The focus of this paper is on the ways contemporary rhetorical scholarship has responded to challenges and failures in communication in higher education classrooms. It takes as its site of analysis two foundational disciplinary concepts: rhetorical listening and the dialogic writing classroom. Rhetorical listening aligns well with dialogic pedagogy within the college classroom as it emphasizes scrutiny and articulation of one’s assumptions and positionings prior to coming into a discussion across difference, and it aims to teach students how to be open and willing to learn from a variety of positionings that may compete and conflict with one another. In such a classroom, students learn to listen to and engage with ideological, cultural, and political difference, thereby countering the intense polarization they may experience elsewhere (Alexander, 2008; Skidmore and Murakami, 2016; Kim 2024). In this presentation, I will discuss how professors and students collaboratively can analyze how power dynamics--as well as presumed and actual differences in histories, cultural logics, ideological assumptions, and value systems--shape not only the claims we make, but also the claims we are willing and able to hear. I argue that this analytical, self-reflective process can help participants learn to not move too quickly to dismissal of an oppositional point of view. I further suggest rhetorical theories and practices for the 21st century that address the realities of ideological and discursive polarization as well as the impact of increased authoritarianism on public discourses within and outside of higher education today.

Authors:
Daphne Desser, University of Hawaii at Manoa, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Daphne Desser is a University Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at University of Hawaii at Manoa in United States

See this presentation on the full schedule – Thursday Schedule

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