Selected recent presentations

“Understanding Recurrence: Contributions from Social Theory and Rhetorical Theory.” Rhetoric Society of America, Seattle, May 2008.

Photo: The Great Seattle Shoe Convergence. Sue Wells and Jan Swearingen (left and right) and Cathy Schryer and I (top and bottom) discover that we are wearing identical shoes. Sue, Cathy, and I were on the genre panel.

“The Art of Concealment: Rhetoric in Scientific and Technical Discourse.” Symposium on Rhetoric and Science, Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, 150th Anniversary. Oslo, November 2007. PPS file.

Photo: The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo.

“Blogging as Social Action: Genres and Genre Theory on the Internet.” Featured speaker, SIGET IV (International Symposium on the Study of Textual Genres), Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Tubarão, Brazil, August 2007.

Photo: Dinner at end of the conference with Beatriz and Acir Karwoski on the left and Judith Hoffnagel, Paul Prior, and Chuck Bazerman on the right.

“Questions for Genre Theory from the Blogosphere.” Featured speaker, Rhetorics and Technologies, the 20th Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition, University Park, PA, July 2007.

Guest faculty in Rhetoric, NCA Doctoral Honors Seminar, University of Colorado at Boulder, July 2007.

Photo: Dinner with the Rhetoric Seminar in Boulder, with faculty Jerry Hauser (fourth from left) and Robbie Cox (far right). Sorry, I don't remember the names of all the wonderful doctoral students.

“Emerging Genres.” Guest faculty for one day of five-day seminar on Rhetoric, Culture, and Technology, Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, June 2007. 

Photo: Nan Johnson, Pat Bizzell, and Sue Wells on Hudson River cruise (not the best picture but what great subjects!).

"What Can Automation Tell Us about Agency?" Rhetoric Society of America, Memphis, TN, May 2006.

Photo: At the RSA conference luncheon with Scot Barnett and Carl Herndl.

“Novelty, Decorum, and the Commodification of Invention in the Renaissance.” Con/texts of Invention: Creative Production in Legal and Cultural Perspective, sponsored by the Society for Critical Exchange, Case Western Reserve University, April 2006.

Photo: The Invention Restaurant in Milan, OH, the town where Thomas Edison was a boy. The conference participants toured the Edison House museum in Milan before having a wonderful dinner at the Culinary Vegetable Institute nearby.

“Nonthermal Bioeffects of Electromagnetic Fields: A Case Study of Scientific Controversy.” 5th International Workshop of the International Commission on Electromagnetic Safety, Benevento, Italy, February 2006. 

PDF of PPT presentation.
Photo: On the trip from Rome to Benevento, participants were treated to a trip to Montepulciano, where we had a wine tasting sponsored by the Comune of Montepulciano and a presentation by the Mayor of space for a laboratory facility.

“’Dual-Use Technology’: Metaphor and Manicheanism in National Security.” National Communication Association, Boston, November 2005.

“Rhetorical Evolution: The Ancestral Genres of the Weblog.” National Communication Association, Chicago, November 2004.

Photo: Panelists for "The First Thirty Years: Reflections on the Work of S. Michael Halloran, Past, Present, and Future," also at the 2004 NCA, included (from top left) Jerry Blitefield, Greg Clark, Jerry Hauser, Liz Wright, Dale Sullivan, Mike Jackson, (seated) Randy Harris, me, Michael Halloran, and Steve Katz.

"The Ubiquity of the Blog: A Genre Analysis." Association of Internet Researchers, University of Sussex, UK, September 2004.

PDF of PPT presentation.
Photo: Sign in a car park at the University of Sussex.

Photo: Dinner in Austin with Christine Lapham, Virginia Martin, Steve Katz, Cheryl Geisler, and other RPI students, faculty, and alums.

“Expertise and Agency: Transformations of Ethos in Human-Computer Interaction” (invited presentation). Carnegie Mellon University, Department of English, April 2004. 

PDF of PPT presentation.

Invited workshop participant, “The Role of Rhetoric in the Academy and Beyond.” Alliance of Rhetoric Societies Conference, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, September 2003.

“Novelty and Heresy in the Debate on Nonthermal Effects of Electromagnetic Fields” (invited paper). Inventio: Rereading the Rhetorical Tradition Conference.  University of Waterloo, Ontario, August 2003. 

“Trusting the Experts: The Case of Risk Communication.”  International Society for the History of Rhetoric, Madrid and Calahorra, Spain, July 2003. 

Photo: Marie Secor listens to my paper in Calahorra. More photos of the trip to Spain are on the Etcetera page linked above.

“Incommensurable” Paradigms in the Debate on Nonthermal Effects of Electromagnetic Fields” (poster). Bioelectromagnetics Society, Maui, June 2003.

Photo: My first poster presentation for an audience of scientists. PDF of poster.

“Expertise and Agency: Transformations of Ethos in Human-Computer Interaction.”  Retirement symposium for S. Michael Halloran, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, May 2003. 

Photo: Panel discussion with Dale Sullivan, Randy Harris, Jerry Blitefield, and Greg Clark.

“Communication in the Workplace: A Collaborative Teacher-Student Research Project.”  Association of Teachers of Technical Writing Conference, New York, March 2003. 

PDF of PPT presentation. Or view complete report available on the web.

“Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media: Challenges in Interdisciplinary Program Design” (invited plenary paper).   Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, October 2002.  

Photo: On a group hike after the conference in Logan Canyon, elevation about 6000 feet.

“Novelty and Heresy in the Debate on Nonthermal Effects of Electromagnetic Fields.”  With Dale Sullivan.  Rhetoric Society of America, Las Vegas, May 2002.

Photo: Visit to Hoover Dam with Carl and Diane Price-Herndl after the conference.

“Permanence and Change:  Trust in the Context of Technical Communication Genres” (invited keynote paper).  Association of Teachers of Technical Writing Annual Conference.  Chicago, March 2002.

“What Is at Stake for Genre Studies in the Year 2001?”  (invited paper for plenary panel). Genre 2001: An International, Interdisciplinary Conference on Genres and Discourses in Education, Work, and Cultural Life, Oslo University College, Oslo, May 2001. 

Photo: Visiting Oslo's Vigeland Sculpture Park with Mike Carter, Chris Anson, Vicki and Pat Gallagher, Anne Freadman, Cindy Haller, and Carl Blackman (who took the picture).

“Ethos as Expertise Online.”  Rhetoric Society of America, Washington, DC, May 2000.

“Writing in a Culture of Simulation.”  Symposium on the Semiotics of Writing: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on the Technology of Writing.  International Center for Semiotic and Cognitive Studies, University of San Marino, November 1999.

Photo: Sightseeing in San Marino with David Barton, Carol Berkenkotter, and Tom Huckin. More photos of the trip to San Marino are on the Etcetera page linked above.

“Risk Analysis and Contemporary Theories of Pathos.”  National Communication Association, Chicago, November 1999.