Terminology

• Activism vs. Activist Rhetorics

• Embattled Populations

Origins of Battle Oratory

Exhortatory Rhetorical Genres and Paerenetic Appeals

Mid 20th Century Shift: Embodied Rhetorics

Mid 20th Century Shift: Print Rhetorics

21st Century: Digital Activism

Collective Mobilization: Identification, Communitas, & Transcendence

Silencing Strategies

Rhetorical strategies to silence and counter activism 

• Too soon; not the right time 

• Need to have a definition

• Respectability politics

• Hyperbolizing the “other” side to extremes

• Dismiss tactics of social movements as irrational and based in pathos 

Challenges & Risks

Questions for Consideration

• What are the benefits of attuning to or participating in activist rhetorics (e.g. encouraging civic engagement; understanding exhortatory writing, acting, and thinking as an essential—if not always ethical--tool in a democratic society)? 

• What challenges or resistance might arise as you examine or participate in activist rhetorics? 

• Considering current political divisiveness and the need to for inclusive and fertile community spaces of intellectual curiosity, what are the potential risks of activist discourses (e.g. backlash, accusations of “indoctrination” and politicizing the classroom)? 

Exercises for Politically-Engaged Writing

• Organize “Teach-ins” (students plan, propose, and deliver a teach-in on an activist topic of their choice) to encourage intersectional thinking, community organizing, and collective action. 

• Students can write their own social justice manifestos/statement.

• Create Activist Zines with student choice for the theme of the zine as well as its format (online, print, or other).

• Plan a campus-wide public event—collective organizing, action, reflection; locating resources, planning, acquiring necessary permits and funds, and creating content through wise rhetorical choices; public statement that benefits the campus.

• Read and analyze activist rhetoric and then to create activist rhetoric based on an assigned or chosen rhetorical situation. 

Closing--Q&A