R.I.P. Isaac Hayes (1942-2008)

R.I.P. Bernie Mac (1957-2008)

Thanks for making us all laugh, Mac Daddy!

Visit the Bernie Mac Tribute page here ------>>>>> Bernie Mac Memorial

The Return of Political Oratory?

According to Jodi Kantor's article in today's "New York Times," Barack Obama "stood apart" from his colleagues when he was a law professor during his 12 years at the University of Chicago Law School. Some of Kantor's "inside details" about Obama's academic performance include Obama's suprising disinterest in publishing within academe and snubbing colleagues. However, he broke ground in offering courses on race and law among students who embraced him for his sharp skills in argument as well as for his approachable manner in teaching law, especially within the context of race. According to Kantor:

"His [Obama's] most original course, a historical and political seminar as much as a legal one, was on racism and law. Mr. Obama improvised his own textbook, including classic cases like Brown v. Board of Education, and essays by Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Dubois, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, as well as conservative thinkers like Robert H. Bork."

In addition to a featured syllabus, the article also drew my interest because of Obama's reverence for Frederick Douglass, which was a remembered by a former student. According to Kantor:

"Byron Rodriguez, a real estate lawyer in San Francisco, recalls his professor’s admiration for the soaring but plainspoken speeches of Frederick Douglass.

'No one speaks this way anymore,' Mr. Obama told his class, wondering aloud what had happened to the art of political oratory. In particular, Mr. Obama admired Douglass’s use of a collective voice that embraced black and white concerns, one that Mr. Obama has now adopted himself."

Obama indeed read my mind about the existence of the art of political oratory. Throughout his campaign, Obama has reminded us that he has achieved and now joined an important place within a diverse African American rhetorical tradition, which includes Douglass, DuBois, hooks and West. Even if he doesn't win the election, he has still made history.

Also, Obama has brought back eloquence. However, some are asking if that eloquence is supported by action. There can be no doubt that Obama's efforts in teaching race and law is evidence that his rhetoric is one about action.

Check out the article for yourselves:

"Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Slightly Apart"

A Modern Day Rhetor

"Standing in his favorite classroom in the austere main building, sharp-witted students looming above him, Mr. Obama refined his public speaking style, his debating abilities, his beliefs."

in "Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Slightly Apart," Jodi Kantor, New York Times

(Photo Courtesy of the Obama Campaign)

Rhetoric and Public Memory

Call for NCA Preconference Seminar Participants

Title: Rhetoric and the Study of Public Memory

Thursday Nov.20: 9:00am to 5:00 pm

Conveners:

Kendall R. Phillips, Syracuse University

G. Mitchell Reyes, Lewis & Clark College

Rationale:

The study of public memory has achieved remarkable prominence in the humanities over the past few decades. Not surprisingly, rhetoricians have been heavily involved in this trend and our journals are filled with articles engaging the rhetoric involved in public acts of remembrance. The preconference is designed to provide a space for rhetoricians engaged in questions of public memory to consider the broader relationships between rhetoric and public memory and to consider the role of rhetorical studies in the larger growth of public memory studies.

With this goal in mind, the preconference format will integrate three sets of concerns: 1) the theoretical relationship between rhetoric and public memory; 2) the contribution rhetorical criticisms can make to the study of public memory; and 3) the ways that rhetorical studies can be positioned within the broader community of public memory studies. In order to facilitate this conversation, scholars interested in public memory should submit a short position paper (no more than 2 pages single spaced) addressing one of these broad issues:

1) Theoretical Relationships: The rhetorical tradition is replete with references to memory and collective remembrance and contemporary theories of rhetoric continue to develop that connection. Scholars interested in the intersections between theories of rhetoric ­ from classical to contemporary ­ and public memory should submit papers that expand, explore, question, or challenge contemporary thought

2) Critical Interventions: Case studies constitute much of the work on the rhetoric of public memory. Scholars interested in analyzing the rhetorical dimensions of public memory within a specific context should submit papers offering short but instructive readings that explore the rhetoric of remembrance or the ways that critical case studies expand our understanding of public memory.

3) Disciplinary Issues: In spite of the important work on public memory within rhetorical studies, many of the most prominent public memory scholars are operating within other disciplinary frameworks. Papers under this section should address the relationship between rhetorical approaches and other disciplinary approaches and consider the avenues that rhetoricians might pursue in making rhetoric a more prominent part of the interdisciplinary conversation on public memory.

Please send your two page position papers to G. Mitchell Reyes at mreyes@lclark.edu by September 1, 2008. Please include the issue you are addressing, your current position, and your contact information in your submission.

Note: In order to be included as a presenter at the preconference in the NCA program you must register for the conference and submit your position paper to us by August 5. You need not pay the additional preconference fee when registering for the conference. If you submit after August 5 you may still be selected to participate, but your name will not be listed as a preconference presenter in the program.

G. Mitchell Reyes, Ph.D.Department of Communication, MSC 35Lewis and Clark College0615 SW Palatine Hill RdPortland, OR 97219

(above photo courtesy of Keith Dotson)

R.I.P. -- Lindon Barrett (1962-2008)

UCR professor and scholar Lindon Barrett was found slain on Sunday in his Long Beach apartment. Barrett was a professor of African American literature and culture and was associate editor of the journal Callaloo. He also authored "Blackness and Value: Seeing Double", a careful inquiry into the relationship between race and value. He was at work on a book about slavery and Western modernity. He held distinguished degrees from York University, UCI and University of Pennsylvania. He was 46 years old.

An investigation into his murder is currently pending.

R.I.P. -- Alfred Arteaga (1950-2008)

"Requiescat In Pace"

(photo is property of Lorna Dee Cervantes)

Danny Glover Reads Douglass' Fourth of July Speech

Douglass' "The Meaning of the Fourth of July for a Negro"

"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"

"Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory....

...Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, "It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, an denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!

For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Amercans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival....

...Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. -- Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.

The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. 'Ethiopia, shall, stretch. out her hand unto Ood." In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:

God speed the year of jubilee

The wide world o'er!

When from their galling chains set free,

Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,

And wear the yoke of tyranny

Like brutes no more.

That year will come, and freedom's reign,

To man his plundered rights again

Restore.

God speed the day when human blood

Shall cease to flow!

In every clime be understood,

The claims of human brotherhood,

And each return for evil, good,

Not blow for blow;

That day will come all feuds to end,

And change into a faithful friend

Each foe.

God speed the hour, the glorious hour,

When none on earth

Shall exercise a lordly power,

Nor in a tyrant's presence cower;

But to all manhood's stature tower,

By equal birth!

That hour will come, to each, to all,

And from his Prison-house, to thrall

Go forth.

Until that year, day, hour, arrive,

With head, and heart, and hand I'll strive,

To break the rod, and rend the gyve,

The spoiler of his prey deprive --

So witness Heaven!

And never from my chosen post,

Whate'er the peril or the cost,

Be driven."

Quote of the Day

"I may venture to affirm of the rest of mankind, that they are nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement."

David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature

Using Writing to Fight Homophobia

LGBT Youth Writer's Worskhop

June 19-20, 9am-5pm

UTEP Union Plaza

500 W. University Ave.,

Contact: Department Chair Johnny Payne, Ph.D. @ (915) 747-5713

Spoken Word Featuring Dino Foxx & DJ Fresco

Open-mic poetry night so you can speak, listen and express your LGBT soul

June 20, 6pm-8pm

The Percolator

217 N. Stanton

El Paso Contact: Owner Bobby Smith @ (915) 351-4377

"Puentes LGBT Resources in collaboration with UTEP Creative Writing Department and The Percolator invite you to our LGBT Youth Writer's Workshop and Spoken Word event on Thursday and Friday June 19-20 as part of our programming for Frontera Pride Festival 2008.

The writer's workshop is free and designed for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth between the ages of 12-24 who wish to develop their creative writing skills in an environment free from anti-LGBT bias. Our presenters will be giving 8 exciting writing workshops for the attending youth."

Writer and historian Hector Carbajal will be presenting a workshop titled “The Metaphors of Empowerment: Writing as Resistance against Homo/Transphobia”. Queer youth will be encouraged to use writing as a form of resistance and empowerment against the injuries of homophobia along the border area.

Further Resources on Memory

I'm constantly looking for new sources about memory in research databases. However, the best places to find sources are within books published about memory. "Theories of Memory: A Reader" (Rossington and Whitehead, eds) is a great resource for further sources about memoria.

Some highlights:

Radstone, Susannah (ed.) (2000) Memory and Methodology. Oxford and New York: Berg.

Samuel, Raphael. (1999) Theatres of Memory, Vol 2: Island Stories: Unravelling Britain. London: Verso.

Scott, Ann. (1996) Real Events Revisited: Fantasy, Memory and Psychonalysis. London: Virago.

Warnock, Mary (1987) Memory. London and Boston: Faber.

I'll try to post more sources in the future.

If you would like to get a good foundation for rhetoric and memory, take a look at Rebecca Moore Howard's excellent bibliography.

Click here-> Memory: A Bibliography for Composition and Rhetoric

R.I.P. -- Tim Russert (1950-2008)

Rhetoric and Technology

"In the twenty-first century, it is necessary to think of rhetoric as the production and analysis of discourse--both spoken and written--and as the broad discourse of the comptuer that produces a mixture of images, sounds, and print in a rapidly developing new technology that has only begun to unfold. As the possibilities of communication continue to increase, our rhetorical concepts need also to expand. If our concepts begin to cramp our thinking and fail to fit around the expanding technology, time to then discard them like outdated clothes that no longer fit the growing child".

Winifred Bryan Horner, 2000

(Photo Courtesy of Texas Christian University)

Quote of the Day

"Memory, the art of committing the speech to memory by various mnemonic devices, and delivery, an art akin to acting, were essential to rhetoric as a spoken art. As the importance of the written word increased...the importance of memory and delivery as rhetorical disciplines diminished."

Rhetoric: Discovery and Change (New York: Harcourt, 1970),

Richard E. Young, Alton L. Becker, and Kenneth L. Pike.

Memory Sources

The following are some noteworthy sources for those interested in creating a course on memory.

These sources are currently discussed in Susannah Radstone's recent article about the debates of memory's place within and outside academia in the first issue of Memory Studies.

Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton University Press, 1992), John Bodnar

When Memory Speaks (New York: Knopf, 1998), Jill Ker Conway

Social Memory (Blackwell, 1992), James Fentress and Chris Wickham

Migrant Belongings: Memory, Space and Identity (Berg, 2000), Anne-Marie Fortier

"'The Memoir Problem'", Paula S. Fass in Reviews in American History 34(1): 107-23

Wulf Kansteiner's "Finding Meaning in Memory: A Methodological Critique of Collective Memory Studies" in History and Theory 41(2): 179-97

The Ethics of Memory (Cambridge, 2002), Avashai Margalit

Realms of Memory: Rethinking the French Past (Columbia University Press, 1996), Pierre Nora.

Theories of Memory: A Reader (Edinburgh University Press), Michael Rossington and Anne Whitehead

The Rossington and Whitehead anthology is luckily available here in the States. The most seminal of these sources is the Nora monograph.

R.I.P. -- Bo Diddley (1928-2008)

The Confluence of History and Memory in African American Culture

"On February 23, 1968, marking the hundredth anniversary of W. E. B. Du Bois' birth, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of his last major addresses at Carnegie Hall in New York City. In a year that would prove pivotal in African-American history, and that would bring such anguished events as King's own death, it is interesting and fitting to note how King chose to celebrate Du Bois' legacy. Above all, among Du Bois' scholarly and organizational achievements, King stressed his role as historian. Du Bois' "singular greatness," argued King, was his "unique zeal," which "rescued for all of us a heritage whose loss would have profoundly impoverished us."

King especially emphasized Du Bois' work on Reconstruction, a period traditional historians had for three generations portrayed as a tragic mistake in American race relations, an era when blacks, incapable of honest political behavior and self reliant economic activity, had been the principal cause of a sordid interlude in the progress of American history. King was no professional historian, but his own prophetic sense of history enabled him to grasp the social implications of historical understanding and debates. With all too much continuity, "the collective mind of America," declared King, "became poisoned with racism and stunted with myths."

Traditional historians' treatment of the black experience, the civil rights leader argued, "was a conscious and deliberate manipulation of history and the stakes were high." The question of the stakes involved in struggles over rival versions of history leads us not only to the political and social meanings of what historians do; it also provides an angle of understanding about the confluences of history and memory for intellectuals and for the larger society."

from "W. E. B. Du Bois and the Struggle for American Historical Memory" by David W. Blight in History and Memory in African-American Culture

Honoring Dr. Vicente Ximenes

Dr. Michelle Kells

At this year's RSA Conference, I was fortunate to present alongside Michelle Kells, Assistant Professor at the UNM Rhetoric and Writing Program. The title of her presentation was "Vicente Ximenes and LBJ's Great Society: The Rhetoric of Mexican American Civil Rights Reform".

Dr. Vicente Ximenes is the first Hispanic appointed US Commissioner of Equal Employment. In 1967, he worked with President Johnson as Chairman of the President's Cabinet Committee on Mexican American Affairs.

Dr. Ximenes


Dr. Kells and Dr. Ximenes

The title of our panel was "Rhetoricizing Latina/o Issues" and was moderated by the extraordinary David Zarefsky, who is the Owen L. Coon Professor of Argumentation and Debate, Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University, former RSA President, and author of "Lincoln, Douglass, and Slavery: In the Crucible of Public Debate".

Dr. David Zarefsky

***

In 2006, Dr. Michelle Kells published Héctor P. García: Everyday Rhetoric and Mexican American Civil Rights (Southern Illinois University Press). In 2004, she published and co-edited, with Victor Villanueva, Latino/a Discourses: On Language, Identity, and Literacy (Heinemann).



Dr. Kells' presentation on Vicente Ximenes at this year's RSA Conference and book about Hector P. Garcia prove that Mexican American/Hispanic rhetorics, alongside the rhetoric of civic discourse, continue to matter.

Photos courtesy of UNM, Sigma Tau Delta & Northwestern University

Virtual Mapping of Malcolm X's Life

Moraine Valley Community College has created a very interesting mapping of Malcolm X's life based on his autobiography as told to Alex Haley. Each geographic space on a virtual map unfolds the different chapters from X's life. What a fantastic idea, right?

For those interested in further pursing an inquiry into the nature of space with relation to X's life, check out "The Geography of Malcolm X: Black Radicalism and the Remaking of American Space" by James Tyner (Routledge 2006).

Malcolm X and James Baldwin Featured on BMA

The Black Media Archive, a free podcast on itunes, is currently featuring a historic discussion between Malcolm X and James Baldwin.

The discussion centers on race relations, the significance of a "sit-in" protest and the meaning of the "American Negro" in the United States.

At one point in the discussion, Malcolm X talks about the Spanish derivative of "negro" and the way in which blacks, in Central and South America, refuse and protest the use of the word as a designating marker. Malcolm X also talks about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.



Malcolm X's comments have prompted me to look for sources that talk about race relations in Mexico during the colonial period. I think his comment about this particular word merits further historical inquiry.

Race, Memory and History

"Racial slavery has shaped virtually every aspect of our nation's history. Slavery provided one of the essential legs upon which modern capitalism was built. Slavery shaped the development of the American political structure, from its peculiar form of federalism to the astonishing, and continuing, disproportional influence of Southern legislators. Today's various racial constructions--whiteness, blackness, and an Other category that persistently renders nonwhites and nonblacks invisible--are obviously rooted in the history of slavery and Jim Crow.

Enslaved Africans and their descendents were and are assigned the impossible role of maintaning stable American race relations. Slaves were instructed on pain of injury not to protest an unhealthy relationship fixed by whites for the benefit of whites. Remarkably, slaves did not obey. They managed to bring on the Civil War; in the process, they destroyed the system of slavery and delivered a more fully realized American democracy."

Robin D.G. Kelley, Foreword in "Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation"

Call for Papers: Indigenous Rhetorics

Call for Papers IndigiRhet: Articulating Global Indigenous Rhetorics

This collection aims to draw together global indigenous scholars and scholarship that works towards an understanding and articulation of indigenous rhetorical traditions. Articulation is key here in terms of the manner in which things come together and a connection is made -- for example, the moving parts of our bodies are articulated (knees, elbows, etc.) in that they are both separate and dependant upon each other for their function, their usefulness. So, the aim of this collection is not to homogenize thousands of indigenous rhetorical practices under a central theoretical rubric. It is, instead, to honor the many ways in which indigenous rhetorical practices are highly divergent, rooted in specific lands and histories, by gathering scholarship about the breadth of those traditions together in one place so that readers themselves can search for the places where those divergent practices come together, where those functional connections are made. We are interested in receiving submissions that:

address all forms of indigenous rhetorical production will be welcomed -- written, spoken, painted, performed, woven, stitched, sung, danced, digitized, filmed, recorded, photographed, etc.;

focus on singular indigenous traditions (for example, Cherokee rhetorics), regional traditions (for example, indigenous Oceania rhetorics), or comparative traditions;

focus on individual indigenous rhetors;

look at specific historical moments & processes;

consider contemporary rhetorical production;

are anchored in indigenous rhetorical and theoretical traditions themselves.

We are especially interested in submissions that engage or enact decolonial methodologies.

Deadline for submissions is September 30th, 2008.

Please include your contact information and a brief (500-word) abstract of your piece with your submissions.

All submissions should be sent to:

Malea Powell
Rhetoric & Writing Program
Michigan State University
5A Olds HallEast Lansing, MI 48854
powell37@msu.edu (all e-mail correspondence should use "IndigiRhet" in the subject line)

College English -- Call for Submissions

Call for Submissions

For two special issues of COLLEGE ENGLISH, we invite submissions, which should be sent electronically to the journal’s office at cesubs@indiana.edu by July 1, 2008:

Lincoln in English Studies: In February 2009, historians will celebrate thebicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Why and how should our disciplinestudy him, too? Besides his own rhetoric, contributors might examine how hehas figured in works of fiction, visual culture, English courses, orEnglish scholarship.

Writing, Rhetoric, and Latinadad (guest editors: Damián Baca and VictorVillanueva):

With Latinas and Latinos comprising the United States’ largestlinguistic and ethnic “minority,” this issue will consider the historicalknowledge that the field of rhetoric and composition needs to constructsocially relevant pedagogies. Particularly welcome are essays that defineLatina/Latino rhetorics in comparison to Greco-Latin ones. How do we beginto understand a broader history of rhetoric within the Americas, forexample? How can Latina/Latino rhetorics that pre-date the teaching ofEnglish in the Americas transform composition studies? How might resistantand de-colonial Latina and Latino rhetorics challenge Eurocentric historiesand historiographies of writing and writing instruction? How can greaterunderstanding of the unique historical trajectories of indigenous, Spanish,and English rhetorical ways affect our current attempts to include Latinoand Latina language experiences in our composition classrooms? What arehistoricallinks among AmerIndian rhetorics (i.e., those of Latin American andCaribbean indigenous peoples as distinct from their more Northern brothersand sisters)? How would these have affected, and been affected by, Spanishcolonial rhetorics?

Ruben Salazar Remembered

On April 22, 2008, the U.S. Postal System unveiled a new addition to those remembered in a U.S. postage stamp.



Ruben Salazar, also known as "La Voz de la Raza," was a groundbreaking Chicano journalist for the Los Angeles Times. He was killed at the age of 42 during a Chicano anti-war protest by an East Los Angeles sheriff's deputy.

Salazar is remembered by nuestra gente for devoting all of his work to demand equal rights for Mexicanos and Chicanos alike.

For more information about the stamp, click here.

For more about Ruben Salazar, click here.



Photos Courtesy of the U.S. Postal System and the "Remembering Ruben Salazar" photo gallery featured by the Los Angeles Times

Bracero Project & Bracero Memorias

Between 1942 and 1964, more than two million Mexicanos were allowed entry into the United States to fill the shortage of labor created by World War II. Mexican men were employed to work in farms, railroads and ranches across California, Texas, Idaho, Illinois and Oregon. This particular program, called the “Bracero Program,” changed the life of many Mexicano men, as well as the economies of two neighboring nations.

At the University of Texas at El Paso, the Institute of Oral History created and presented an exhibit this past semester that featured both photographs and excerpts from compelling testimonies from braceros as to their experiences of working in the United States.



I was fortunate to the attend the exhibit and was floored at the powerful experiences that these brave men endured in order to survive, in order to feed their familias, and to continue their spirit of being hard workers with dignity. The exhibit featured the actual words of some of the testimonies while several portraits were displayed in-between the quotes. The testimonies told the amount of strength it took to endure the injury of prejudice, discrimination, and racism. The testimonies also told the excitement of having the opportunity to work in the U.S. while others described the experience of being in a different place/space and within inhumane working conditions. The exhibit was beyond powerful; the exhibit was arresting.

While at the exhibit, I kept remembering the significance of the working class in all our histories. Chicano/a history is all about the working class. We can never forget this as a fact.

I only hope that more obreras and obreros who have contributed to U.S. capitalism are willing to tell their (his)storias so we can continue adding to our nuestro pasado/our pasts.

Frederick Douglass' Childhood Revisited

My Alma Mater in Flames -- OLLU

Much love goes out to the students, faculty and friends at Our Lady of the Lake University, where I began my college years in 1993. OLLU is a historic institution originating in the late nineteenth century. OLLU has always committed itself to providing a fine education to students. Don't lose your spirit, OLLU.

Scholarly Writing Retreat

SCHOLARLY WRITING RETREAT

August 2-7, 2008

Portland, Oregon

This year's writing retreat will build on the successes of past retreats. Most participants will
arrive Friday, August 1. The retreat is five full days, beginning Saturday morning and
ending Wednesday afternoon. The purpose of the retreat is for participants to arrive
with a project partially or fully drafted and leave with a manuscript prepared for submission
(to a professional conference, an academic journal, an advisor, a granting institution, etc).
This may include everything from scholarly research articles to grant writing to finishing
that last chapter of your thesis, dissertation, or book. Whatever your project, if you are interested in building a writing community with peers in your and related fields in a supportive atmosphere while improving your writing and research skills, then the Scholarly Writing Retreat is for you.

Early Registration: $350.00 per person
Early Registration Deadline: June 1, 2008

Registration Includes: Structured discussion seminars, editorial support, reading materials,
basic writing materials (paper, pens, pencils, printer, etc), breakfasts and lunches.
What You Need to Bring: Paper/Project in progress, research materials, laptop or some
other word processor (we have access to a limited number of laptops for those who need them).

Location: Lewis & Clark College, 0615 SW Palatine Hill Road, Portland, OR 97219

Phone: (503) 768-7188

Directions: Here are directions from the Portland International Airport. If you are not flying to
Portland I would recommend Google Maps or Mapquest.

Accomodation Suggestions: 1.Pioneer Square is a popular downtown Portland location, close to Powell's Books, and offers several hotel options such as the Vintage Plaza or the Mark Spencer or the Hotel Monaco that would provide excellent accomodations. You can also search for hotels near Pioneer Square on expedia. In addition, Lewis and Clark College has special rates with many hotels near pioneer square. Just click here to get a list of hotels. When you contact the hotel simply ask for the Lewis and Clark College rate. 2. University Place: This is a bit of a walk to Pioneer Square, but it offers moderate prices for accomodation within walking distance of downtown Portland and Powell's Books.

Transportation: It is the participant's responsibility to arrange transportation. Lewis & Clark College is approximately 6 miles from downtown Portland, but there is no public transportation between downtown and Lewis & Clark during the summer months. Carpooling has been arranged in the past. Please contact me if you are interested in carpooling.

For more information please contact:
G. Mitchell Reyes, Ph.D.
Department of Communication, MSC 35
Lewis & Clark College
0615 SW Palatine Hill Rd
Portland, Or 97219
503.768.7619
mreyes@lclark.edu

Quote of the Week(end)

"We must be insistently aware of how space can be made to hide consequences from us, how relations of power and discipline are inscribed into the apparently innocent spatiality of social life, how human geographies become filled with politics and ideology."

Edward W. Soja, Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory

"Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation"

"Call for Papers – Call for Participation

International Conference on “Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation"

Call for Papers – Call for Participation

International Conference on “Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation"

October 9-10, 2008, at the University of Copenhagen

The conference is presented by the researchers' network "Rhetorical Citizenship: Perspectives on Deliberative Democracy", based at the Department of Media, Cognition and Communication at the University of Copenhagen.

The conference will open at 9:00 AM on October 9 and close at 5:00 PM on October 10. The registration desk is open from 8:30 am. both days. Participants may sign in, pick up conference materials, etc. at this time.

The conference theme frames explorations into:

- how rhetorical citizenship can manifest itself, - what common and/or local traits it might have, - what societal interests are vested in regarding citizenship as a rhetorical phenomenon.

The conference welcomes scholars from a broad spectrum of academic fields, including Communication, Rhetoric, Political Science, and Philosophy, as well as educators, journalists, politicians, activists in political and grassroots movements, etc.

Keynote Speakers

The following Keynote Speakers will be featured:

Professor John Dryzek:

REPRESENTING DISCOURSES
Contemporary democracy is mostly representative democracy. Deliberative democracy highlights communication rather than aggregation of the preferences of individuals. Especially in contexts where a well-defined demos cannot be identified, it may make sense to think in terms of the representation of discourses rather than persons. We might then think about desirable characteristics of discursive representatives, and the circumstances under which they might meet in a ‘chamber of discourses’.

Professor John Dryzek (Australian National University) is the author of Deliberative Democracy and Beyond, Discursive Democracy: Politics, Policy, and Political Science, Democracy in Capitalist Times: Ideals, Limits, and Struggles, The Politics of the Earth, and several other works.

Professor Rosa A. Eberly:
"Quantum Parliaments": Disciplinarity, Public Scholarship, and Common Goods
More than two millennia after Plato put the -ic in rhetoric -- and more than a century after hair-splitting disciplinarity began to erode the scholarly pursuit of common questions -- scholars from across the arts and sciences (even physicists!) are bringing their "occupational psychoses" to the shared and perduring problems of democracy. What might scholars do to imagine our different roles -- researchers, teachers, citizens -- as complementary rather than antagonistic? I will discuss with the audience several historical and contemporary cases of how disciplinary differences discouraged and enabled the useful pursuit of common questions in the context of public scholarship.

Professor Rosa A. Eberly (Penn State University, formerly University of Texas, Austin) is a Fellow of Penn State’s Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy and is author of Citizen Critics: Literary Public Spheres, The Elements of Reasoning and many studies on rhetoric and civic engagement, and public scholarship and has published in distinguished journals such as Rhetoric and Public Affairs and Rhetoric Review, and New Directions for Teaching and Learning.

Professor John M. Murphy:
Cultivating Citizenship: The Role of Public Rhetoric
In recent years, a variety of thinkers, from Robert Putnam to Danielle Allen, have identified individualism and distrust as key obstacles to a vigorous practice of citizenship. They have also generally focused on public rhetoric as a problem and unfavorably compared the competitive norms implicit within political discourse to the cooperative norms they see in other discursive practices. Rather than giving up on public rhetoric, I suggest we explore some exemplary discursive practices that may light the way toward a more vibrant citizenry. I'll illustrate these concepts with examples drawn from John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama.
Professor John M. Murphy (University of Illinois, formerly University of Georgia) is the author of numerous studies of American political rhetoric in leading journals such as Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Presidential Studies Quarterly, and Quarterly Journal of Speech.

Professor Georgia Warnke: Title to be announced.
Professor Warnke (University of California, Riverside) is the author of Gadamer: Hermeneutics, Tradition, and Reason, Justice and Interpretation, Legitimate Differences: Interpretation in the Abortion Controversy and Other Public Debates, and After Identity: Rethinking Race, Sex and Gender.

Participation and papers

All those interested in the conference themes are invited, whether they wish to present papers or not. Papers discussing aspects of rhetorical citizenship - particularly with regard to questions raised by ideals about democratic debate and its many manifestations - are invited. Topics may include practical, ideological and ethical perspectives on public discourse. Particular questions explored might be:

• What should we expect from public debate?
• Can meaningful norms of public conversation be formulated, and how might such norms be nurtured?
• What is "reasonable disagreement" and how can it be handled constructively?
• How might the notion "rhetorical agency" contribute to our thinking about and critique of public deliberation?
• What characterizes a constructive speaking position and how might it be obtained?
Papers should be given in English. Time slots for papers will be 45 minutes, including at least 10 minutes for questions and debate.

If you wish to participate, send an email to Rhetoricalcitizenship@hum.ku.dk by June 1, 2008. (You may use the reply email function if applicable.) Those wishing to present papers should include a title and an abstract of no more than 200 words. Within a short time, you will then receive an email giving further information on registration, payment, etc., and directing you to the conference website.

Notification on acceptance of papers will be sent out by email by June 15, 2008.

Registration and fees:

Registration must be sent by email to Rhetoricalcitizenship@hum.ku.dk

Fees for registration before July 1, 2008:
For academic faculty: DDK 500,00
For students and non-academic participants: DDK 350,00
Fees for registration later than July 1, 2008:
For academic faculty: DDK 600,00
For students and non-academic participants: DDK 450,00
Fees include conference participation, lunches, and coffee/tea/refreshments during conference hours, and a conference dinner (excl. beverages).
Instructions regarding payment will be posted on the conference website as soon as possible and sent by email to individuals who have submitted an abstract.
Final registration deadline will be September 15, 2008.

Conference Publication

The organizers intend to publish a volume containing selected conference papers. Participants interested in submitting their paper for consideration are invited to indicate this during the conference by submitting a brief statement containing subject, title and contact information. Final versions of papers must be submitted by November 15, 2008. All submissions for the conference volume will be peer reviewed.

Conference Website

There will be a conference website continually updated with relevant information, such as a full conference schedule, advice on travel, lodging, meals, etc. A website for the conference is under construction and will shortly be accessible at this address: http://retoriskmedborgerskab.mef.ku.dk/conference

As organizers of the conference, we sincerely hope that you will choose to attend.

With our best wishes,

The Conference Committee:

Lisa Storm Villadsen Christian KockAssociate Professor of Rhetoric Professor of Rhetoric University of Copenhagen University of Copenhagen
Hans V. Hansen Ove KorsgaardProfessor of Philosophy Professor, The Danish University School of Education University of Windsor, Canada University of Aarhus
Kjell Lars BergeProfessor, Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian StudiesUniversity of Oslo
Kasper Møller HansenAssociate Professor of General and Comparative Political ScienceDept. of Political ScienceUniversity of Copenhagen"

7th Triennal Conference for the Kenneth Burke Society

"7th Triennial Conference
for the Kenneth Burke Society

The conference theme, "Transcendence by Perspective," calls on conference participants to explore the relevance of Burkean thought for the transcendence of conflicts, whether enduring (as in the American "racial divide") or ephemeral (as in the humanitarian crises of today). While always encouraging submissions focused around the conference theme, we also welcome work by faculty and students on any subject related to Burkean scholarship.

Keynote addresses by Joseph R. Gusfield and John S. Wright

Featured Speakers: A. Cheree Carlson, Michael Hyde, and Robert Perinbanayagam

Featured Seminar Leaders: Ann George, Scott Newstok, Mari Boor Tonn, and Robert Wess

Tributes to Bernard Brock, Leland Griffin, and William Rueckert

Evening with the Burke family

Reading of Burke’s Poetry

Submission Deadline for Paper and Panel Proposals: February 1, 2008.Full Papers submitted by May 1, 2008 eligible for awards. For more details on the conference and submission of proposals, visit http://communication.villanova.edu/burke/index.htm

Hosted by:

Villanova University Department of Communication
Graduate Programs in Communication
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Vice President for Academic Affairs
800 Lancaster Ave.
Villanova, PA 19085-1699"

The Promise of Reason: The New Rhetoric After 50 Years

"CALL FOR PAPERS
THE PROMISE OF REASON:
THE NEW RHETORIC AFTER FIFTY YEARS

University of Oregon – May 17-20, 2008

Faculty and Graduate Students are invited to submit proposals for papers and panels for
this international conference commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of
Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca’s Le nouvelle rhétorique: Traité de
l‘argumentation (1958), one of the most influential twentieth-century rhetorical works.

Submissions are welcome dealing with any aspect of Perelman’s work and influence, or
argumentation, informal reasoning, or modern rhetoric in general. Interdisciplinary work
in rhetoric and/or argumentation theory is welcome. Of specific interest are proposals
dealing with the following:

· legal argument and justice
· rhetoric and human rights
· ethical rhetoric and communications
· argumentation as a substitute for violence
· international diplomacy and conflict resolution
· rationality and reasonableness in international relations
· negotiated assent in public debate
· opposition and cooperation is conflict situations
· argumentation across cultures
· persuasion and leadership

Featured speakers at the conference will include:

· Jeanne Fahnestock, University of Maryland
· Alan G. Gross, University of Minnesota
· Michael C. Leff, University of Memphis
· Noemi Mattis Perelman
· Francis J. Mootz III, Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State University
· Christopher W. Tindale, University of Windsor
· Barbara Warnick, University of Pittsburgh

250 words abstracts and/or proposals may be sent electronically via the conference
website, beginning May 1, 2007 at:

http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/perelman/perelman08

DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING PROPOSALS: August 3, 2007

Special features of this conference include:

· A public “Contrarian Forum” including a debate by advocates for public policy
with responses on the rhetoric of the debate by conference participants
· Master Classes conducted for graduate and undergraduate students by conference
speakers
· Competitive scholarships for undergraduates to attend the conference and master
classes
· Organized outings to experience Oregon’s pleasures: rafting, wine-tasting,
mountain hiking, coastal sight-seeing
· Proximity to the Rhetoric Society of America’s annual conference in Seattle
Washington, May 23-26, 2008

For more information, visit our website at: www.uoregon.edu/~promreas or email:
promreas@uoregon.edu"

Memory and Fiction -- Junot Diaz

When I was a graduate creative writing student, I remember being floored when I read Junot Diaz's short-story collection "Drown". His book presented the complexity of daily life through characters that were memorable in terms of reminding me of how much of the human spirit intersects with the force of hardship and conflict.

Since reading "Drown," Diaz has continued to inspire and amaze. This year, Diaz won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize award and continues to enlighten anywhere and everywhere he appears to give a reading or give an interview.

Check out this particular reading, where he talks about writing, being a writer of color, academe and the way in which the past influences much of the present.

Rhetorical Term of the Day -- "Chiasmus"

Chiasmus: "A verbal pattern (a type of antithesis) in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first with the parts reversed." (Richard Nordquist, About.com)

Examples:

"I flee who chases me, and chase who flees me." (Ovid)

"If black men have no rights in the eyes of the white men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks." (Frederick Douglass, "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage")

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair." (William Shakespeare, Macbeth I.i)

Quote of the Day

"Web sites are our places of memory, and their mnemonic schemes the currency of our efforts to explore deeper realms of knowledge. We go to them at the click of a mouse, and each click leads us deeper into their inner sanctums."

Patrick H. Hutton

UCLA LGBT Conference 10th Anniversary

"LOS ANGELES QUEER STUDIES CONFERENCE 2008

CALL FOR PAPERS

Friday and Saturday, October 10-11, 2008
Royce Hall, UCLA

Plenary speakers
Steven Epstein
Gayatri Gopinath
Catherine Lord
Heather Love
Richard Meyer
Juana María Rodríguez
Valerie Traub
David Valentine

Film
Cheryl Dunye will present material from the Outfest Legacy Project, housed at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Performances by
Dynasty Handbag
My Barbarian

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Los Angeles Queer Studies Conference welcomes presentations of research and other work in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies, on queer topics, sexuality and gender. Since one of the principal goals of the conference is to encourage the exchange of ideas across academic generations, we invite participation of both graduate students and faculty scholars.

Please send your proposal (not more than 750 words) for a 20-minute presentation and a cv (not more than 1 page) to one of the addresses below. Only one proposal per person. We will not consider proposals that exceed the specified length.

If you would like to organize a panel of three speakers, please feel free to do so. Panel submissions must include not only the proposals and cvs of each of the participants but also a brief statement presenting the panel as a whole. Those who submit proposals as part of a panel should indicate whether, if the whole panel is not accepted, we should consider their proposals individually for possible acceptance.

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: June 23, 2008

Submissions by US Postal Service:
UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program
3300 Rolfe Hall
Box 951531
Los Angeles, California 90095-1531

Email submissions: lgbs@humnet.ucla.edu

For further information, please contact the LGBTS office at 310 206 0516 or lgbs@humnet.ucla.edu

Organized by the UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program"

New In Books

"Ida: A Sword Among Lions,
Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching"

by

Paula J. Giddings,
Professor in Afro-American Studies at Smith College

Book Description:
"In the tradition of towering biographies that tell us as much about America as they do about their subject, Ida: A Sword Among Lions is a sweeping narrative about a country and a crusader embroiled in the struggle against lynching: a practice that imperiled not only the lives of black men and women, but also a nation based on law and riven by race.

At the center of the national drama is Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), born to slaves in Mississippi, who began her activist career by refusing to leave a first-class ladies’ car on a Memphis railway and rose to lead the nation’s first campaign against lynching. For Wells the key to the rise in violence was embedded in attitudes not only about black men but about women and sexuality as well. Her independent perspective and percussive personality gained her encomiums as a hero -- as well as aspersions on her character and threats of death. Exiled from the South by 1892, Wells subsequently took her campaign across the country and throughout the British Isles before she married and settled in Chicago, where she continued her activism as a journalist, suffragist, and independent candidate in the rough-and-tumble world of the Windy City’s politics.

In this eagerly awaited biography by Paula J. Giddings, author of the groundbreaking book When and Where I Enter, which traced the activist history of black women in America, the irrepressible personality of Ida B. Wells surges out of the pages. With meticulous research and vivid rendering of her subject, Giddings also provides compelling portraits of twentieth-century progressive luminaries, black and white, with whom Wells worked during some of the most tumultuous periods in American history. Embattled all of her activist life, Wells found herself fighting not only conservative adversaries but icons of the civil rights and women’s suffrage movements who sought to undermine her place in history.

In this definitive biography, which places Ida B. Wells firmly in the context of her times as well as ours, Giddings at long last gives this visionary reformer her due and, in the process, sheds light on an aspect of our history that is often left in the shadows."

For a preview click ------> here

Politicas: Latina Public Officials in Texas

The UTEP Women's Studies program is proud to present "Politicas: Latina Public Officials in Texas," a lecture by Political Science Professor Dr. Irasema Coronado. The lecture will be hosted on April 9 at 9:30 a.m. in the UTEP Templeton Suite East.

Don't miss it!

More information about Dr. Coronado, click here

On Hiatus

I'll be on hiatus from the blogosphere because I'll be finalizing my dissertation prospectus.

It's also Spring Break so I'm trying to get some rest (Is there such a thing?).

In May, I'll be attending the Rhetoric Society of America Conference in Seattle so I will also be busy preparing for my presentation. So this hiatus might be extended even further!

Despite the hiatus, I might be tempted to jump back into this blog and post some notes or comments here or there about what I am reading.

One never knows what will happen.

Hasta pronto,

"Memerehetor"

Currently reading:

Patrick H. Hutton, "History as an Art of Memory"

Photo of "Coatlicue" above courtesy of:

Dr. Edna Molina-Jackson, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, California State University

Memory/Memoria and Music(a)

Corridos in Migrant Memory

by

Martha I Chew Sanchez

Press Release about Corridos in Migrant Memory

Book Review by Maria Herrera-Sobek