First Friday Forum
Friday, May 1, 2026
12:00-1:00pm CT
Join via Zoom here
Prof. Allyson Gross, University of Wisconsin—Madison
Prof. Wallace S. Golding, Texas State University
Prof. Casey Kelly, University of Nebraska—Lincoln
Summer is often imagined as a season when long-postponed projects will finally take shape. Yet in practice, summer rarely unfolds this way. Research competes with travel, family life, administrative tasks, and the need for rest. This forum invites a different approach. Rather than treating summer as a compressed period of maximal productivity, we will explore how to build a sustainable writing practice that accounts for the realities of our lives. Our conversation will specifically think about questions of writing scale, rhythms, and expectations: what do summer writing practices look like across different stages of academic life? How can we establish habits that endure beyond a single season? How do we set writing goals that are both ambitious and genuinely realistic? Participants are encouraged to come ready to reflect on their own constraints and commitments, and to leave with a clearer sense of what a sustainable summer of writing might look like in their particular context.
About the ASHR First Friday Forum Series: Inspired by the classical conception of the forum as an intellectual gathering place, ASHR’s “First Friday Forum” series promotes educational programming, professional development, and an inclusive, collaborative virtual community. It is our hope that this virtual space will foster dynamic, cross-disciplinary scholarly engagement for those interested in reexamining and reimagining the various histories of rhetoric across all periods, languages, cultures, and modes of performance. The Spring 2026 “First Friday Forum” series will focus on key questions related to the research and teaching of the history of rhetoric / rhetorical history. These virtual gatherings will take place on February 6, March 6, April 3, and May 1, 2026 from 12:00-1:00pm Central Time via Zoom:
Please direct any questions to ASHR Special Programs Coordinator Dr. Kristen Einertson (eine4053@stthomas.edu).