Today’s Plan:
- Syllabus Check-In
- Project 3 Schedule
- Time Permitting: ENG 492 Rhetoric and Technology / On Writing, Thinking, and Artificial Intelligence
Syllabus Check-In
Significant Things as the year draws to a close:
- Final “Exam”: The final paper for this class will be a slightly extended Write-Up. In it, you will offer a definition of rhetoric. We will share these papers on our final exam day.
- One last note, to earn an A for the course does require a bit of extra work:
- Share one or two extra write-ups with the class
- Read an additional book on contemporary rhetorical theory and write up an academic book review. I will have a list of books by week 2. Book reviews will be due week 12. You will design a class presentation and activity for week 13, 14, or 15 (note: these can be collaborative team projects).
Given how tight our calendar is the rest of the way, I want to propose a modification here. There will still be a final “exam” day, in preparation for which you will respond to a prompt that I provide.
If you want to earn an “A” for the class, then you will have to incorporate an additional book into that response. [Note that some of the following books are long; I only expect you to read about 120 pages–so the Introduction and 2-3 body chapters based on length]. Here is a list of potential books:
- Jennifer Mercieca, Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump
- Ryan Skinnel (ed), Faking the News: What Rhetoric Can Teach Us About Donald J. Trump
- Alphonso Lingis, The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common
- Ersula J. Ore, Lynching
- Paulo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
- Jenny Rice, Awful Archives: Conspiracy Theory, Rhetoric, and Acts of Evidence
- Bill Readings, University in Ruins [philosophy of difference, postmodern approaches to learning–focus on intro, and pages 150-193]
- Hannah Arendt, any book (I have read Origins of Totalitarianism, and am working my through The Human Condition this month. The Banality of Evil is on top of my reading list.
- Lyndsey Stonebridge, We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience
If you would like to read another book on demagoguery, race, feminism/queer theory, human difference and ethics, or “politics” (in the sense that Arendt/Cavarero offer) that *isn’t* on this list, email me and include a link to the work (Amazon links are fine).
Note that you still qualify for an A- even if you do not complete this extra reading (and provided you have completed all other assignments).
To clarify, the workload for the rest of the year is:
- Read the Cavarero and complete two write-ups on her book (see schedule below)
- Participate in the Cavarero Surging Democracy project
- Complete the Cavarero reflection (shorter but similar to the Race and Rhetoric reflection
- Complete the final Write Up for exam week; those wanting an A will discuss their extra book in this write-up
- Complete the self-assessment form
Project 3: Surging Democracy
From the syllabus:
Staging a Rhetorical Carnival: In the spring, our class will host a “horizontal, nonviolent, creative, participatory” event on campus. I have tentatively named this event a “rhetorical carnival.” The class will have an opportunity to rename it. I want it to feel like a county fair, with various “horizontal, nonviolent, creative, and participatory” events designed and ran by my “carnies.” You are my carnies. I have no idea what a “horizontal, nonviolent, creative, and participatory” event is. Well, I have a few ideas that my grad class brainstormed last year when I first read of this book and designed this project. But I probably won’t share them with you. Your goal as a class will be to design and stage this event, and then write a paper reflecting on the process and product.
Here’s a bit more articulate description.
Schedule
- Tuesday, March 19th: That’s today! Project 3, Cavarero Preface,
- Thursday, March 21st: No class, reading assignment is to read Cavarero 1-56
- Tuesday, March 26th: Discuss Cavarero 1-56 (brainstorm Write-Up topics); Homework: Cavarero Write Up #1
- Thursday, March 28th: Share Write Up #1; Homework: Read Cavarero 57-86
- Tuesday, April 2nd: Pitch potential “Carnival” ideas. Rename the “Carnival.” Homework: Cavarero Write Up #2
- Thursday, April 4th: Share Cavarero Write-Up #2
- Tuesday, April 9th: Final Write-Up Prompt and discussion: What is Rhetoric?
- Thursday, April 11th: Revisit “carnival” ideas – “A” folks tell us what they are reading
- Tuesday, April 16th: Event Planning
- Thursday, April 18th: Event Planning
- Tuesday, April, 23rd: Event Rehearsal
- Thursday, April 25th: EVENT DAY
- Exam Week: Final Write-Up Share
Let’s turn to Cavarero’s “preface.”
ENG 429 Rhetoric and Technology
Advising season is upon us. I will be teaching ENG 429 Rhetoric and Technology in the fall of 2024. ENG 429 will be a special topics seminar; for its inaugural run I will be teaching a course on rhetoric and AI. There will be 3 major projects one, each dedicated to exploring the affordances and limitations of AI writing technologies.
- Project One: Based on an article by Scott Graham, we will all try to write a paper using ONLY AI generators. You are not allowed to write or edit any of the AI output.
- Project Two: Based on an article by Doug Eyman, we will compare how 6 different AI generators summarize an academic work (which will likely be a foundational piece of techno-philosophy, something like Benamin’s “Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” or Heidegger’s “The Question Concerning Technology” or something similar. We will spend a week or so carefully reading and discussing the essay ourselves before turning to AI. You will write a report that compares/evaluates/critiques the AI performance.
- Project Three: This is a project of my own design, based on somewhat recent (2004-2014) rhetorical work on “glitching” technology as a form of resistance. You will design a project / work / performance that attempts to “glitch” an AI generator.
Like ENG 319, this course will employ write-ups and use a hybrid self-assessment approach to grading.
Note: I will be able to provide access to several different AI Generators for project 2. The final project will require you pay for one month’s access to Chat GPT4, which currently costs $10. That should be the course’s only material cost, all other readings will be supplied as .pdfs.
Time-permitting: I spent break working on a conference paper that bridges the work we’ve done in 319 and some of the theoretical under-pinnings of ENG 429.
