ASHR 2026

Rhetorical History’s Past, Present, and Future

The American Society for the History of Rhetoric (ASHR), in collaboration with the International Society for the History of Rhetoric (ISHR), is pleased to share the full program for its 2026 Symposium, which will take place May 21-22, 2026, just prior to the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) Biennial Conference in Portland, Oregon.

Please register for the symposium here.

For more information about and full abstracts for the paper presentations in each panel session, please click on the panel title.

Thursday, May 21

Location: Pavilion East, Portland Hilton

8:00-9:00am — Coffee & Conversation

9:00-9:15am — Welcome & Orientation

9:15-10:30am — Panel 1: On History, Memory, and Methods

Robert Elliot Mills (Colgate University), “Anachronism as Rhetorical Method”
Amy Vidali (University of California, Santa Cruz), “Writing to Forget: Rhetorical Memory, Trauma, and Disability”
Jeremy Cox (University of Texas at Permian Basin), “Deep Time and the Elaboration of History: Rhetoric, Myth, and the Imaginal of the Past”
Dev Kumar Bose (University of California, Santa Cruz), “Defect and Reflection: Disability Rhetoric and the Nyāya Tradition in Rhetorical History”

Chair: Allyson Gross (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

10:30-10:45am — Break

10:45am-12:00pm — Panel 2: Rereading Rhetorical History + History of Rhetoric

Lisa Arnold (North Dakota State University) and Mafruha Shifat (Ohio State University), “Taste, Imagination, and the ‘Improvement of Thought’: Enlightenment Rhetoric and the Emergence of Cognitive Theory”
Kristen Einertson (University of St. Thomas), “The Baltic Question on the Airwaves: Rhetorics of U.S. International Broadcasting”
Miriam Fernandez (California State University San Bernardino), “Ghosts of Rhetorics Past: Recovering Malintzin as Rhetorician”
Genevieve Gordon (Penn State University), “Rhetoric’s Invisible Core: Looking Toward Youth and Youthfulness in the History of Rhetoric”

Chair: Ben Crosby (Brigham Young University)

12:00-1:15pm — Lunch Break (On Your Own)

1:30-2:45pm — Panel 3: Genres Neglected and New

Estée Crenshaw (Utah Valley University), “Beginnings of Japanese Rhetoric: The Panegyric Poetry of Hitomaro”
Andrew Mauzey (Biola University), “Monastic Rhetoric and Quiet Arts of Persuasion”
Gabriela Vlahovici-Jones (University of Maryland Eastern Shore), “A Rhetoric of History on Coins of the Ancient Roman Republic”
Katie O’Malley Perrin (University of Maryland), “Remembering Roosevelt, Remembering Species: Rhetoric’s Sensorium and Conservation History”

Chair: Wallace Golding (Texas State University)

2:45-3:00pm — Break

3:00-4:30pm — ASHR Research Roundtables

Topics include:

Historical Approaches to Political and Social Movements (José G. Izaguirre, University of Colorado, Boulder)
Public History and Public Memory (Ariel Seay-Howard, North Carolina State University)
Building Sustainable Writing Practices for Summer 2026 and Beyond (Wallace Golding, Texas State University, and Allyson Gross, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Archival Tips and Tricks (Derek Handley, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Allison Prasch, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

5:00-6:30pm — ASHR / ISHR Reception (Offsite)

Friday, May 22