Inventing Place: Writing Lone Star Rhetorics., 2018
On June 23rd, 2014 Reverend Charles Moore drove his car to a nearly empty parking lot, doused him... more On June 23rd, 2014 Reverend Charles Moore drove his car to a nearly empty parking lot, doused himself in gasoline, and committed self-immolation in the small town of Grand Saline, my hometown in East Texas. Leaving a note on his windshield claiming that when he was young he heard racist stories of the town, he recited an old memory for his local audience: “Uncle Billy…cheerily [told] us about helping to kill ‘niggers’ and put their heads on a pole...[in] ‘pole town.’” Growing up in this town, I heard similar racist “histories” about Pole Town and other spots too: a “secret” meeting spot existing for the KKK at Clark’s Ferry (right outside of town) and previous signs at the city limits acknowledging Grand Saline as a “sundown town.” In my essay, I explore how these racist folklores and urban legends compose my hometown’s identity by formulating a public memory for consumption, one that produces a racialized climate for residents. Utilizing theories on public memory (Phillips, Vivian, Casey) and rituals (Feuchtwang), I will demonstrate that the racist stories of my childhood, the stories that haunted Reverend Moore and myself, construct a 21st-century racism that relies on the rhetorical use of memorization and repetition as a type of ritual to remain in power. Interviewing old friends, former teachers, and other town members, I will recite this folklore with them, leading me to investigate how these stories fostered a more progressive stance on race for me and altered my hometown’s image as being “safe” as well. Overall, by exploring specific sites of public memory and urban legends, I will compose a dual meaning of place for myself and other townsfolk in this small salt mine town in East Texas: a literal place for home and a figural place for the legacy of racism.
This article theorizes the use of rhetorical versatility as a language tool for white supremacist... more This article theorizes the use of rhetorical versatility as a language tool for white supremacists in the age of Donald Trump, specifically referring to the ways Trump and the KKK speak to their various audiences through textual winks and polysemy. After demonstrating the recent rise of white supremacist groups in this country, rhetorical versatility is explored as way for rhetors to camouflage and signal their ideological viewpoints, which ultimately leads to an analysis of key terms and ideas that both the KKK and Trump utilize in the public sphere: " patriotism, " " heritage, " and " security. " Diving into the specific uses of these terms, this article pinpoints the textual winks that have constructed a civic version of white supremacy over the last few years. Ultimately, this analysis not only builds a theory of rhetorical versatility but also argues that we need more scholarship on the tacit forms of white supremacy.
This essay reports on a writing-based formative assessment of a university-wide initiative to enh... more This essay reports on a writing-based formative assessment of a university-wide initiative to enhance students' global learning. Our mixed (and unanticipated) results show the need for enhanced expertise in writing assessment as well as for sustained partnerships among diverse institutional stakeholders so that public programming—from events linked to classroom-level learning to broader cross-unit mandates like accreditation—can yield more rigorous, responsive, and mixed-method assessments. This essay reports on a writing-based formative assessment of a university wide initiative to enhance students' global learning. Our mixed (and unanticipated) results show the need for enhanced expertise in writing assessment as well as for sustained partnerships among diverse institutional stakeholders so that public programming—from events linked to classroom-level learning to broader cross-unit mandates like accreditaiion—can yield more rigorous, responsive, and mixed-method assessments.
This article explores the public memory of the Confederate Defenders of Charleston monument follo... more This article explores the public memory of the Confederate Defenders of Charleston monument following a 2015 spray-painting of the statue, proclaiming "#BlackLivesMatter." We argue that protests reappropriated the rhetorical significance of the monument with this tagging, and this was eventually erased by the city placing a tarp on the structure. From this, we conclude what rhetoricians should take away from such public acts of defiance and the proceedings that following them.
This article I wrote argues that John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden (1952) should be analyzed as... more This article I wrote argues that John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden (1952) should be analyzed as a rhetorical understanding of Chinese immigration, in which the author is actually promoting Chinese immigrants during the height of the Red Scare.
Inventing Place: Writing Lone Star Rhetorics., 2018
On June 23rd, 2014 Reverend Charles Moore drove his car to a nearly empty parking lot, doused him... more On June 23rd, 2014 Reverend Charles Moore drove his car to a nearly empty parking lot, doused himself in gasoline, and committed self-immolation in the small town of Grand Saline, my hometown in East Texas. Leaving a note on his windshield claiming that when he was young he heard racist stories of the town, he recited an old memory for his local audience: “Uncle Billy…cheerily [told] us about helping to kill ‘niggers’ and put their heads on a pole...[in] ‘pole town.’” Growing up in this town, I heard similar racist “histories” about Pole Town and other spots too: a “secret” meeting spot existing for the KKK at Clark’s Ferry (right outside of town) and previous signs at the city limits acknowledging Grand Saline as a “sundown town.” In my essay, I explore how these racist folklores and urban legends compose my hometown’s identity by formulating a public memory for consumption, one that produces a racialized climate for residents. Utilizing theories on public memory (Phillips, Vivian, Casey) and rituals (Feuchtwang), I will demonstrate that the racist stories of my childhood, the stories that haunted Reverend Moore and myself, construct a 21st-century racism that relies on the rhetorical use of memorization and repetition as a type of ritual to remain in power. Interviewing old friends, former teachers, and other town members, I will recite this folklore with them, leading me to investigate how these stories fostered a more progressive stance on race for me and altered my hometown’s image as being “safe” as well. Overall, by exploring specific sites of public memory and urban legends, I will compose a dual meaning of place for myself and other townsfolk in this small salt mine town in East Texas: a literal place for home and a figural place for the legacy of racism.
This article theorizes the use of rhetorical versatility as a language tool for white supremacist... more This article theorizes the use of rhetorical versatility as a language tool for white supremacists in the age of Donald Trump, specifically referring to the ways Trump and the KKK speak to their various audiences through textual winks and polysemy. After demonstrating the recent rise of white supremacist groups in this country, rhetorical versatility is explored as way for rhetors to camouflage and signal their ideological viewpoints, which ultimately leads to an analysis of key terms and ideas that both the KKK and Trump utilize in the public sphere: " patriotism, " " heritage, " and " security. " Diving into the specific uses of these terms, this article pinpoints the textual winks that have constructed a civic version of white supremacy over the last few years. Ultimately, this analysis not only builds a theory of rhetorical versatility but also argues that we need more scholarship on the tacit forms of white supremacy.
This essay reports on a writing-based formative assessment of a university-wide initiative to enh... more This essay reports on a writing-based formative assessment of a university-wide initiative to enhance students' global learning. Our mixed (and unanticipated) results show the need for enhanced expertise in writing assessment as well as for sustained partnerships among diverse institutional stakeholders so that public programming—from events linked to classroom-level learning to broader cross-unit mandates like accreditation—can yield more rigorous, responsive, and mixed-method assessments. This essay reports on a writing-based formative assessment of a university wide initiative to enhance students' global learning. Our mixed (and unanticipated) results show the need for enhanced expertise in writing assessment as well as for sustained partnerships among diverse institutional stakeholders so that public programming—from events linked to classroom-level learning to broader cross-unit mandates like accreditaiion—can yield more rigorous, responsive, and mixed-method assessments.
This article explores the public memory of the Confederate Defenders of Charleston monument follo... more This article explores the public memory of the Confederate Defenders of Charleston monument following a 2015 spray-painting of the statue, proclaiming "#BlackLivesMatter." We argue that protests reappropriated the rhetorical significance of the monument with this tagging, and this was eventually erased by the city placing a tarp on the structure. From this, we conclude what rhetoricians should take away from such public acts of defiance and the proceedings that following them.
This article I wrote argues that John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden (1952) should be analyzed as... more This article I wrote argues that John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden (1952) should be analyzed as a rhetorical understanding of Chinese immigration, in which the author is actually promoting Chinese immigrants during the height of the Red Scare.
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