Get ready for the 2017 RSE Conference in Norwich!

University of East Anglia, Norwich, July 3-5, 2017
Have you submitted an abstract yet? Deadline for submission is December 16th 2016. The format is a 250 word abstract, exclusive of references. Read more in the full call for papers.
Did you know that you can also submit proposals for panels, as well as other alternatives? Read more in the full call for papers.
Register for the conference here

We welcome all submissions, as well as particularly papers and presentations relating to the, as we believe, very timely conference topic on “The Rhetoric of Unity and Division”.

As Kenneth Burke showed us, rhetoric has the capacity to generate ‘identification’ between people, forging and affirming community. It also has the capacity to create divisions, distinctions and differences – as a way of creating new communities but also as a way of maintaining hierarchies and exclusions or of promoting and prolonging hostility. This is not only a social or political effect of rhetoric. It goes to the core of what rhetoric is: a practice which involves inventive ‘division’ - persuading people by breaking up issues and phenomena in particular ways, connecting some ideas while constituting others as antithetical (…) READ MORE IN THE FULL CALL FOR PAPERS.

In order to enable exchange and discussion on a more general level, we also welcome papers or panels which address general issues related to the theory, analysis and practice of rhetoric in society.

Keynote speakers

Ruth Wodak is a professor at the Lancaster University and at the University of Vienna. She is a major figure in linguistics, mainly specializing in the field of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and discourse studies (DS). She has published many works in the field, including The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean (2015) and Discourse and Discrimination (2001). Wodak has also been editor and co-editor of several prominent volumes, including Right Wing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse (2013) and The Sage Handbook of Sociolinguistics (2011). Read more about Wodak here

Gerard Hauser is a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has shown a particular interest for vernacular rhetoric, public spheres and deliberative democracy. His research focuses on the history of rhetorical theory, the role of rhetoric in democracy and the interaction between formal and vernacular rhetorics in the public sphere. His works include Vernacular Voices:  The Rhetoric of Publics and Public Spheres (1999) and Introduction to Rhetorical Theory (First published 1987) as well as a plentitude of journal articles on various rhetorical topics. He has also inspired The Gerard Hauser Award, which is presented to outstanding graduate student papers at the binennial RSA conferences. Read more about Hauser here.

Quentin Skinner is a professor at the Queen Mary University in London.  A historian, Skinner is interested in speech-act theory; the nature of interpretation and historical explanation, the concept of representation; theories of political liberty; the character of the State as well as European intellectual history of the early-modern period. His “special interests” include classical rhetoric in the Renaissance; the political theories of Machiavelli, Hobbes and others. His works include The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (1978), Visions of Politics (2002), and Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (1996). Read more about Skinner here.

We will write more about our keynote speakers and the topics of their individual talks in the time leading up to the conference deadline in December.

 Conference venue

The conference will take place at The University of East Anglia in the ancient medieval city of Norwich, in the United Kingdom. Two hours by train from London, and with its own international airport, Norwich is also ideally located for exploring the beautiful Norfolk Broads – a network of rivers and lakes famously referenced in David Bowie’s song Life on Mars.

The University of East Anglia sports a striking modernist campus set in beautiful parkland. The University is ranked in the top 1% in the world and 10th in the UK for the quality of its research. Students regularly place it in the top five universities in the UK for ‘student experience’. In keeping with the characterful and independent nature of the city of Norwich the motto of the University is ‘Do Different’.
The main organizer of the conference is professor Alan Finlayson of University of East Anglia. Read more about his work and interests here.
Additional information will be published at the conference website.

Submit your abstract to the conference now!