Call for Proposals
“Americas”
special issue of the Journal for the History of Rhetoric

Guest Editor: Christa Olson
Questions to: christa.olson@wisc.edu

Over the last five years, rhetorical studies has seen a burst of critical scholarship on American rhetorical historiography. Work forwarding African American, Latinx, Latin American, Asian/American and Indigenous rhetorical histories has made clear, as Lisa Flores argues, that matters of race [and Indigeneity] must be at the center of rhetorical criticism, even when its focus is not explicitly racial. This CFP takes up that call within rhetorical history and historiography, aiming toward a reconsideration of American rhetoric that stretches across national boundaries and is thoroughly informed by insights of indigeneity and racial rhetorical criticism.

In January 2021, the Journal for the History of Rhetoric (formerly Advances in the History of Rhetoric) will feature a special issue on the theme “Americas.” The guest editor invites submission of abstracts tracing histories of communication, resistance, writing, community, and/or ritual—“rhetoric” understood expansively—from the Arctic circle to las Malvinas, from Tahuantinsuyo to the Mississippi Delta and Standing Rock. The special issue will feature articles that pursue what Arturo Escobar terms “worlds and knowledges otherwise.” It aims, in other words, to shift the available paradigms for knowledge production and practice within rhetorical historiography. Beyond offering alternative storylines or restoring missing figures, this special issue asks: what are the parameters, landmarks, and pathways of an American rhetorical history otherwise?

The “Americas” special issue insists that America is not always synonymous with the United States of America. It assumes that there are many ways of being, experiencing, and acting from “America.” In that spirit, submissions may include (but are not limited to) articles addressing:

  • Indigenous/First Nations survivance, story, and/or rhetorical sovereignty from any time
  • Racial rhetorical criticism (Flores) directed toward the history and practice of “America”
  • Transnational, trans-American, transfronterizo, and/or hemispheric histories
  • The implications of a particular site, event, person, or entity for rhetorical history
  • Decolonial, anti-racist, and/or queer/trans* methods for doing rhetorical historiography in the Americas
  • Public memory and memory sites
  • Histories of rhetorical education in the Americas or in a particular American nation-state.
  • Studies of migration, immigration, movement, and return

Submission Guidelines

Authors/Co-Authors should submit a 500-word abstract with the following items:

  • Submitters’ names and contact emails
  • Title of the proposed article
  • Topic/focus of the proposed article
  • Approach or method the proposed article will engage§ Exigency for the proposed topic/focus§ Intended contribution to creating and/or contesting American rhetorical histories otherwise

Deadline: Abstracts must be submitted to christa.olson@wisc.edu by 8 July 2019.

Potential submitters wanting feedback on an idea or draft should contact Christa by 10 June 2019. Authors will be notified of the status of their proposal by 1 September 2019.

Complete drafts of accepted articles will be due for initial review by 6 January 2020

Works Cited

Escobar, Arturo. “Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise.” Cultural Studies 21.2-3 (2007):179-210.

Flores, Lisa A. “Between abundance and marginalization: The imperative of racial rhetorical criticism.”Review of Communication 16.1 (2016): 4-24