This course meets at the intersections of the “material turn” in rhetorical theory: what Kristin Arola dubbed “OOO/PH/NM/AS”—inclusive of object-oriented ontology (OOO)/post-humanism(PH)/new materialism(NM)/affect studies(AS).

This course covers a variety of ontological theories (that is, theories of being) as they have been taken up by scholars in a variety of fields, and how they have been applied to rhetorical studies. Generally speaking, it explores theories of new materialism—those theories that suggest a particular vitality to matter and a degree of nonhuman agency in the shaping of the world. The course parses some of the differences between and among them, and seeks to disrupt their linear narrative by engaging the critique that they primarily draw on Eurowestern ways of knowing to make their cases. Thus the course focuses on decolonial, Indigenous, and material feminist works to imagine new possibilities for rhetorical intra-actions within new material theory.