

November 25: Zoe Marie Abbott is born to Professors Jennifer and Michael Abbott.

December: Jennifer Abbott is awarded tenure and is promoted to Associated Professor effective July 1, 2008.

Posted by Todd McDorman at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)