The rhetoric students in the English and Communication departments at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is excited to revise and develop our Rhetoric Society of America graduate student chapter. We held out first meeting in the spring of 2020 and elected Gitte Frandsen (English) and Kristin Wagel (Communication) as our co-chairs to lead us in our mission to advance rhetoric, the study of rhetoric, and the practice of rhetorical scholarship and provide fertile ground for discussion and support among students of rhetoric. Our chapter almost immediate ran into obstacles as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, Gitte and Kristin utilized the summer to begin planning for the virtual year ahead. In the fall semester, we held our first event “The Community Work of Rhetoric.” This event consisted of a faculty-led roundtable including Communication scholars Dr. Leslie Harris, Dr. Kathryn Olson, Dr. Sara VanderHaagen and Rhetoric and Composition Scholars Dr. Rachel Bloom-Pojar, Dr. Derek Handley, and Dr. Maria Novotny, and a Q&A session.
This spring we continue our focus on community engagement by conducting an asynchronous event where UWM alumni discuss and reflect on how they are engaging with community during the present moment.
This semester we also created a Twitter account- give us a follow! (@UWMilwaukeeRSA). We are excited that a few of our chapter members and rhetoric students from the English and Communication departments are participating in UW-Madison’s graduate student virtual symposium “Public Memory/Present Tensions” that will take place Thursday April 15th and Friday April 16th and feature keynote speakers Dr. Dave Tell and UWM’s own Dr. Derek Handley.
Our chapter has been busy since our inception over a year ago but are proud of what we have accomplished thus far and are looking forward to continuing to grow and develop!
Rhetoric Society of America 