Jimmy Butts passes "strange" Exams

Third-year RCID doctoral candidate Jimmy Butts passed his comprehensive/qualifying exams this past Leap Day, finishing with his multi-modal/oral presentation (fourth exam) titled: "Seven Strange Attractors: How to Repent! and Be Unbaptized!"

Jimmy's dissertation topic explores how Victor Shklovsky’s concept of defamiliarization functions rhetorically across different forms of composition and media. The ethics underlying his writing works against the flood of totalizing immersive media when they elicit only automatic or anesthetized responses from their contemporary audiences.

The project hopes to complicate expectations of standardization by seeing both potential and problems in normative and unusual compositions. He will work through seven forms of inventional strategies for strangeness including figural shifts in media, time traveling, replacement, addition & subtraction, negation, glossolalia, and exponentiation.

During a short reception in Clemson's Class of 1941 Studio, those in attendance were invited  to "strange" the familiarity of stones, followed by Jimmy's aesthetically moving multi-modal performance.

Congratulations, Jimmy, from S3S!

Steve Holmes Passes Exams!

S3S's 2010-2011 Vice President and now RCID doctoral candidate Steve Holmes passed his comprehensive/qualifying exams, back in December.  

On December 9, Steve presented his multimodal portion of the exams, titled, "Electrate Invention in the Parliament of Things," having completed his written exams in his areas of specialization: object-oriented rheorics, Heuretics/Euretics, and Tool-Being.

Steve's dissertation explores realism and materialism in relationship over the history of rhetorical theory. By tracing the disappearance of realism and the onset epistemic, social constructivist, semiotic, and poststructuralist paradigms in the 20th century, Steve explores how rhetoric came to prominence under these anti-realist theories of materiality, a situation best epitomized by Jacques Derrida's description of materiality as "matter without substance" (e.g. without a reality independent of linguistic construction).  

Steve's dissertation foregrounds the work of new movements in affective and feminist theories of materiality and the broader movement of speculative realism in the work of Graham Harman, Bruno Latour, Timothy Morton, Levi Bryant, Jane Bennett, Vickie Kirby and Karen Barad as a way to talk again about the reality of nature and the nonhuman. The dissertation then considers how realism can inform theories and pedagogies related to rhetorical invention in digital and networked ecologies, drawing specific attention to the work of hardware and software studies and new media artists who foreground the materiality of media ecologies. Drawing on Gregory Ulmer's scholarship, he intends to create additional multimodal components that will bear witness to new idioms of the ways in which we have always dwelled with the nonhuman element.

A hearty, albeit belated, congratulations to (ABD) RCID doctoral candidate Steve Holmes from S3S!

Publications - Check them out!

Welcome to 2012! As we begin the new year/semester, we want to make note of some great articles and reviews from our current S3S members!

Check out these works published over the past semester:

Colton, Jared. Review of Inessential Solidarity: Rhetoric and Foreigner Relations, by Diane Davis. Rhetoric Review 31.1 (2012): 88-92.

Fancher, Patricia, Carl Whithaus, and Andrew Mara. Review of Marshall

McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work! by Douglas Coupland. Enculturation 12 (2011).

Lind, Stephen J. Review of American Puppet Modernism, by John Bell. Text and Performance Quarterly 31.4 (2011): 455-456.

And watch for these articles coming in 2012:

Byrum, Kristie. “How (and Why) to Create A Corporate Social Responsibility Platform.” A Guide to Best Practices in Corporate Social Responsiblity & Green PR. Vol. 4. by PR News. Access Intelligence, 2012.

Holmes, Steven. (Provisional title) “Would Socrates Approve this Message? From Social Realism to Rhetorical 'Allegorithms' as Gaming Activism in Markus Persson's Minecraft.” Games of Words. Ed. Zachary Waggoner. Macmillan, 2012.

Holmes, Steve. “Wither Ecocriticsm in the Era of Hyperobjects?” Review of Ecology Without Nature and The Ecological Thought, by Timothy Morton. Journal of Ecocriticism (2012).

Lind, Stephen J. “Un-defining Man: The Case for Symbolic Animal Communication.” Perspectives on Human-Animal Communication: Internatural Communication. Ed. Emily Plec. Routledge, 2012.

Lind, Stephen J. “Teaching Digital Oratory: Public Speaking 2.0.” Communication Teacher 26 (2012).

McFarlane, Nicole. “Digital Memory and Narrative through 'African American Rhetoric[s] 2.0'” Review of Keepin’ It Hushed: The Barbershop and African American Hush Harbor Rhetoric by Vorris Nunley and Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age by Adam Banks. Enculturation (2012).

Well done, all!

Annual Holiday Party!

Many thanks to the Collamati family for hosting another wonderful annual holiday party! 4th-year RCID candidate Anthony Collamati (pictured) and his wife Keri hosted the party at their home, complete with the annual secret-recipe meatballs, Chipmunk music from the record player, and the always-exciting gift swap. The gift swap this year featured several Gorgias Society mugs, a breadmaker, a highly-coveted ream of paper, and a lovely box of fresh beets. S3S extends a warm Thank You to all the RCID faculty, students, and friends for another great semester --- see you in 2012!

Clemson Awarded RSA Grant for CRC

RSA Announces Graduate Student Special Event Award

[RePosted from RSA website]

RSA is proud to announce that Clemson University’s RSA Student Chapter is the sole recipient of the 2011-2012 RSA Graduate Student Special Event Award. They will receive $2450 in support of the Carolina Rhetoric Conference.

The award committee reviewed numerous proposals for interesting and important graduate student events around the country. However, Clemson’s proposal distinguished itself by demonstrating a wide-reaching opportunity for graduate students of rhetoric. The award committee was particularly impressed by Clemson’s effort to reach across many graduate programs, to create numerous venues for students’ scholarly and professional development, and to utilize digital technologies creatively.

In February 2012, Clemson's RSA chapter will host the Carolina Rhetoric Conference (CRC), an annual event that brings together graduate students from North and South Carolina. The CRC provides graduate students in the region with opportunities to share their research, build a network of rhetoric scholars in the Carolinas, and to receive feedback on conference presentations before presenting at major national conventions. The event is alternatively hosted by RSA chapters at NC State, the University of South Carolina, and Clemson. This year, Clemson plans to expand the conference by inviting graduate students from additional rhetoric programs. In addition, they plan to include various networking events, a digital showcase, keynote speakers, workshops, and live blogging during the event followed by a series of round-up blogs after the event.

Meeting Extraordinary Chileans

Third-year RCID student Walter Iriarte has returned from a trip to D.C. where he visited a special exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History on theChilean Mine Rescue.  Because the rescue attracted over a billion viewers (according to the current Chilean Minister of Public Works) and especially because two of the miners were known to have written poems while entrapped, Walter was drawn to the exhibit as an important piece in his current dissertation project.  Artifacts from the ordeal were on display, poems and writings sent between the miners and their families being of particular interest to Walter.  Also on display was the Fenix 2 backup capsule.

 

The highlight of Walter’s trip, though, was the Smithsonian Institute hosted workshop and presentation featuring Minister Laurence Golborne (organizer of the rescue mission) and Luis Urzua (the last miner to be extracted).  Before the official presentations began, Walter had the honor of interviewing both Minister Golborne and Don (Mr.) Urzua.  During the presentation, the speakers shared with the guests various stories not known to the public.  Both Golborne and Urzua also took time to discuss what critical factors contributed to their survival.  “The exchange between us was incredibly meaningful and abundant,” reported Walter.  “The experience has already initiated another project which will be in works after the dissertation.  I am very thankful for the opportunity and look forward to sharing some of the information during my oral defense."

October S3S Party

 Thanks to Dr. Dave Blakesley and his family for hosting a wonderful October S3S party this past Saturday.  We had a great turnout and great food (not to mention use of the outstanding telescope, the fire-pit by the pool, and a chance to catch up with each other's family).  Check out our Facebook page for more PHOTOS.