2026-06-08T13:08:35Z https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/api/oai/

oai:poroi:id:33952 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z

“Gnawing on Bones”: Incrementalism and the Rhetoric of Science “Gnawing on Bones”: Incrementalism and the Rhetoric of Science Zerbe, Michael J. This article argues that the pace of research and major breakthroughs in contemporary science (1950 to the present) has slowed considerably compared to pre-1950 science and that this slower tempo is manifested textually in scientific discourse as a rhetoric of incrementalism. Incrementalism warrants scrutiny as a rhetorical figure because its meaning has changed from pre-1950 to post-1950 science to now include an element of risk aversion in addition to the earlier implications of science as systematic and deliberate. After locating the idea of incrementalism theoretically within the literature on the contexts of discovery and justification and the Post-Normal Science movement, I position incrementalism in the rhetoric of science within pace-related discussions of scientific revolutions and kairos, and then as a trope closest to skotison (i.e., intentional obscurity) and the figure of thought of significatio (i.e., subtlety and complexity). Given the gradual nature of the change in meaning, I refer to incrementalism as an inertial trope. With its biopolitical implications, incrementalism is also a zoetrope because it exacerbates the prioritization of certain groups of human lives. A case study on research in pancreatic cancer is presented to illustrate the rhetoric of incrementalism, and the implications of incrementalism are discussed. 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 20 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33952 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33952 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33952/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33948 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z

Introducing Rhetorical Psychology to RSTM and RSTM to Rhetorical Psychology Introducing Rhetorical Psychology to RSTM and RSTM to Rhetorical Psychology Kang, Ryan Ceccarelli, Leah Psychologist Stephen Gibson published an article in 2013 in the British Journal of Social Psychology that offers a rhetorical analysis of the transcripts and audio recordings of Stanley Milgram’s mid-20th century obedience experiments. Gibson’s rhetoric of inquiry project has the potential to advance both the fields of psychology and rhetoric. He uses rhetorical methods to examine both the experimenter’s deployment of rhetorical strategies to influence research participants and the participants’ deployment of rhetorical strategies to resist the authority of the experimenter. Despite its relevance to the field of rhetorical inquiry, Gibson’s research has been overlooked by scholars of rhetoric, and Gibson himself does not engage with contemporary rhetorical scholarship. This article encourages a transdisciplinary exchange that will benefit both the field of research known as the rhetoric of science, technology and medicine and the subfield of social psychology known as rhetorical psychology.    2026-02-24T08:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 20 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33948 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33948 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33948/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33915 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z

Introduction: Method/ologies Introduction: Method/ologies Greenwalt, Dustin A. This introduction to the special issue derived from the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine (ARSTM) 2024 preconference for the National Communication Association celebrates the organization’s methodological pluralism with reference to philosopher Paul Feyerabend.     2026-02-24T08:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 20 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33915 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33915 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33915/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33949 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z

Multi-Methodological, Multiply Ontological: Pivoting Methodologies in Rhetorical Analysis of Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) Multi-Methodological, Multiply Ontological: Pivoting Methodologies in Rhetorical Analysis of Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) Welsh, Paige Graham, S. Scott Rhetoricians and bioethicists have analyzed medical assistance in dying (MAiD), sometimes referred to as physician assisted suicide or euthanasia, and suggested that it falls into predictable topoi. To deepen our understanding of public deliberation around MAiD, we propose a Multi-Method, Multiply Ontological (M3O) methodology. M3O encourages phronesis through pivots in method. Diverging findings from each pivot may surface complexities that only come from putting those findings into conversation. We analyzed public testimony about MAiD bills proposed in Connecticut and Nevada with both framegram and topoi analysis to discern how pro and anti-MAiD rhetors conceptualized personhood in this discourse. We found that both sides build arguments around intersecting topoi of (1) personhood as a set of ontological traits, (2) personhood as a social practice, (3) questions of autonomy, and (4) issues of vulnerability to suffering. When placed into the context of existing data on MAiD discourse and policy, we found that questions of dignity and personhood may be placed into deeper conversation with an analysis of risk and autonomy to complicate our assumptions about the values implied in this discourse. 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 20 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33949 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33949 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33949/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33942 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z

Rhetorical Figures, Grammatical Constructions, and Form/Meaning Alliances in Pretrained Language Models Rhetorical Figures, Grammatical Constructions, and Form/Meaning Alliances in Pretrained Language Models Duvvoori, Kavi Harris, Randy The speakers of a language respond to formal patterns—rhetorical figures—which have been studied as tools of eloquence. More recent linguistics has produced construction grammars to analyze different sorts of patterns, from idioms to regular syntax, that compose discourse. We ask how well computational models, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), can process these two kinds of patterns, in the absence of the contextual and sensory information people have access to. Our pilot study tests seven LLMs on five well-investigated grammatical constructions and five rhetorical figures on an authored sample, and statistically and qualitatively analyzes the generated outputs. Evaluating LLMs on both offers a testing ground for how well they process the formal and conceptual dimensions of rhetorical and grammatical patterns. The results suggest greater challenges for LLMs in processing salient rhetorical figures than arbitrary constructions: statistical frequency alone may fail to capture important formal dimensions of how people put words together. 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 20 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33942 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33942 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33942/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33956 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z

The Circulation of Vaccine Misinformation on Social Media Platforms: New Challenges Require New Methods The Circulation of Vaccine Misinformation on Social Media Platforms: New Challenges Require New Methods Tillery, Denise Carrion, Melissa Social media offers an increasingly important source of health-related content, but is also a fertile ground for misinformation, especially surrounding controversial topics. Accordingly, examining data across social media platforms can enable rhetoricians to identify both patterns of argument and points of rhetorical intervention. However, the unstable nature of social media creates obstacles in this process. In this article, we draw from our experience conducting a study to identify social media misinformation about vaccination in order to identify four specific methodological challenges we have faced. These include challenges related to identifying and collecting relevant data as well as the analytical challenges posed by the multimodal and networked nature of social media posts. We hope these insights can help to facilitate more effective strategies for addressing these hurdles in future research.   2026-02-24T08:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 20 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33956 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33956 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33956/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:31849 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z

Using Stasis Theory as a Heuristic for Examining Epistemological Dilemmas in a Post-Truth Landscape Using Stasis Theory as a Heuristic for Examining Epistemological Dilemmas in a Post-Truth Landscape Bowles Jr., Bruce The current definition of post-truth creates an adversarial relationship with rhetorical theory, relying on a positivist stance toward epistemology. Additionally, the most public-facing scholarship concerning post-truth tends to view knowledge in rather concrete ways, failing to account for the nuance of differing types of knowledge and rhetorical situations. As a result, most of the pragmatic approaches to dealing with disingenuous post-truth rhetorical tactics are predicated on positivism (e.g., fact-checking) and post-truth gets either downplayed or only treated theoretically in rhetorical scholarship. This article redefines post-truth in a manner more amendable to rhetorical theory and presents a heuristic predicated on stasis theory as a method for evaluating the epistemic certainty of rhetorical claims. The heuristic is then used to analyze an exchange from an episode of the podcast Armchair Expert to demonstrate how rhetorical discourse can become unproductive and adversarial when interlocutors claim an inappropriate amount of epistemic certainty, in particular by treating value-based claims as facts. Discussions of the post-truth dilemma need to extend beyond the confines of the current definition to include all discursive practices that ascribe the wrong amount of epistemic certainty to particular claims, not just practices that challenge established knowledge and facts. 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 20 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.31849 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.31849 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/31849/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33951 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z

Web Archives and Historicizing Rhetorics of Science, Technology, and Medicine: Reflecting on Some Pragmatic and Ethical Considerations Web Archives and Historicizing Rhetorics of Science, Technology, and Medicine: Reflecting on Some Pragmatic and Ethical Considerations Coleman, Miles C. Bloomfield, Emma Frances Mari, Will Miller, Megan P. Cerino, Abbigail S. Web archives are rich resources for building knowledge in studies of rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine (RSTM). However, based on their unique idiosyncrasies as archives of born-digital artifacts, they also require careful consideration regarding methodological pragmatics and ethics. Here we build from existing web history and rhetoric literatures to offer three sets of tensions—organic/structured (discovery), close/distant (reading), and clear/obscure (reporting)—for informing the various stages in the work of rhetorical scholarship of science, technology, and medicine using web archives. 2026-02-24T08:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 20 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33951 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33951 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33951/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33946 2025-03-19T13:25:00Z

Ways and Means: Rethinking the Rhetoric of Inquiry for the 21st Century Ways and Means: Rethinking the Rhetoric of Inquiry for the 21st Century Johnson, Nathan R. Tracing the journal’s history from its beginning in 2001 to its present transformation, this essay explores how POROI has shaped and been shaped by broader disciplinary, institutional, and technological shifts. Highlighting key contributions to rhetorical inquiry—spanning science, technology, medicine, and beyond—the issue revisits influential articles that have defined POROI’s mission while inviting scholars to reimagine its future. As POROI embraces new ways of knowing and responds to contemporary challenges, it seeks to foster an inclusive, interdisciplinary space for examining the rhetoric of knowledge production in the 21st century. 2025-03-19T13:25:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 19 1-2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33946 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33946 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33946/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1-7

oai:poroi:id:31088 2024-12-11T12:00:00Z

A Relational Approach to Shifting Gen Z and Millennial Environmental Beliefs A Relational Approach to Shifting Gen Z and Millennial Environmental Beliefs Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut Al-faqih, Jessica Cadigan-Carranza, Hannah Trueworthy, Ali Turk, Tully Yuan, Riley While survey data identifies that most Gen Z and Millennials are anxious about climate change, are supportive of climate activists, and agree that climate change is anthropogenic, that same data fails to nuance these generations' intersectional and relational environmental beliefs. The problem is both methodological and rhetorical, because assumptions built into closed-question public opinion surveys can fail to match younger generations' perceptions on the environment. Additional research methods concerned with capturing these relations, including the cognitive interviews that survey designers already employ, could illuminate these environmental perspectives. We see models for this approach in the preliminary interviews used in large-scale surveys, in the field of climate psychology, and in arguments for ecological rhetoric in communication studies. Building from these fields, we provide example questions that are emblematic of these relational environmental and argue for increasing numbers of smaller, qualitative studies which investigate the many relations that younger generations already experience. 2024-12-11T12:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 18 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.31088 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.31088 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/31088/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:31877 2024-12-11T12:00:00Z

Ethos and Expertise in the Making of a Celebrity (Citizen) Scientist Ethos and Expertise in the Making of a Celebrity (Citizen) Scientist Speicher, Nolan For most of the past two centuries, the scientific study of fungi was little more than a small, inconspicuous subfield of plant biology. Today, that is rapidly changing, as mycologists and their objects of study (fungi) are increasingly attracting young scientists and occupying the public sphere in both medicinal and environmental contexts. At the root of mycology’s popular ascendance is Paul Stamets, a self-trained mycologist, author, entrepreneur, and frequent public spokesperson. This essay offers a rhetorical analysis of Stamets’s most influential public appearance—a 2008 TED talk entitled “6 ways mushrooms can save the world”. In particular, I draw on theoretical frameworks in rhetoric and studies of expertise and experience (SEE) to explain how an amateur scientist holding no credentials beyond a bachelor's degree developed an authoritative voice as a thought leader in his field. 2024-12-11T12:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 18 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.31877 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.31877 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/31877/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33872 2024-12-11T12:00:00Z

From Turns to Networks: Multiplicity in Rhetorical Agency From Turns to Networks: Multiplicity in Rhetorical Agency Johnson, Nathan R. This article examines rhetorical agency by using advanced bibliometric methods, arguing for a refined approach that recognizes multiple forms of rhetorical agency. By employing methodologies from information science, this study also illuminates often-overlooked infrastructural dynamics among scholars, specifically in how scholarship has materialized and enforced through textual citations. The analysis supplements traditional historical narratives of theory, introducing a dynamic conceptualization of rhetorical agency as an interconnected network. This paper forwards a multifaceted understanding of rhetorical agency, envisioned as comprising at least five intertwined networks. This article consequently provides a novel approach for analyzing disciplinary history by considering how citationality carries material traces of the past. 2024-12-11T12:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 18 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33872 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33872 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33872/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33774 2024-12-11T12:00:00Z

Vernacular Policies of Feeling: Sensuous Presence and the Emergence of an AIDS-Era Sexual Health Ethic Vernacular Policies of Feeling: Sensuous Presence and the Emergence of an AIDS-Era Sexual Health Ethic Mitchell, Ryan Before the isolation of HIV in 1984, members of queer sex communities developed robust explanatory frameworks for not only understanding AIDS but also mitigating its possible sociopolitical consequences. These frameworks retooled political values inherited from past modes of sexual health activism to introduce flexible, future-oriented sexual health policies. This essay considers how AIDS commentators working during the first year-and-a-half of the crisis tailored their speculative arguments about appropriate AIDS-era sexual health ethics in ways that attempted to address the enigmatic epidemic’s intersecting medical, political, and sexual crises. Drawing on work that considers the embodied dimensions of Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s concepts of presence and communion, I argue that, in the absence of clear biomedical information about AIDS, early AIDS commentators devised what I call vernacular policies of feeling. Unlike traditional health policies that rely on empirical evidence, vernacular policies of feeling make present communal ways of sensing risks to stabilize biomedical controversy, induce collective action, and affirm community values. Along with demonstrating how the body serves as a rhetorical resource for those made vulnerable to illness and death, vernacular policies of feeling productively illustrate how non-expert communities construct future-oriented arguments in moments of overwhelming contingency. 2024-12-11T12:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 18 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33774 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33774 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33774/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:31809 2024-12-11T12:00:00Z

Viral Denial: Pandemics, Chiropractic, and the Persuasive Power of Invisibility Viral Denial: Pandemics, Chiropractic, and the Persuasive Power of Invisibility Crowe, Julie Homchick While Louis Pasteur’s germ theory functions as one of the foundational concepts of modern medicine, resistance to COVID-19 prevention measures reveal a rejection not just of government mandates, but of germ theory as well. Therefore, this article seeks to trace the rhetorical linear of rejections of germ theory denialism through an examination of primary and secondary texts from Pasteur’s contemporaries, through the development of chiropractic, and into the COVID-19 pandemic. The author finds that the denial of viruses offers a peculiar form of biorhetoric that invokes absence and invisibility, rather than presence, as rhetorical grounds for rejecting public health directives. 2024-12-11T12:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 18 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.31809 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.31809 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/31809/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33754 2024-12-10T17:00:00Z

Charting, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication: Improving Primary-Care Progress Notes and Patient Care through Attention to Audience and Purpose Charting, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication: Improving Primary-Care Progress Notes and Patient Care through Attention to Audience and Purpose Lundgren, Kari J. Medical documentation--i.e., charting--is widely known to be crucial for patient care, billing, and legal protection, but it is simultaneously largely viewed as tedious, time-consuming busywork that takes clinicians away from patients, especially in the era of electronic health records (EHRs). There has been excellent but limited research on how writing skills (and thus, explicit writing instruction) influence both the charting experience and charting outcomes (Schryer, 1993; Opel & Hart-Davidson, 2019). In this project, I investigate how progress notes within EHRs could be improved if medical providers had more training in rhetoric and technical writing. Specifically, I focus on primary care, as primary-care providers have been shown to spend the most time on EHRs (Rotenstein et al, 2023). I draw upon a corpus of de-identified primary-care progress notes and the insights of primary-care providers, both sourced from clinics in rural Oregon. My major conclusions are that primary-care providers would benefit from being taught how to write with attention to audience and purpose and that rhetoricians of health and medicine have an opportunity to help improve patient charting. 2024-12-10T17:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 18 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33754 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33754 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33754/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33787 2024-12-10T17:00:00Z

Collaboration as a Form of Institutional Critique Collaboration as a Form of Institutional Critique Johnson, Meredith Barton, Kelci Drumond, Shari Musselman, Nicole Rechsteiner, Anjelica Smith, Valerie How do we move forward when the legality of teaching and learning about social justice research is called into question by the state? This article demonstrates the efficacy of collaboration as a form of institutional critique that made it possible to provide a comprehensive graduate education following the emergence of anti-DEI legislation in Florida. To teach and learn in a tumultuous legal landscape without sacrificing rigor, eliding DEI-oriented scholarship, or violating state law, we piloted a collaborative disciplinary meta-analysis project that enabled students to study social justice research along with the field’s other major research topics. This portable approach allowed us to meet the professional and ethical imperative to engage research that has been targeted by state officials but remains foundational for disciplinary expertise. It also demonstrates the futility of removing politically unfavorable scholarship from curricula. After sharing an overview of the results of our meta-analysis project, with a special focus on our field’s take on social justice and collaboration, we reflect on the rhetorical strategies those of us working in highly politicized educational climates have deployed to manage increased oversight from zealous state legislatures challenging the legitimacy of disciplinary expertise. 2024-12-10T17:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 18 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33787 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33787 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33787/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33737 2024-12-10T17:00:00Z

Collaboration in the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine Collaboration in the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine Johnson, Nathan R. The concept of collaboration lies at the heart of this special issue of Poroi. This issue is rooted in the papers and discussions that emerged from the co-sponsored 2023 preconference of the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine (ARSTM) and the National Communication Association's Environmental Communication Division (NCA-ECD). The collection brings together scholarship that examines, theorizes, and enacts collaboration from a variety of perspectives. The preconference served as an important space where scholars and practitioners from rhetoric, environmental communication, science and technology studies, and related fields engaged with the pressing challenges and opportunities of working together across disciplinary and institutional boundaries.  2024-12-10T17:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 18 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33737 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33737 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33737/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33742 2024-12-10T17:00:00Z

Consuming Bodies: Ticks, Pigs, and Gothic Capitalism Consuming Bodies: Ticks, Pigs, and Gothic Capitalism Tirrell, Jeremy Walter A tick-borne illness has spread throughout the eastern United States, causing victims to develop a spontaneous allergic reaction to eating red meat. This condition’s etiology intersects with notable recent cases of porcine xenotransplantation: the insertion of organs from genetically altered pigs into human hosts. The antagonist in these scenarios is the sugar alpha-gal, which is naturally present in most mammals although not humans. This article draws from Bruno Latour’s depiction of modernity as an engine that produces contradictory hybrids to examine the capitalist ethic impelling cultural engagements with alpha-gal, in which the bodies of pigs and humans are cyclically conflated and differentiated as medical and edible commodities—both forms of sustenance. The consumption of these resources has a Gothic cast, which provides insight into their strange appeal, affect, and implications. This kind of quotidian Gothic invisibly pervades contemporary life, becoming palpable only through novelty, as transient examples emerge and dissipate while eliciting little sustained consternation.  2024-12-10T17:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 18 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33742 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33742 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33742/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33758 2024-12-10T17:00:00Z

Differentiating between Iconic Mindbombs and Incongruous Mindbombs Using Pentadic Ratios in the Defacing of Priceless Art in Environmental Activism Differentiating between Iconic Mindbombs and Incongruous Mindbombs Using Pentadic Ratios in the Defacing of Priceless Art in Environmental Activism Kice, Brent This essay applies environmental activist Robert Hunter’s conception of mindbombs to recent environmental activists throwing tomato soup, throwing mashed potatoes, and smearing paint on Van Gogh’s, Monet’s, and Degas’s works of art. Hunter’s mindbombs align with Hariman’s and Lucaites’s (2003; 2007; 2016; 2018) iconic photography while the defacing of priceless works of art adhere to Burke’s (1954) grotesque perspective by incongruity. In turn, iconic mindbombs relied on Burke’s (1969a) scene-purpose pentadic ratio, while incongruous mindbombs rely on Burke’s scene-act pentadic ratio.  2024-12-10T17:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 18 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33758 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33758 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33758/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:33739 2024-12-10T17:00:00Z

“Smart drugs,” Gender, and the Rhetorical Turning “Smart drugs,” Gender, and the Rhetorical Turning Maddalena, Kate This article uses the example of nootropics—a flexible term that capitalizes on the flexibility of the brain—as a category to describe how seemingly oppositional tropes, or turns, can occupy the same rhetorical topos, or space, and produce distinct ethos, political identity, and commitment within that space. It considers two dialectical, gendered tropes in nootropic discourse. The tropes are a falsely binary and highly problematic set of subjectivities, a Gothic masculine and an ostensible Gothic feminine. These two tropes exemplify how rhetorics of wellness produce identities whose turnings towards a politics does not map cleanly onto electoral politics or even identity politics in the US and Canada. 2024-12-10T17:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 18 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.33739 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.33739 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/33739/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:31133 2022-05-10T04:00:00Z

Binding Brain, Body and World: Pattern as a Figure of Knowledge in Andy Clark’s Work on Predictive Processing Binding Brain, Body and World: Pattern as a Figure of Knowledge in Andy Clark’s Work on Predictive Processing Besser, Stephan Over the past two decades, the predictive processing (PP) framework has emerged as an immensely influential research paradigm in cognitive science and beyond. This article analyzes the critical role that the notion of ‘pattern’ plays in the agenda-setting work of philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark on PP and considers the project to develop the framework into a unified theory of the embodied mind. It argues that pattern contributes to this project not primarily as a full-fledged concept but rather as a figure of knowledge that shapes PP theory at a rhetorical and aesthetic level. The article offers a definition of figures of knowledge as a critical concept and suggests to apply it more broadly to the study of pattern as “keyword of our times” (Franco Moretti). 2022-05-10T04:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 17 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.31133 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.31133 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/31133/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:31398 2022-05-10T04:00:00Z

Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia As the Fairy Tale of Shock Economy Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia As the Fairy Tale of Shock Economy Madella, Alessandra In this essay, I examine the film Johanna d’Arc ofMongolia (1989), made by German director Ulrike Ottinger in the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I argue that it can be read as an anti-authoritarian articulation of a desire for radical public spheres better suited to serve minority interests, particularly at a time of drastic transformations of social and political conditions. The film’s narrative ambiguity should be read in the rhetorical situation of radical fairy tales in West Germany and their attempt to develop counterpublic spheres to resist the organization of experiences by the consciousness industry. Ottinger’s film, while shot mostly in Inner Mongolia during the crucial year for the reunification of Germany, is far from being escapist. The shock of the displaced lower-class heroine, so different from the “happy ending” imperative of traditional fairy tales, unveils the fiction of a neoliberal economy that considers people and land as mere commodities. Like Karl Polanyi, Ottinger wants to empower people to question the assumption that they had to accept major displacements and flexibility in the name of a self-regulating market. The fairy tale, as a contested genre related to education, is a primary field for this struggle. 2022-05-10T04:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 17 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.31398 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.31398 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/31398/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:31090 2022-05-10T04:00:00Z

Rhetorical Ethnography and the Virtue of Vulnerability in Transdisciplinary Research Methods Rhetorical Ethnography and the Virtue of Vulnerability in Transdisciplinary Research Methods Murphy, Ryan Michael This paper considers some of the ways ethnography has been adopted in transdisciplinary rhetoric and also considers theoretical questions internal to rhetorical ethnography that can help transdisciplinary scholars navigate limitations and potential liabilities inherent in transdisciplinary work. I seek to more carefully consider transdisciplinary features of rhetoric though ethnographic study which, in its position as studying cultures both familiar and foreign to the researcher, mirror many of the disciplinary relations expressed in Marilyn Stember’s topology of disciplinarity. Noting that transdisciplinary rhetoricians engage with scholarship by experts in other fields, an ethnographic approach to transdisciplinary rhetoric recognizes that disciplinary experts might have expert knowledge that they struggle to communicate to non-experts, and rhetoricians should tread carefully in offering solutions to these communicative difficulties. I suggest rhetorical vulnerability and self-awareness expressed through standpoint as two strategies scholars of transdisciplinary rhetoric can use to adopt stances of transparent subjectivity rather than feigning scientific objectivity. 2022-05-10T04:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 17 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.31090 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.31090 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/31090/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:31434 2022-05-10T04:00:00Z

The Relevance of Discursive Strategies to Information Evaluation Practices The Relevance of Discursive Strategies to Information Evaluation Practices Vamanu, Iulian Recent work across disciplines has examined the current post-truth climate and various types of information disorders which have permeated the internet. Scholars have made significant progress in defining and theorizing information literacy and its various aspects, as well as in designing programs to help students acquire the relevant skills for evaluating information. Nevertheless, further exploration is needed, for example to understand the roles of criteria in information evaluation. The present study draws on scholarship in discourse and rhetoric studies to suggest how discursive strategies, a key concept in these convergent areas, can inform approaches to information evaluation. To illustrate this improved approach, this study explores the case of a recent piece of fake news that involves both text and image and has circulated widely as a digital flyer on social media. 2022-05-10T04:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 17 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.31434 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.31434 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/31434/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:31096 2022-01-31T17:00:00Z

Representing Rhetoric: Post-truth and the Example of Thank You for Smoking Representing Rhetoric: Post-truth and the Example of Thank You for Smoking Donnelly, Michael Dennis Grounding assumptions about the function of public discourse are critical to the formation and functioning of society. One way of examining those assumptions is through analyzing how public discourse gets represented in popular culture. Patricia Roberts-Miller’s (2004) taxonomy of models of public spheres serves as a template for the analysis of the film Thank You for Smoking (2006). This analysis demonstrates how the film both advocates for and contributes to the evolution of a post-truth public sphere by obscuring the historical controversy over tobacco. Truth and knowledge are not merely hidden or ignored but neutralized, and “spin” is therefore normalized and ultimately justified as a necessary protection of individual rights in a libertarian democracy. 2022-01-31T17:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 16 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.31096 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.31096 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/31096/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:31089 2022-01-31T17:00:00Z

Seeing as Making: Mediation, Rhetoric, and the Ultrasound Informed Consent Act Seeing as Making: Mediation, Rhetoric, and the Ultrasound Informed Consent Act Weedon, Scott Gruber, David How do material and discursive arrangements, technologies and rhetoric, shape the subjects and objects of medical discourse (Scott & Melonçon, 2017; Selzer & Crowley, 1999)? How are the affordances of material and discursive arrangements seized by political actors? Tackling these and similar questions has been a growing preoccupation in the rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine, where researchers have sought better ways of understanding the entanglements of the symbolic and material (Booher & Jung, 2018; Graham, 2009; Jack, 2019; Propen, 2018). A perspicuous case for this research is the Ultrasound Informed Consent Act (UICA), an amendment to the Public Health Service Act mandating that women receive an ultrasound and have its images described to them before having abortions. Three US states have a version of this law, with over twenty others having laws similar to the UICA (Guttmacher Institute, 2019, n.d.). Through this law, antiabortionists are able to construct a kairotic situation through the mediating capacity of ultrasound where they can use the actual state of affairs (a woman seeking an abortion) to argue through images for a possible future (a woman foregoing abortion). This article analyzes the UICA to understand how the political speech of antiabortionists enrolls the moralizing capacity of ultrasound to construct a kairotic situation to intervene in women’s pregnancies. Starting from studies of actor-networks (Latour, 1983;1999a) and technological mediation (Verbeek, 2011; 2015), and departing to feminist rhetorical science studies (Booher & Jung, 2018; Frost & Haas, 2017) and rhetorical approaches to imagery and visualization (Propen, 2018; Roby, 2016; Webb, 2009), I argue that not only do translation processes and technical mediation distribute agencies; they construct the very situations where agencies are constituted. This study can widen our understanding of how political entities appropriate the rhetorical capacities of technology and discourse to translate their politics into legislature. 2022-01-31T17:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 16 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.31089 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.31089 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/31089/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:31095 2022-01-31T17:00:00Z

The Gendered Ethos of Pseudoscience: Feminized Discourse on Food Safety in the Blogosphere The Gendered Ethos of Pseudoscience: Feminized Discourse on Food Safety in the Blogosphere Rhode, Flemming Schneider In this paper, we explore the gendered aspects of scientific controversy in the digital age. This project makes use of Leah Ceccarelli’s seminal work on manufactured scientific controversy by considering its implications for the discourse on GMOs and food additives published on digital food and lifestyle blogs. We perform a discourse analysis of several blogs to look at the ways that gendered online discourse and performance influences modern anti-science rhetoric, particularly that which emanates from the sphere colloquially known as crunchy living. We look at the ways the intimate and personal feminine style of digital platforms offer experiential knowledge as a substitute for science. In the current political climate of alternative facts and fake news, this study leads to broader implications about the impact of gendered discourse on the assessment of credibility in online sources. 2022-01-31T17:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 16 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.31095 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.31095 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/31095/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:31093 2022-01-31T17:00:00Z

Where Did the Rhetoric of Science Go? A Double Review of Landmark Essays on Rhetoric of Science, Case Studies and Issues and Methods, a Two Volume Edited Collection by Randy Harris. Where Did the Rhetoric of Science Go? A Double Review of Landmark Essays on Rhetoric of Science, Case Studies and Issues and Methods, a Two Volume Edited Collection by Randy Harris. Pietrucci, Pamela In this review essay, we look back at the evolution of the rhetoric of science by reviewing the Case Studies and Issues and Methods volumes edited by Randy Harris. We conclude by reflecting on the past, present, and future of the discipline. 2022-01-31T17:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 16 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.17077/2151-2957.31093 https://doi.org/10.17077/2151-2957.31093 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/31093/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3298 2021-05-01T03:00:00Z

Big Data And Rhetoric: Introduction to the Special Issue Big Data And Rhetoric: Introduction to the Special Issue Vamanu, Iulian Johnson, Kevin 2021-05-01T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 16 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1318 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1318 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3298/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3300 2021-05-01T03:00:00Z

Big Data, Congress, and the Rhetoric of Technology: Or, How to Industrialize Cyberspace Big Data, Congress, and the Rhetoric of Technology: Or, How to Industrialize Cyberspace Adamczyk, Christopher Lee As new and developing technologies impact public and private life, rhetoricians would be remiss to overlook the deliberative rhetorics that justify their development, implementation, use-value, and impact. Using the 2013 joint congressional hearing “Next Generation Computing and Big Data Analytics” as an example, I argue that justificatory rhetorics about technology intersect with rhetoric from technology, obscuring information vital to critical deliberation. I demonstrate that the expert witnesses at this hearing draw upon rhetoric traditionally associated with American industrialization. Doing so allows them to articulate Big Data as a resource situated upon a metaphorical, American landscape and thus encourages the public to treat it as a natural resource that must be exploited for the betterment of the nation. Ultimately, I argue the use of this rhetoric dissuades critical analysis of the worth of Big Data and investigation of its technical aspects. This raises troubling questions about the ability of rhetoric about technology to both veil and guides what the public accepts as ethical rhetoric from technology. 2021-05-01T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 16 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1284 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1284 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3300/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3299 2021-05-01T03:00:00Z

Big Data Drive: The Rhetoric of Biometric Big Data Big Data Drive: The Rhetoric of Biometric Big Data Ortega, Valerie C In this essay, we seek to develop a concept of “big data drive.” Influenced in part by Lacan’s theory of drive, we study the drive toward biometric big data. Biometric big data (BBD) refers to the data collected around facial recognition, eye recognition, thumb prints, and other types of technology whose task is to identify a specific being through unique bio characteristics. “Big Data Drive” refers to the energies that pulsate around Big Data, as both a signifier and fetishized object, to promise “something more” that may never be fulfilled. 2021-05-01T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 16 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1287 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1287 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3299/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3302 2021-05-01T03:00:00Z

Five considerations for engaging with Big Data from a rhetorical-humanistic perspective Five considerations for engaging with Big Data from a rhetorical-humanistic perspective Majdik, Zoltan P. This essay offers five conceptual entry points for engaging with Big Data from a rhetorical perspective. These five concepts—data in/as relationships, observability/action, patterns, diachronicity, and audience—serve as points of deep conceptual commonality between definitions of Big Data and principles in rhetorical studies, and are offered here as considerations for critiquing uses of Big Data from a rhetorical-humanistic perspective, as well as for guiding rhetorical work that uses Big Data. 2021-05-01T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 16 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1312 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1312 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3302/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3301 2021-05-01T03:00:00Z

Rhetorical Implications of Contact Tracing Mobile Applications: An Examination of Big Data’s Work on the Body Rhetorical Implications of Contact Tracing Mobile Applications: An Examination of Big Data’s Work on the Body Lanius, Candice L For nearly a decade, big data has been hyped as an amazing new technology that will benefit corporations and consumers alike. By promising customized knowledge at an accelerated pace, big data technologies have slowly saturated the digital systems American consumers use to live, work, and play. Yet have the promised benefits materialized? An examination of the proposed contact tracing applications in response to the novel coronavirus alongside existing wearable technologies reveal that our trust and vulnerability, opening our bodies to be sensed by these networked systems, is a fraught rhetorical activity: not because an omniscient system now sees us and cares for us in our time of grave need. Rather, the opaque system misunderstands our embodied rhetorical actions, is incapable of moving the American polis, and cannot generate the promised collective action. 2021-05-01T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 16 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1313 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1313 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3301/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3303 2021-05-01T03:00:00Z

The Rhetoric of Big Data: Collecting, Interpreting, and Representing in the Age of Datafication The Rhetoric of Big Data: Collecting, Interpreting, and Representing in the Age of Datafication Mehlenbacher, Brad Mehlenbacher, Ashley Rose Rhetorical studies of science, technology, and medicine (RSTM) have provided critical understanding of how argument and argument norms within a field shape what we mean by “data.” Work has also examined how questions that shape data collection are asked, how data is interpreted, and even how data is shared. Understood as a form of argument, data reveals important insights into rhetorical situations, the motives of rhetorical actors, and the broader appeals that shape everything from the kinds of technologies built, to their inclusion in our daily lives, to the infrastructures of cities, the medical practices and policies concerning public health, etc. Big data merits continued attention from RSTM scholars as our understanding of its pervasive use and its ethos grows, but its arguments remain elusive (Salvo, 2012). To unpack the elusivity of big data, we explore one particularly illustrative case of big data and political, democratic influence: the Cambridge Analytica scandal. To understand the case, we turn to social studies of data to explore the range of ethical issues raised by big data, and to examine the rhetorical strategies that entail big data. 2021-05-01T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 16 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1311 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1311 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3303/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3330 2020-05-23T03:00:00Z

Introduction to Poroi 15.2: 45th Anniversary Edition Introduction to Poroi 15.2: 45th Anniversary Edition Depew, David Hartzog, Molly 2020-05-23T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1308 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1308 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3330/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3332 2020-05-23T03:00:00Z

Rhetoric, Dialectic, and Dogmatism: A Colloquy on Deirdre Nansen McCloskey’s “Free Speech, Rhetoric, and a Free Economy” Rhetoric, Dialectic, and Dogmatism: A Colloquy on Deirdre Nansen McCloskey’s “Free Speech, Rhetoric, and a Free Economy” McCloskey, Deirdre N Bates, Winton Biler, Kent Rainey Bissell, Elizabeth Bissell, Roger E. Camplin, Troy Chamy, Philippe Long, Roderick Tracy Walker, Jason Sciabarra, Chris Matthew In a 2019 collection, Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, co-founder of POROI and Distinguished Professor Emerita at The University of Illinois at Chicago, contributed an essay entitled “Free Speech, Rhetoric, and a Free Economy.” Her claim was that rhetoric and liberty are doubly linked. For one thing, any defense of liberty will make use of rhetoric, “rhetoric” understood as “speaking with persuasive intent instead of using physical violence.” For another, the free market in ideas is a rhetorical idea at the heart of free societies. The evidence for the second proposition—that liberty is rhetorical, a matter of sweet talk, is not so persuasive as that defenses of liberty are themselves rhetorical. If true, however, the proposition that liberty is rhetorical is more important. The growth of knowledge may justify a constitution of liberty, as the economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek believed, but rhetoric gives persuasive tongue to both liberty and knowledge. Free speech is more than merely parallel to free exchange. The liberal society is one that gets its rhetoric straight. The present text is a colloquium between McCloskey and eight interlocutors, and some of them with each other. It was originally conducted on a Facebook group devoted to the study of the book The Dialectics of Liberty over six days. Many participated, but eight engaged more fully.Poroi: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Rhetorical Analysis and Invention is proud to present this colloquium as part of the 45th Anniversary of the founding of The Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry at the University of Iowa. The participants are Winton Bates (independent scholar, Australia), Elizabeth Bissell (music instructor, Antioch, TN), Roger E. Bissell (research associate, Molinari Institute), Troy Camplin (Ph.D. Humanities, consultant, Camplin Creative Consulting), Philippe Chamy (interpreter/translator), Roderick Tracy Long (Ph.D. Philosophy, Auburn University, Auburn, AL), Kent Rainey Biler (student of Philosophy and Economics, University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE), Jason Walker (Philosophy, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL), and Deirdre Nansen McCloskey (University of Illinois, emerita, Chicago, IL). The colloquium was organized by Chris Matthew Sciabarra (Ph.D., NYU, Politics, Brooklyn, NY).   2020-05-23T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1307 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1307 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3332/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3331 2020-05-23T03:00:00Z

"Tree Thinking": The Rhetoric of Tree Diagrams in Biological Thought "Tree Thinking": The Rhetoric of Tree Diagrams in Biological Thought Miller, Carolyn R. Tree-like visualizations have played a central role in taxonomic and evolutionary biology for centuries, and the idea of a “tree of life” has been a pervasive notion not only in biology but also in religion, philosophy, and literature for much longer. The tree of life is a central figure in Darwin’s Origin of Species in both verbal and visual forms. As one of the most powerful and pervasive images in biological thought, what conceptual and communicative work has it enabled? How have the visual qualities and elements of the tree form interacted with biological thinking over time? This paper examines the pre-Darwinian history of tree images, the significance of Darwin’s use of such images, and the development of tree diagrams after Darwin. This history shows evidence of four separate traditions of visualization: cosmological, logical-philosophical, genealogical, and materialist. Visual traditions serve as rhetorical contexts that provide enthymematic backing, or what Perelman calls “objects of agreement,” for interpretation of tree diagrams. They produce polysemic warrants for arguments in different fields. The combination of the genealogical tradition with the cosmological and the logical changed the framework for thinking about the natural world and made Darwin’s theory of evolution possible; the later materialist tradition represents the “modernization” of biology as a science. 2020-05-23T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1290 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1290 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3331/ 2151-2957 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3341 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z

Addressing the Social Determinants of Health: “Vulnerable” Populations and the Presentation of Healthy People 2020 Addressing the Social Determinants of Health: “Vulnerable” Populations and the Presentation of Healthy People 2020 Rodriguez, Eric Population health is a concept at the core of national healthcare reform efforts. Population health focuses on the social determinants of health, or the living conditions of people at work, home, and play. To participate in population health initiatives, organizations must collect population-level data, creating a discourse of resilience-as-ability-to-cope through mapping community demographics, as though a counting of bodies and their material conditions creates a foundation for sustained, improved health outcomes. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) launched an initiative called Healthy People 2020, a set of ten-year national goals and objectives for health promotion and disease prevention. In this essay, we analyze this data project, arguing that the discourses of resiliency (through improved national, state, and local data collection efforts) and vulnerability (of the people who are reduced to data) create a constitutive rhetoric for U.S. public health officials to rally around the cause of population health yet exclude the very people upon whom such a cause should focus. Specifically, an examination of the ODPHP’s Healthy People 2020 website reveals that the reduction of bodies to quantification in data displays for health professionals, when viewed through the lens of Philip Wander’s Third Persona, objectifies groups of people already historically marginalized and obfuscates pathways to social action. We argue that instead, an ecological, relational definition of resilience must be fostered through autonomy of communities in the decisions they make about their own community members’ health and wellness. 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1297 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1297 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3341/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3338 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z

Dementia, Rhetorical Schemes, and Cognitive Resilience Dementia, Rhetorical Schemes, and Cognitive Resilience Harris, Randy Allen I argue for the importance of rhetorical schemes for understanding, diagnosing, and coping with forms of dementia. Schemes give salience (recruit attention), memorability (affect storage and facilitate retrieval), and aesthetic effects (induce a pleasurable emotional response) to configurations of language. They do so because of the way they play to neurocognitive pattern biases, like repetition, sequence, and position. Dementia is a condition under which language use degrades, alongside memory and attention, but pattern biases appear to remain and schemic configurations become more and more frequent in dementia speech. Rhetorical schemes, that is, are notably resilient to the forces that diminish language use in dementia. 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1301 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1301 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3338/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3334 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z

Introduction to POROI 15.1: Special Issue on Resilience Rhetorics Introduction to POROI 15.1: Special Issue on Resilience Rhetorics Depew, David Derkatch, Colleen 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1305 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1305 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3334/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3344 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z

“It’s just a cycle”: Resilience, poetics, and intimate disruptions “It’s just a cycle”: Resilience, poetics, and intimate disruptions McGreavy, Bridie Cagle, Lauren E. The phrase “It’s just a cycle” is commonly articulated in coastal resilience efforts and it also shapes broader public debates about climate change. Identifying the structure of arguments around cycles is a useful starting point for defining differences in perspective, but there is more to competing claims about cycles. It is this more that this essay aims to explore, starting with an opening example from an engaged rhetorical ethnographic project with Maine’s clam fishery. The example helps set up a methodological orientation to working with cycles within resilience-focused collaborations that draws from aesthetics and poetics. This approach aims to show how cycles shape world making and how attending to cycles as a trope can create a space for critical disruptions of colonial patterns. This is a space of intimate connection that allows cyclical rhythms, like those of tides, to help reveal a passageway to resilience. 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1302 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1302 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3344/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3339 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z

Resilience and Self-Reliance in Canadian Food Charter Discourse Resilience and Self-Reliance in Canadian Food Charter Discourse Spoel, Philippa Jack, Jordynn Singer, Sarah Ann This article interrogates the rhetoric of “self-reliance” as a common feature of discourses about individual and community resilience by examining Canadian food charters in the context of regional food systems aimed at improving community food security. Despite the association of food charters with alternative food systems and progressive politics, we find that their ambiguous and shifting appeals to self-reliance largely conflict with their stated social justice goals of community food security, particularly the goal of alleviating the distress of food insecurity for vulnerable community members. Overall, we argue that the rhetoric of self-reliance in Canadian food charters primarily perpetuates a neoliberal ideology of resilience that promotes an active, enterprising ethos of responsibility for one’s own well-being, whether at the level of individuals, communities, or food systems. Our study thus contributes to critical scholarship that contextualizes and problematizes specific sites and practices of resilience discourse. 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1298 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1298 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3339/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3343 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z

Resilience Rhetorics in Science, Technology, and Medicine Resilience Rhetorics in Science, Technology, and Medicine Walker, Kenneth 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1303 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1303 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3343/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3337 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z

Resilient Turns: Epistrophe, Incrementum, Metonymy Resilient Turns: Epistrophe, Incrementum, Metonymy Abeles, Oren Garza, Patricia Nartey, Charisse Michelle Carvunis, Anne-Ruxandra In this essay, we demonstrate how rhetorical analyses of style can maintain their focus on linguistic patterns while simultaneously attending to material ones. Focusing on the trope of metonymy and the figures of incrementum and epistrophe, we show how these devices represent different modes of material-semiotic addressivity, resiliently turning and reconfiguring the rhetorical ecologies they capacitate. Using three case studies—a corpus of news articles about water quality amid extensive wind turbine development in Chatham-Kent, Ontario; traditional and “rogue” pain scales; and scientific literature about CRISPR—we explore the stylistic affordances of epistrophe, incrementum, and metonymy, showing how these “turnings” allow resilient material-semiotic articulations. We conclude by suggesting how our framework may be applied and extended to other topics and how this understanding of tropes and figures may align with other research trajectories in RSTM. 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1300 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1300 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3337/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3333 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z

Response to Jack, Singer, and Abeles Response to Jack, Singer, and Abeles Fahnestock, Jeanne 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1304 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1304 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3333/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3335 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z

The Recalcitrance and Resilience of Scientific Function The Recalcitrance and Resilience of Scientific Function Keeling, Diane Marie “Function” is a vitally important concept in the scientific community. Scientists use it to describe and address a wide variety of research problems. In publications, however, scientists within and across disciplines interpret function differently. For example, intense controversy surrounds what percentage of the human genome should be deemed "functional” rather than “junk DNA.” In this essay, we analyze the use of function in the research of de novo gene birth, a budding scientific field that studies how novel genes can emerge in non-genic sequences. Our research team, composed of a rhetorical scholar, philosopher, structural biologist and systems biologist, crafts a taxonomy of how “function” is variously constituted in de novo gene birth publications, including as expressions, capacities, interactions, physiological implications and evolutionary implications. We argue function is shaped by the diverse onto-epistemological perspectives of scientists and is both a recalcitrant and resilient concept of scientific practice. Informed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s writings on a scientific mode of thinking, functions are time-space scales of objects under investigation that make possible references to scientific measurements. 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1299 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1299 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3335/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3340 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z

The Resilience of Sensation in Urban Planning The Resilience of Sensation in Urban Planning Johnson, Meredith A. Johnson, Nathan R. This article examines how sensation and affect make different kinds of resilience meaningful to communities. Through a case study, we analyze public deliberation about a proposal to expand interstates in Tampa, Florida. We describe how evidence introduced by opposing sides foregrounded conflicting sensory experiences. The resulting sensoriums upheld different aspects of the city’s identity as worth maintaining. Drawing from recent scholarship defining resilience as something that can always be done otherwise, we suggest that resilience is better understood as entangled with public affect. We argue that a key point for rhetorical intervention in city planning is considering which futures and visions of resilience are being imagined for publics. 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1295 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1295 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3340/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3336 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z

We are No Longer Invisible We are No Longer Invisible Robvais, Raquel M. Sickle cell discourses are not merely descriptions of medical matters but contentious sites that invoke rhetorical arguments to support racialized medical borders, human difference, and ontological essentialism. In this essay, I examine in this essay is the way that those stricken by Sickle Cell Anemia appropriate the disease to advocate for their voice and visibility. I disclose how the construction of SCA as a black disease becomes a contested terrain which is often a “cultural centering on identity and dignity.” At odds is how the body is inscribed with a set of meanings in its association with blackness, the woeful ignorance that’s pervasive in the medical community of those who treat sickle cell patients and the indomitable will of the warrior to survive regardless. I consider the “warring ideals in one dark body,” urgings to be seen and heard. These manifest as performances of resistance, acts of resilience, and ways of asserting agency to maintain a semblance of humanity in the midst of situations that are anything but. 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1296 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1296 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3336/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3342 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z

Wild Cosmopolitanism, Wily Oscillations in Artificial Neighborhoods Wild Cosmopolitanism, Wily Oscillations in Artificial Neighborhoods Ackerman, John M. Harris, Randy 2020-01-07T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 15 1 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1294 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1294 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3342/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1

oai:poroi:id:3290 2019-02-27T03:00:00Z

Introduction to POROI 14.2 Introduction to POROI 14.2 Depew, David J. 2019-02-27T03:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article 14 2 The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) POROI 10.13008/2151-2957.1286 https://doi.org/10.13008/2151-2957.1286 https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/poroi/article/id/3290/ 2151-2957 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 1 metadataPrefix%3Doai_dc%26page%3D2