RNF PROJECT (CRITICAL NUGGET + PRESENTATION)

To complement the exploratory nature of our course, your final project will be completed in the spirit of the Graduate Research Network Forum held annually in advance of the 4C’s (and conducted in similar formats by other professional organizations). This means I will ask you to write a brief but focused “critical nugget,” in which you articulate an idea you know you would like to take up in future work, e.g., your prospectus, a dissertation chapter, a conference presentation, or a published essay. I will also ask you to simulate the roundtable discussions that occur at the GRNF, for which you will transform that critical nugget into a more dynamic presentation, again whose format and content will be determined by you. (However, it should involve a handout or digital component, especially if your project involves digital inquiry. Also, we will have a live audience.)

Based on how we navigate the course, it is my hope that your ideas for projects will be stimulated well beyond “discussing the rhetoric of such and such,” and will instead connect historical traditions with vital contemporary interests (whether those interests are cultural, theoretical, political, or pedagogical), really expanding your current understanding of rhetorical histories. It might be best to think of your “critical nugget” as enacting one of several genres: (1) a research prospectus, in which you identify an issue, problem, subject, or method that has been sorely neglected (and is amenable either to historical or theoretical inquiry); (2) a conference paper, in which you offer a new or enhanced reading of a single text or critical problem, especially via the application of a clearly demonstrated methodology; or (3) a comparative analysis, in which you present an informed re/reading of two or more secondary texts in order to analyze multiple interpretations of the treatment of a single issue in a primary text. Whatever you choose to do, note that the emphasis is on focused articulation, so your final project should be ~5-7 single-spaced pages, not including works cited. You are free (and highly encouraged) to draw on our reading lists as you complete this project, as well as to identify new and other sources.

I will ask you to submit a brief proposal around mid-semester that outlines your tentative claim and discusses some of the sources you think you will use. However, I am happy to meet with you at any point throughout the semester to talk through ideas and promote early planning.

(Added on 3/28) Here is our tentative presentation schedule:

Tuesday 4/23

• Logan Bearden
• Christine Maddox
• Martha Canter

Thursday 4/25

• Josh Eskew
• Bret Zawilski
• Molly Daniel