English 564 - (Counter)Histories, Theories, and Praxes in Rhetoric
Candice Rai
MW 11:30am-1:20pm – Winter 2026
Rhetorical studies is a transnational and interdisciplinary field with pluralistic and contested histories, inquiries, theories, and methods. This course explores various points of origin and pathways into and through the study of rhetoric and considers the role of rhetoric (language, narrative, discourse, meaning making capacities) in understanding, reproducing, and acting within the world. The course begins by exploring global traditions/histories of rhetoric before engaging more broadly with contemporary rhetorical concepts, theories, and conversations—more specifically, emphasizing decolonial, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and anti-oppressive approaches to rhetoric; theories of embodiment, affect, circulation, ecology, and materiality; and public and community rhetorics, activism, and memory work. This course will consider the complex ways that language and rhetoric are entangled within the reproduction of (and resistance to) ecologies of violence and will explore the complex politics, ethics, and possibilities for forging paths toward social justice, transformation, and collective response.
While centered in rhetorical studies, this course may appeal to students working across various disciplines and fields (such as Art History, Literature & Culture, Composition & Writing Studies, Media Studies, Communication, Geography, Philosophy, Applied and Sociolinguistics) who will leave with robust approaches for studying language, narrative, and culture. For students within rhetorical studies, the course is also designed to help you situate yourself within the field, prepare for PhD exams, and develop rhetoric projects.
Students will be supported in developing projects rooted in their own goals, which might include developing new seminar or conference papers, preparing ongoing projects for publication, pedagogical projects / curriculum, public writing and scholarship, archive building, creative writing, community projects, field research, research designs, grant proposals, and more.
Anchor readings under consideration include:
Aswad, Noor Ghazal. Searching for Solidarity: Revolutionary Dreams and Radical Social Movements. Intersectional Rhetorics Series at the Ohio State UP, 2025.
Brock, André. Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures. New York P, 2020.
Baca, Damián, Ellen Cushman, Romeo García, eds. Pluriversal Literacies: Tools for Perseverance and Livable Futures, U of Pittsburgh P, 2024.
Ceraso, Steph and Jonathan Stone. Eds. Sensory Rhetorics: Sensation, Persuasion, and the Politics of Feeling, Penn State UP, 2026
Cortez, José Manuel. Disinventions: Rhetorics of Undocumented Immigration in the Deterrence Era. Penn State UP, 2025.
Fishman, Jen, Romeo García, and Lauren Rosenberg, Eds. Community Listening: Stories, Hauntings, Possibilities. University Press of Colorado, 2025
Hsu, V. Jo. Constellating Home. Trans and Queer Asian American Rhetoric. 2022.
O’Brien, April and James Chase Sanchez. Countermemory: A Rhetoric of Resistance. U of Alabama P, 2025.
Ridolfo, Jim and Willian Hart-Davidson, Eds. Rhet Ops: Rhetoric and Information Welfare. U of Pittsburgh P, 2023.
Tetreault, Elliot. Truth Be Told: White Nostalgia and Antiracist Queer Resistance in ‘Post-Truth’ America. Intersectional Rhetorics Series at the Ohio State UP, 2025.
Anchor texts will be supplemented with essays by authors, such as Catherine Chaput, Karma Chavez, Dana Cloud, Rasha Diab, Lisa Flores, Matthew Houdek, Jen Clary-Lemon, Lisa King, Tiara R. Na’puti, Omedi Ochieng, Jacqueline Jones Royster, Sharon Yam, and others.