My
long-time interest in the rhetoric of public policy has led
me to focus recently on intersections between traditional agonistic
(win-lose) rhetoric and the rhetorical strategies of dispute
resolution and conflict transformation. My interest in
theorizing a non-adversarial, or non-agonistic, rhetoric deepened
during a Spring 2004 writing internship with Search for Common
Ground, an international conflict transformation organization
in Washington , D.C. (This internship was supported by
the Office of the Provost and the Institute for Urban Life,
under the auspices of a program organized by the Institute for
Experiential Education and the American Association of Colleges
and Universities.)
By
non-adversarial, or non-agonistic, rhetoric, I mean rhetorical
strategies employed not to defeat an opponent but to find grounds
for collaborative action toward a shared goal without compromise
of underlying values. Two current projects analyze the
rhetorical functions of art in civil society, particularly as
a peace-building activity, and the rhetorical dynamics of discussions
about “hot button issues” such as the death penalty.
This research on public discourse has enabled me to immerse
myself in journalism and drawn on my early professional career
as a newspaper reporter.
My
journalism background strongly influences my teaching within
the Writing-Intensive English major: Advanced Composition, Writing
for the Professions, and Writing for Nonprofit Organizations
(a special topics course offered every other year). In
addition, I am one of the faculty members who rotate teaching
of the graduate rhetoric seminar for new graduate teaching assistants,
and I always enjoy teaching either of the first-year writing
courses. (I directed the program from 1997–2002.) Finally, what began as an avocation—going to the theater—has
become a passion for teaching Introduction to Literature: Drama.
My
publications include Reading Rhetorically (Longman, 2nd brief
ed., 2007), co-authored with John Bean and Alice Gillam , as
well as articles analyzing students' service learning experiences,
peer tutoring, responses to Farewell to Manzanar, expert testimony
in a death penalty trial, and a collection entitled Balancing
Acts: Essays on the Teaching of Writing (Southern Illinois UP,
1991), which I edited with two
former graduate student colleagues, Chris Anderson and Mary
Louise Buley-Meissner, in honor of William F. Irmscher, my dissertation
director at the University of Washington.
