Sally Spalding
Auburn University, Communication & Journalism, Faculty Member
- Communication & Journalism, Rhetorical Theory, Rhetorical Criticism, Scholarly Editing, Consulting, Feminist Theory, and 13 moreWomen's and Gender Studies, Transgender Studies, Transgender Health, Mental Health, Health Care Policy, Critical Pedagogy, Affect/Emotion, Affect (Cultural Theory), Pathos, Advocacy and Activism, Surveillance Studies, Public Address, and Transnational Feminismedit
- Lecturer at Auburn; Freelance Editor and Consultant: sjsedits.com
Ph.D. in Communication Studies from University of Georgia
M.A. in Communication and Rhetorical Studies from Syracuse University
B.A. in Communication Studies from Southwestern Universityedit
Research Interests:
This article advances a theory of affective rupture and explores its potential as grounds for coalition across substantial lines of difference. Using the unanticipated “outing” of gender-normative breast cancer patients at airport... more
This article advances a theory of affective rupture and explores its potential as grounds for coalition across substantial lines of difference. Using the unanticipated “outing” of gender-normative breast cancer patients at airport security checkpoints as a case study, I argue that it is in moments of unanticipated scrutiny and vulnerability that existing affective economies are disrupted and new affiliations are facilitated among groups with asymmetrical privilege and contesting agendas. In the case of breast cancer patients, I argue that this affective rupture at the security checkpoint can be grounds for coalition with transwomen who have been similarly mistreated by the Transportation Security Administration for their gender variance. I conclude with a brief sketch of the possibilities and limitations of such a coalition.
Research Interests:
This chapter offers one method for assessing the ways that specific emotions encourage individuals to act and the affiliative possibilities they invite. Specifically, I argue that, by attending to the action tendencies—the “particular... more
This chapter offers one method for assessing the ways that specific emotions encourage individuals to act and the affiliative possibilities they invite. Specifically, I argue that, by
attending to the action tendencies—the “particular ways in which bodies are predisposed to be moved by specific emotions” (Condit 2013)—and affiliative possibilities nostalgic appeals invite, it becomes possible to distinguish between affective appeals that have greater and lesser tendencies to depoliticize or repoliticize the public. In the case of nostalgia, I argue that those who experience the emotion are set off on a two-step action tendency sequence that may predispose them to interaction with others and thereby be used to strengthen and/or extend affiliations with others. However, the political potential of nostalgia to advance progressive ends depends largely on the particular structuring of participants’ interactions with imagined and real others and the types of affiliation those interactions enable.
attending to the action tendencies—the “particular ways in which bodies are predisposed to be moved by specific emotions” (Condit 2013)—and affiliative possibilities nostalgic appeals invite, it becomes possible to distinguish between affective appeals that have greater and lesser tendencies to depoliticize or repoliticize the public. In the case of nostalgia, I argue that those who experience the emotion are set off on a two-step action tendency sequence that may predispose them to interaction with others and thereby be used to strengthen and/or extend affiliations with others. However, the political potential of nostalgia to advance progressive ends depends largely on the particular structuring of participants’ interactions with imagined and real others and the types of affiliation those interactions enable.