Claims that students are too sensitive are familiar on and around college campuses. The ideas of cancel culture, safe spaces, and political correctness are used to shut down discussion and prevent students from being recognized as stakeholders in higher education and as advocates for their own interests. Further, universities can claim that student activists threaten academic freedom. In Sensitive Rhetorics, Kendall Gerdes puts these claims and common beliefs into conversation with rhetorical theory to argue that critiques of sensitivity reveal a deep societal discomfort with the idea that language is a form of action. Gerdes poses important questions: What kind of harm can language and representation actually do, and how? What responsibilities do college and university teachers bear toward their students? Sensitive Rhetorics explores the answers by surfacing submerged assumptions about higher education, the role of instructors and faculty, and the needs of an increasingly diverse student body.

Mencius (385–303/302 BCE) and Aristotle (384–322 BCE) were contemporaries, but are often understood to represent opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum. Mencius is associated with the ecological, emergent, flowing, and connected; Artistotle with the rational, static, abstract, and binary. Douglas Robinson argues that in their conceptions of rhetoric, at least, Mencius and Aristotle are much more similar than different: both are powerfully socio-ecological, espousing and exploring collectivist thinking about the circulation of energy and social value through groups. The agent performing the actions of pistis, "persuading-and-being-persuaded," in Aristotle and zhi, "governing-and-being-governed," in Mencius is, Robinson demonstrates, not so much the rhetor as an individual as it is the whole group. Robinson tracks this collectivistic thinking through a series of comparative considerations using a theory that draws impetus from Arne Naess's "ecosophical" deep ecology and from work on rhetoric powered by affective ecologies, but with details of the theory drawn equally from Mencius and Aristotle.

Recent archaeological discoveries, coupled with long-lost but now available epigraphical evidence, and a more expansive view of literary sources, provide new and dramatic evidence of the emergence of rhetoric in ancient Greece. Many of these artifacts, gathered through onsite fieldwork in Greece, are analyzed in this revised and expanded edition of Greek Rhetoric Before Aristotle. This new evidence, along with recent developments in research methods and analysis, reveal clearly that long before Aristotle’s Rhetoric, long before rhetoric was even stabilized into formal systems of study in Classical Athens, nascent, pre-disciplinary “rhetorics” were emerging throughout Greece.

Through close analysis of texts, cultural and civic communities, and intellectual history, the papers in this collection, for the first time, propose a dynamic relationship between rhetoric and medicine as discourses and disciplines of cure in early modern Europe. Although the range of theoretical approaches and methodologies represented here is diverse, the essays collectively explore the theories and practices, innovations and interventions, that underwrite the shared concerns of medicine, moral philosophy, and rhetoric: care and consolation, reading, policy, and rectitude, signinference, selfhood, and autonomy-all developed and refined at the intersection of areas of inquiry usually thought distinct. From Italy to England, from the sixteenth through to the mid-eighteenth century, early modern moral philosophers and essayists, rhetoricians and physicians investigated the passions and persuasion, vulnerability and volubility, theoretical intervention and practical therapy in the dramas, narratives, and disciplines of public and private cure. The essays are relevant to a wide range of readers, including cultural, literary, and intellectual historians, historians of medicine and philosophy, and scholars of rhetoric.

Rhetoric for Radicals is intended for college-aged activists and organizers, and for the most part it's written in a relaxed, approachable style. It does get a bit cerebral and academic in places - in demonstrating how the book builds on the previous literature - but this material is kept to a minimum. On the whole, Rhetoric for Radicals is an invaluable, comprehensive how-to book that will greatly benefit beginning and seasoned rhetors alike. Rhetoric for Radicals concludes on a hopeful note, with the wish that its activist readership will internalize the book's rhetorical tools and tactics, and will be that much better equipped to become "the rhetors of the past who created the future." And indeed, there can be but little doubt tht this thorough, well-organized, accessible - and even personal - little handbook is the best instrument imaginable for fulfilling this purpose. - Frank Kaminski, EnergyBulletin.net Radicals have important messages to deliver, but they are often so caught up in the passion of their causes that they lose sight of effective communication—which is their most powerful tool. The ability to speak with clarity and intelligence, without underestimating the challenge of breaking new ground and winning new converts, is crucial. Activists often suffer from a credibility gap because of their lack of a coherent message and strategic delivery. Rhetoric for Radicals addresses and helps solve these problems. It provides the tools to develop the all-important communication skills necessary to be effectively heard. If you accept that communication creates the social world, then you will agree that changing the way we communicate can change the world. Rhetoric for Radicals provides practical guidelines for public speaking, writing, conversation, persuasion, political correctness, propaganda analysis, street theatrics, and new languages. Chapters include: Streets, Rhetoric, and Revolution A Call for Rhetorical Action Skills for the Multitude The Power of Language Body Rhetoric Twenty-First Century Radical Rhetoric Geared to college-aged radical activists and organizers, this book will also appeal to activists of any age who want to sharpen their message. Jason Del Gandio is a lecturer at Temple University in Philadelphia. He is a post-Seattle activist who has worked on globalization and free/fair trade issues, anti-war campaigns, and Latin American solidarity.

Religious Rhetoric: Dividing a Nation or Building Community examines religious rhetoric and its creation of both division and unity from a variety of perspectives and issues. Religion, in a variety of forms, is central to our understanding of who we are and how we respond to the world around us. Even those who claim not to have a religious faith have religion in the sense that they have a particular worldview through which they understand and react to the world around them. By examining religious rhetoric in a variety of contexts, this book uncovers the cultural impact of this rhetoric on our political, community, and personal systems of understanding.

Offers a critical evaluation of existing and emerging approaches to applied conflict prevention that involve nontraditional actors ranging from the corporate sector and NGOs to regional and multilateral economic and political organizations. The volume suggests best practices for individuals within these organizations to use the array of political, economic, social and developmental instruments available to them.

Through close analysis of texts, cultural and civic communities, and intellectual history, the papers in this collection, for the first time, propose a dynamic relationship between rhetoric and medicine as discourses and disciplines of cure in early modern Europe. Although the range of theoretical approaches and methodologies represented here is diverse, the essays collectively explore the theories and practices, innovations and interventions, that underwrite the shared concerns of medicine, moral philosophy, and rhetoric: care and consolation, reading, policy, and rectitude, signinference, selfhood, and autonomy-all developed and refined at the intersection of areas of inquiry usually thought distinct. From Italy to England, from the sixteenth through to the mid-eighteenth century, early modern moral philosophers and essayists, rhetoricians and physicians investigated the passions and persuasion, vulnerability and volubility, theoretical intervention and practical therapy in the dramas, narratives, and disciplines of public and private cure. The essays are relevant to a wide range of readers, including cultural, literary, and intellectual historians, historians of medicine and philosophy, and scholars of rhetoric.

Presents a collection of fourteen essays that responds to the need for a more rhetorical conception of professional communication as an international discipline. This book challenges the adequacy of relying on preconceived notions about the factors that determine discourse in international professional settings.

Methodologies for the Rhetoric of Health & Medicine charts new methodological territories for rhetorical studies and the emerging field of the rhetoric of health and medicine. It advances the larger goal of differentiating the rhetoric of health and medicine as a distinct but pragmatically diverse area of study.