The Blogora: The Rhetoric Society of America
Blogs

 

"Don't Poke Scalia!"


Submitted by Jim Aune on November 20, 2009 - 10:40am


My Ph.D. student Ryan Malphurs has an excellent co-authored article on Supreme Court oral argument here at The Jury Expert.

 

More on Levi-Strauss


Submitted by Jim Aune on November 19, 2009 - 6:50am


A nifty overview by the great Marshall Sahlins.

 

Habits of Highly Successful Scholars


Submitted by Jim Aune on November 18, 2009 - 8:07pm


I'm finally getting back to work on my Gastonia 1929 project (which I've been working on now for over 20 years), and I yet again notice that my notetaking habits are a mess. For books, I take notes on the inside cover/blank pages, for articles or books I don't own usually in a dedicated notebook for the topic or else I type them up. I've never been able to make notecards work for me. Once upon a time, we used to teach courses on research and writing as an introduction to graduate school, but I don't think such things exist any more.

 

Non-Communication Association


Submitted by Jim Aune on November 16, 2009 - 7:10pm


Once again, our public relations bites. . . .

 

Clause-Bound Constitutional Jurisprudence


Submitted by Jim Aune on November 16, 2009 - 2:19pm


The non-Establishment principle trumps student free speech. And I am puzzled, but I haven't read the briefs yet. I can't help but think that a valedictorian's message is not the school district speaking, and that, yet again, we don't really understand how to make the First Amendment *mean* rhetorically in the absence of lawyerly clause-bound readings:

 

The Hot News from NCA


Submitted by Jim Aune on November 13, 2009 - 6:48pm


A discussion of PowerPoint?

 

Armistice Day


Submitted by Jim Aune on November 11, 2009 - 12:10pm


November 11 seems to be the last irony-free zone in America and, perhaps, that's a good thing, but I do agree with Matt Yglesias's post today: " I sort of wish we called our November 11 observance Armistice Day like they do in other countries. Something that I think is missing from American political culture is the thing that in Europe is taken to be the lesson of World War One, namely that a war can be bad for reasons other than it being lost. France and Britain were ultimately victorious in the war, but it was ruinous nonetheless.

 

Brandeis, Still Right After All These Years


Submitted by Jim Aune on November 9, 2009 - 11:10am


Once again, the remedy for bad speech is . . . more speech.

 

Inglourious Basterds


Submitted by Jim Aune on November 9, 2009 - 10:55am


I confess to being a Quentin Tarantino fan, but, not having any conceptual vocabulary for analyzing movies, I've never understood why. I think Inglourious Basterds is his masterpiece (although unlike, say, Reservoir Dogs or Kill Bill 2, I'm unlikely to want to see it again soon). I found myself speculating, as I often do, about counterfactual arguments and historical causation as Miriam and I left the theater.

 

CFP: "Open Source Culture and Aesthetics"


Submitted by Jim Brown on November 8, 2009 - 8:55pm


A new CFP from Criticism via Jeff Pruchnic:

SPECIAL ISSUE: "Open Source Culture and Aesthetics"