Stuart Hall had a significant impact on critical analyses of rightist mobilizations in education. This is very visible in my own work, for example, in such volumes as "Official Knowledge" (2014) and "Educating the 'Right' Way" (2006). After describing an important series of lectures that Stuart Hall gave at the Havens Center…

This article describes a self-study pursuant to a clash between a lecturer and a student concerning the teaching of literature in a politically fraught context. The learning group is composed of Arab and Jewish teachers at a college in northern Israel. The work read by the group expresses a Palestinian perspective. The incident, discussed with…

Since its formation, the Speech Communication Association's Committee on Freedom of Speech has played a critical leadership role in course offerings, research efforts, and regional activities in freedom of speech. Areas in which research has been done and in which further research should be carried out include: historical-critical research, in…

Argues that literary criticism, which has focused on the relevance of literary works to their context in society, must also address specific political issues confronting society. (RB)

Argues that English teachers are not asking the most important questions about a piece of literature, suggesting that they are ducking the issues that are specifically political. (RB)

Uses the Vietnamese War as a metaphor for student and instructor approaches to language in composition classes. Explores George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" in its relationship to the rhetoric surrounding United States intervention. (MM)

Argues that literary theory is a fact of professional life in English departments and that differences of intellectual concern will always remain. Discusses what should be the object of critical analysis, and questions whether answering such a question is even possible. (HB)

The focus of the dramatistic approach as a method of rhetorical criticism is the message rather than the speaker, audience, or situation. Using the approach developed by Ernest Bormann, the rhetorical critic examines man's symbolic reality and reacts to it by looking for strategies that are inherent in certain dramas. Conspiracy dramas are popular…

Argues that the recent feminist analyses of gender and power can illuminate the situation of the profession of composition studies as it has struggled for legitimacy and power within the academy. Focuses on the negative consequences of identification with the sciences and social sciences on the part of empirical researchers as the field struggled…

Examines the general strategies of Bill Clinton and George Bush in the 1992 presidential campaign regarding the abortion issue among the complex of family values appeals and in the context of the "culture war." Analyzes the rhetorical power of the dead fetus image shown in campaign advertising. Speculates on the influence of the abortion…

Questions the assumption that movements are insurgent campaigns for change by offering a counter-example which demonstrates that rhetorical characteristics of movements may be replicated within the political power structure. (MH)

Describes reflective spectator judgment with respect to political judgment and rhetorical theory, and then proposes a method of stylistic analysis that may help to identify discursive features enabling reflective spectator judgment. Illustrates these discursive features (described as participatory forms) by performing a stylistic analysis of…

Analyzes Senator Bumpers' argument in the Clinton impeachment proceedings as a bias type of "ad hominem" argument. Notes specifically Bumpers' argument that the House Managers were not fulfilling their proper roles in the proceedings. Claims Bumpers' bias position was reasonable in the argumentative context in which it took place. (NH)