Future graduate courses

The systematic study of effective composition, argument, and persuasion-€”the art of rhetoric-€”dates back at least to the epics of Homer and flourishes today in countless academic disciplines and spheres of social life. In fact, the historical “empire” of rhetoric is so vast that it “digests regimes, religions, and civilizations” (Roland Barthes). This seminar seeks to introduce students to some of the essential concepts, issues, and controversies in the history and theory of rhetoric by analyzing selections from key texts from antiquity and the twentieth century. In addition to demonstrating the relevance of rhetorical theory and criticism to a variety of social, intellectual, and cultural fields (politics, feminism, critical race theory, etc.), the seminar also explores emerging forms of rhetorical practice made possible by new media technologies, such as digital advertising and information warfare. Ideally, students will leave the seminar with a firm grasp of basic concepts of rhetorical theory and a deeper appreciation for rhetoric as an inventive, critical, and multidisciplinary enterprise.

This course is designed to provide graduate students with an introduction to critical digital research methods with a focus on critical internet and social media studies. In order to do good research one must 
first have a solid understanding of what kind of research is even possible to do This course aims to provide a foundational understanding of how to critically study “born digital” and online phenomena. 
Seminar readings on specific research methods will contribute to the formulation of a research project proposal to be carried out during the semester. Recent literature on the theoretical and ethical aspects of these methods will also be considered in the
context of these projects.

Blake is known for his exaltation of the “Human Form Divine”. However, his works abound with other living things -- plants, insects, animals, angels, devils, various mythological beings -- all endowed with kinds and degrees of agency in creation and destruction, connection to and alienation from the divine. This course will explore the diversity of beings in Blake’s visual and verbal productions, focusing on selected Illuminated Books. We will consider in tandem Blake’s radical reimaginings of the relations of human and non-human and of image and text where (for example) vines become letters, and a Dragon-Man, a Viper, an Eagle, fiery Lions, and Unnam’d forms are all workers in the Printing house in Hell.

This course examines the intersection of radical social and political thought with violence in five novels of the 1840s and 50s. Catherine Gallagher argues that mid-Victorian industrial novels respond to contemporary controversies about “the nature and possibility of human freedom,” “the sources of social cohesion,” and “the nature of representation” itself as “facts” are transformed into “values” (The Industrial Reformation of English Fiction). In this course we will examine how acts of violence create crises in all three domains—of freedom, community, and representation. 

In this research seminar we will take an innovative approach to the rhetorical canon of delivery and its significance for literary studies. We will also take an innovative approach to literary representations of delivery, and their significance for rhetorical studies. To accomplish these two goals, we will examine both cutting-edge of ideas about effective communication in the late eighteenth century and explore the reactions of poets and novelists to them.