Podcast appearances and mentions of diane davis

Sunday, December 31, 2023"What We've Been Waiting For" - Tyler TankersleySermon based on Luke 2:22-40(reading by Diane Davis)

Welcome to the 23rd episode of the Cade & Friends podcast! Our guest this week is Diane Davis. In this episode — Diane, Alex, and Cade talk about Diane's fantastic life stories, waking up as English actor Benedict Cumberbatch, and celebrity encounters. Releasing every other Wednesday, this podcast features Cade Thomas interviewing some of his closest friends as they talk about their friendship and have some comedic segments in between. Help the channel and get a bonus podcast segment with the guest every time an episode comes out by becoming a patron at: https://www.patreon.com/CadeThomas. All the music used in this podcast was created by Chrim.

Diane Davis, Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning and Urbanism recently co-organized a two-day conference on water with Gabriela Soto Laveaga, Professor of the History of Science and Antonio Madero Professor for the Study of Mexico in Harvard's History of Science Department. The two—co-chairs of the Faculty Committee on Mexico at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies—brought together an unusual group of experts—from historians to hydrologists to border analysts and architects—to think about think about the challenges for water in Mexico and beyond in the context of climate change.

Today my guest is Diane Davis from Red Lion who introduces us to their new N-Tron NT5000 line of Managed Gigabit Switches in Episode 144 of The Automation Podcast. For more information, check out the "Show Notes" located below the video. Watch the Podcast:  Listen via Apple, Google, Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, YouTube, Rumble, Amazon Music, Podcast Index, Deezer, RSS, or below: The Automation Podcast, Episode 144 Show Notes: Special thanks to Diane Davis from Red Lion for coming on the show! To learn more about the NT5000 Managed Gigabit Switches, check out the below links: NT5000 How-To Videos NT5000 Home Page You can now support our work and join our community at Automation.Locals.com! Thanks in advance for your support! Vendors: Would you like your product featured on the Podcast, Show or Blog? If you would, please contact me at: https://theautomationblog.com/contact Until next time, Peace ✌️  Shawn M TierneyTechnology Enthusiast & Content Creator Have a question? Join my community of automation professionals and take part in the discussion! You'll also find my PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com. (97 views)

Listen in as Complicity playwright Diane Davis, along with director Illana Stein, discuss finding a different way to approach a well-known story, the illusion of power, the timeliness of this play about history, holding each other accountable, “heart and humanity,” … Continue reading →

Episode 40 is all about healing from domestic violence, featuring Diane Davis, aka the Motivation Queen of Stay Motivated. Listen now! *Trigger warning: This episode discusses acts of domestic violence/violence against women. Listener discretion is advised.* October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

On the latest episode of Whisper in the Wings, we sat down with playwright Diane Davis to discuss her powerful, timely, and needed new work Complicity which is playing this fall at the New Ohio Theatre. We talked about the important story line and message of the show, as well as Diane's love and experience in the theatre! Do not miss this fabulous show!Complicity@ The New Ohio TheatreSeptember 30th-October 15thTickets and more information can be found at:edentheater.org or at newohiotheatre.orgAnd feel free to reach out to Diane by visiting edentheater.org and sending them a message or a much needed and appreciated donation!

Welcome to the ninth episode of the Cade & Friends podcast! Our guest this week is Diane Davis. In this episode — Diane, Jennifer, and Cade talk about Diane's fantastic life stories, the crimes of Cap'n Crunch, and the truth about Bigfoot. Releasing every other Wednesday, this podcast features Cade Thomas interviewing some of his closest friends as they talk about their friendship and have some comedic segments in between. Help the channel and get a bonus podcast segment with the guest every time an episode comes out by becoming a patron at: https://www.patreon.com/CadeThomas. All the music used in this podcast was created by Chrim.

In this episode we talk with Diane Davis, who is the leader of "GriefShare" here are Crosspoint. Diane shares so openly about her life, how she came to Texas and about her journey of grief after losing her husband, Eddie. We know that we never find freedom from grief and GriefShare is tool to walk through the one most dark and difficult times in our lives. Diane likes to say: "You will continue to grieve, but how can you help someone else?" She also shares about Proverbs 3:5 and her trust in God. GriefShare is global! If you can't come to Crosspoint check out the link below to find a group near you. If you would like more about when and where we meet, you can email: info@crosspointchuch.tv https://www.griefshare.org/ Music by Drew McWilliams! Logo by Abby Perozo crosspointchurch.tv

We all have theater kid energy! Broadway News: Starting this season, Tony Awards voters must complete unconscious bias training in order to vote in any categories. The news, sent to voters last Friday, requires members to take a free, online training session led by inclusion strategist Vernā Myers. The course is meant to teach viewers how to identify unconscious or implicit bias in their own decision-making processes and how to correct it, according to the course description.  Producers Stephen Byrd and Alia Jones-Harvey announced that a new musical stage adaptation of Black Orpheus, featuring a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, original music by Grammy Award winner and Brazilian icon Sergio Mendes, and direction and choreography by Tony Award winner Sergio Trujillo, is being readied for its world premiere production on Broadway during the 2022-2023 season. A developmental workshop and an out-of-town regional theatre run are being planned for 2022 before heading to Broadway in 2023. James Snyder, who has been playing the role of Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child since a new, shorter version of the production reopened on Broadway on November 12, 2021, has had his contract terminated. The termination follows a complaint from fellow cast member Diane Davis, who has since also left the production by her own accord, regarding his conduct. The Broadway revival of Ntozake Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, directed and choreographed by Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown will begin performances on Friday, April 1, 2022 at the Booth Theatre. The fully reimagined production will open on Wednesday, April 20, 2022.  Casting: Dennis Stowe steps into the role of Jafar in the Broadway production of Aladdin beginning this week at the New Amsterdam Theatre. He succeeds fellow original cast member Jonathan Freeman, who created the role on Broadway after voicing the part in the 1992 animated film. Freeman played his final performance on January 23. NaTasha Yvette Williams will succeed Dawnn Lewis as Zelma, Tina Turner's mother, in Broadway's Tina: The Tina Turner Musical beginning February 4. Lewis is scheduled to play her final performance on January 30. Williams was last seen on Broadway in Chicken and Biscuits and has been a long-time Matron "Mama" Morton in Chicago. She starred as Becky during the original run of Waitress, and also appeared on Broadway in A Night With Janis Joplin, Porgy and Bess, and The Color Purple. Follow @BwayPodNetwork on Twitter. Find co-hosts on Twitter at @AyannaPrescod, @CLewisReviews, and @TheMartinAcuna. Subscribe To BPN's newsletter HERE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moulin Rouge sweeps the 2020 Tony Awards. Broadway News: In partnership with the YMCA of Greater New York, Thoughts of a Colored Man hosted a Youth and Community event at the Castle Hill YMCA in the Bronx and the North Brooklyn YMCA where there was a Mobile Barbershop ready to treat community members to free haircuts. Community members were also treated to a BBQ food truck, merchandise from the play, and free tickets to see Thoughts of a Colored Man on Broadway. Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play will return to Broadway, beginning preview performances at the August Wilson Theatre on November 23. The return engagement will officially open on December 2 and performances are currently scheduled through January 23, 2022. It originally played Broadway's John Golden Theatre in the 2019–2020 season, closing two months before the COVID-19 shutdown. The August Wilson is currently home to Pass Over, making Slave Play the second play written by a Black playwright to be produced there. Due to a back injury sustained by Ruben Santiago Hudson, performances of his solo show Lackawanna Blues pushed back opening night to October 7th. The Charles Fuller Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Soldier's Play is being adapted into a limited TV series. TONY Award winner David Alan Grier will star in and executive produce the project, which is currently titled A Soldier's Story, which was the title of the 1984 film adaptation.  Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of André Bishop) has announced that it will produce Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH  this spring at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street). The production, which will coincide with the 125th anniversary of Mr. Wilder's birth, and which will mark the Beaumont and Broadway debuts of LCT Resident Director Lileana Blain-Cruz, will begin previews Thursday, March 31 and open on Monday, April 25. Casting News: Casting is set for the return of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. James Synder will continue playing Harry Potter alongside Diane Davis as Ginny Potter, Jenny Jules as Hermione Granger, and Nadia Brown as Rose Granger-Weasley. Joining them are David Aba-liss as Ron Weasley, James Romney as Albus Potter, Aaron Bartz as Draco Malfoy, and Brady Dalton Richards as Scorpius Malfoy. As previously announced the play has been condensed into one part. Jennifer Nettles will return to Broadway in the return engagement of Waitress. The Grammy winner will take on the role of Jenna, succeeding Sara Bareilles beginning October 19 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. As previously announced, fellow Grammy winner who also composed the musical, will take her final bow October 17. The Broadway revival of Caroline, or Change has confirmed the remainder of its cast, including Caissie Levy as Rose Stopnick Gellman, John Carini as Stuart Gellman, and Samantha Williams as Emmie Thibodeaux, who were all originally announced as a part of the production. The musical, starring Olivier winner Sharon D. Clarke, begins previews October 8 at Studio 54 ahead of an October 27 opening night. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Diane Davis was working as a schoolteacher at Gander Academy on 11 September 2001 in Gander Newfoundland when news of the hijackings broke. By the end of the day 38 planes had been forced to land at Gander Airport with 7000 passengers needing food and accommodation. The story of the hospitality of the Newfoundland community has been turned into the musical, Come From Away.

Laura Tingle on the latest from Canberra, Chinese entrepreneur and author Desmond Shum on doing business in China and school teacher Diane Davis on a how her tiny Canadian town became a 9/11 musical

On September 11, 2001, at 9:26 a.m. the FAA shut down its airspace. More than 4,000 planes were forced to land. Flights coming from Europe were grounded in Canada. And so 38 planes containing 6,579 passengers and crew members, 11 dogs, nine cats and two endangered apes were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland. This small town on an island at the edge of Atlantic (population: 9,651) with a giant heart quickly sprung into action. Suddenly over the course of five days, Gander's population exploded. Community buildings were transformed into shelters. The town called on its citizens for help for anything they could do. And they delivered! Diane Davis was one of the incredible teachers responsible for managing the influx of passengers. Gander at the time, provided food, shelter and helped anyone who was stranded to get what they needed. She also inspired one of the main characters in the extraordinary musical Come From Away. Diane talks to us about the thousands of people deplaned in Gander and how they made extraordinary connections with the community who shared their hospitality, and taught the world about our capacity to give during times of crisis. Episode Sponsor: Onderbroeks Luxury Robes and Loungewear Ethically sourced fabrics, handmade in Ontario, get 15% off with code: AFTER30 at onderbroeks.ca --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-after-30-podcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-after-30-podcast/support

Avital Ronell (b. 1952) is the Jacques Derrida Chair and professor of philosophy at The European Graduate School / EGS, as well as University Professor of the Humanities and Professor of German, Comparative Literature, and English at New York University. Her research and theoretical contributions extend across the fields of literary studies, philosophy, feminist theory, technology and media, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, ethics, and performance art. Among Avital Ronell’s significant works are: Dictations: On Haunted Writing (1986), Crack Wars: Literature, Addiction, Mania (1992), Stupidity (2001), The Test Drive (2005), The ÜberReader: Selected Works of Avital Ronell (ed. Diane Davis, 2007), Fighting Theory (with Anne Dufourmantelle, trans. Catherine Porter, 2010), Schriften zur Literatur: Essays von Goethe bis Kafka (trans. Marc Blankenburg, 2012), and Loser Sons: Politics and Authority (2012). Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PARCMEDIA Follow Us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vince_EmanueleFollow Us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1713FranklinSt/Follow Us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parcmedia/?... #PARCMedia is a news and media project founded by two USMC veterans, Sergio Kochergin & Vince Emanuele. They give a working-class take on issues surrounding politics, ecology, community organizing, war, culture, and philosophy.

When COVID-19 first hit, listener Diane Davis thought she'd be able to handle it—despite the fact that she's been managing a diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder for over two decades. "I know what it is to be really afraid of contamination and I thought I was going to be okay," she told me when I called her recently. "And then it sort of came out of nowhere and just knocked me sideways again."  In my recent phone conversation with Diane, she walks me through her keeping pandemic anxieties in perspective and how she avoids passing them on to her young children. Then, author John Green remembers John Prine and discusses finding new ways to cope with his OCD when the old ones fail—including walks in the woods (see above), and daily baths.  I first spoke with John Green on the show in 2018. Listen to that conversation here, and be sure to check out this excellent video he made a few weeks ago to help us all take a virtual walk in the woods while we're self-isolating.          

General Summary: Professor Diane Davis talks about her article entitled “Creaturely Rhetoric,” which details animal rhetoric and her efforts to bridge the gap between human and animal, as well as afterthoughts she had after the article had been published. Two students pick her brain on it and her research as a whole, delving further into the mind of an experienced rhetorician that manages several important departments at the University of Texas at Austin while still making time to love and understand her dogs. Detailed Summary: Davis' study of creaturely rhetoric and her answer to whether or not it's harmful to define it (1:10 to 6:55). Davis' response to anthropomorphism and whether we should use it as a lens for studying rhetoric (8:00 to 14:00). Davis gets philosophical as she talks about the "Great Chain of Being," of it existing vertically, and of our (humanity's) place in it (14:30 to 18:40). Davis defines human exceptionalism and what it means in the hierarchical structure of the animal kingdom (18:50 to 20:40). To save animals from humanity's need to understand everything, Davis explains why we shouldn't give them a voice and how ethics/morals tie in to that notion (21:40 to 26:10). Davis defends dogs everywhere and clarifies if an emotional support animal can be a rhetor (27:30 to 33:10). Lastly, Davis considers if all animals can be emotionally supportive or not (33:25 to 35:05). Closing remarks (35:10 to 36:20). Credits (36:25 to End). Scholarly Article Informing this Production: Davis, Diane. “Creaturely Rhetorics.” Philosophy and Rhetoric 44.1 (2011): 88-94. Credits: This podcast was produced by Brandy Corona, with resources and assistance provided by the Digital Writing and Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. It features the voices of Diane Davis, John García, and Christine Carranza. Music featured in this podcast, titled “commonGround,” was created by airtone and has been repurposed here under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License 3.0. Additionally, conversation.wav was adapted and incorporated under the Creative Commons 1.0 License.

Welcome to Faster Masters with Marlene Royle and Rebecca Caroe. Our sponsors this month https://rowing.chat/sponsors/ Rowing Related - independent journalism by Bryan Kitch with a subscription discount. Gloves to prevent winter blisters and hand salves for water environments to protect and heal your hands. In the subscription training program for November are: two separate rowing and land training plans for those doing head races this month and separately for those transitioning to winter training. We've got a technique focus on power drills. The performance module features and article about the future of rowing data and Part 1 of the Elements of Endurance - factors affecting endurance training. In rowing lifestyle, Marlene talks about thoracic outlet syndrome a common nerve compression injury of the neck and how to take preventative or corrective measures. Timestamps to the show 5:00 Questions and Answers - this podcast's listeners sent us their questions. Emily Erbelding asked about the Taper period in intensity and whether it differs for sprint versus head racing. 08.20 Sebastian Kazmierczak asks whether tapering is for a couple of days or a week at the Masters level and what physiological signs there are for an optimal taper. 12:40 Jeff Murray wants to know the fastest way to negotiate a narrow hard 90 degree turn in a quad during a head race. 18:26 Tom Erickson asks is there a preferred technique for a fast stake turn in a single scull? 24:15 Diane Davis is using a mirror and wants to know hints for turning and the best way to do Head of the Charles Magazine Beach and Elliott Bridge turns. Here is the Coxmate Mirror we discussed for sale on Amazon https://amzn.to/34cCiWQ 33:30 Graham Spittle has been watching YouTube and a pre-warmup, warmup. As a 71 year old heavyweight is this necessary? Rebecca references a podcast from Rowe.rs by Caroline McManus - but it"s offline at present. 41:00 Ruth Berenson is racing HOCR and asks how to disentangle from another boat, pull yourself back to focus and take off again. 47:30 Michael Knowles from Bermuda Rowing Association asks when athletes use a seat pad, what adjustment is needed to the gate height?

Diane Davis, who currently plays Ginny Weasley in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway, joins us in the studio for a great conversation about stage acting, big breaks, and getting over the worry that keeps you from playing big.

This last year I adopted a dog, a scruffy grey schnauzer mix. I call him Pip. I talk to Pip all the time. But I don’t expect Pip to talk back to me, and I don’t think about what Pip calls himself. Maybe I should. The rhetorical power of non-human animals, this week on Mere Rhetoric. Welcome to Mere Rhetoric, a podcast for beginner and indisers about the people, ideas and movements who have shaped rhetprical history. I’m Mary Hedengren   Today we start a new type of episode of Mere Rhetoric. In the past, I’ve given you the low-down on books and movements, scholars and terms, and now I’m going to expand on that to give you the heads-up on some of the most recent issues of major journals in the field. Consider it a sort of Reading Rainbow, a teaser-taster of what’s showing up in rhetorical scholarship today.   Reading journals is one of those activities that I was encouraged to do when I first became a grad student in rhetoric and I’m always surprised how useful what I read ends up being: sometimes I find scholarship that relates directly to what I’m working on, sometimes I find stuff that comes up in conversation, but it’s rare that I regret reading an issue. I recommend reading them to everyone interested in the field, partially because it gives a good sense of what our field actually is these days.   The first issue I’m going to feature, I’m willing to admit though, is a little weird. It’s a the special issue of Rhetoric Society Quarterly that came out this summer, and special issue usually means that there’s a theme that all of the articles are about, but even this special issue is special--it’s a Quote rhetorical bestiary unquote. A bestiary is a sort of encyclopedia of the animals, usually loose on the science and loaded on moralizing for a human world, but this rhetorical bestiary is specifically trying to break away from a human-centric orientation towards entering with animals more on their terms.   Within the bestiary, there are mini-essays on children raised by wolves, salmon spawning, a town full of roosting vultures and the cunning of snakes. These essays are an unusual lot for a scholarly journal: rich, imaginative, personal and poetic. They are grounded in theory, but are also beholden to activism, creative writing, and --as might be expected--animal behaviorism. One impetus for this collection is the 25th anniversary of George A. Kennedy’s “A Hoot in the Dark” article in Philosophy and Rhetoric.   Kennedy’s “Hoot in the Dark” isn’t included here, but it’s worth checking out on its own merits. George Kennedy was a tweedy classical rhetorician, translating, for example, the definite edition of Aristotle’s rhetoric. So it was a bit of surprise in 1992, when he argued that rhetoric is not an exclusively human endeavour, but that rhetoric “is manifest in all animal life and [that] existed long before the evolution of human beings” (4)... for instance “A rattlesnake’s rhetoric consists of coiling or uncoiling itself, threatening to strike and rattling its tail, which other creatures hear, even though a rattle-snake [sic] is itself deaf” (13). Pretty wild stuff. And the response, as Diane Davis writes in her afterward for the bestiary, “was to basically wonder what Kennedy had been smoking” (277).   But even if Kennedy’s work was out of character, some rhetorical scholars embraced the non-human animal turn. For instance Debra Hawhee, who also writes an afterword for the issue, has written such works like Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw and Moving Bodies, which explores “the places in rhetorical theory that are infested with nonhuman animals” (“towards a bestial rhetoric” 86). Looking at non-human animal rhetoric is a humbling practice that opens up our field and colors our received rhetorical traditions. That being said,I was most impressed by the foreword by Alex C. Parrish and the afterwards by Hawhee and Diane Davis. Davis’ afterward is  espeically illuminating in highlighting that “there is no single, indivisible line between ‘the human’ and ‘the animal’” (278). She also provides a useful dichotomy between two threads in researching non-human animals in rhetoric. One is “studying human discourses about other animal species” --the way we use non-human animals in our human rhetoric--while the other involved “engaging the specific rhetorical practices of other species” (279).  This latter area of research is particularly interesting to me.   When Pip barks at a strange dog, or drops his ears backwards, or lulls his tongue out in a squinty-eyed smile, he is using symbols just as effectively as Burke’s “symbol using (symbol making and symbol misusing)” human agent. I mean, I can testify that he symbol misuses all the time, especially in his clumsy attempts to make friends at the dog park. Dogs are especially interesting because they are attuned to cross species communication: for millenia, they’ve been learning to read our weird symbols, like me pointing to Pip’s crate, and respond with their own communication, like Pip’s resulting “hangdog” expression. It’s almost like he’s telling me “I don’t want to go to my room.” But sometimes when you discuss communication with, or among, animals, you’ll be accused of anthropomorphism. Certain, I don’t think Pip communicates the same things in the same ways as he would if he were another human, but, as Davis points out, instead of throwing around accusations of  anthropomorphism, we would be better served by recognizing that communication is beyond the “anthro” and rather something inherent in creatures that live in proximity with other creatures.   If you have a great dog story, or other kind of animal communication story, why not drop us a line at Mererhetoricpodcast@gmail.com? Also, let me know what kind of journals you’d like me to be checking in with. I can’t promise I’ll read every issue of every rhetoric journal for you because there’s a lot out there--and you don’t have to take my word for it.    

This episode features an interview with Diane Davis, who also appeared in Rhetoricity's first episode and directed the dissertation of this podcast's host. (This interview was in fact recorded the same day that dissertation was defended.) More significantly, Dr. Davis is a professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at The University of Texas at Austin and will serve as chair of that department beginning in fall 2017. She is also the Kenneth Burke Chair and Professor of Rhetoric and Philosophy at The European Graduate School. She's the author of Breaking Up [at] Totality: A Rhetoric of Laughter and Inessential Solidarity: Rhetoric and Foreigner Relations, coauthor of Women's Ways of Making It in Rhetoric and Composition, and editor of The ÜberReader: Selected Works of Avital Ronell as well as Reading Ronell. Davis's current research focuses on non- and extrahuman rhetorics. Her recent publications in this vein include "Creaturely Rhetorics," "Autozoography: Notes Toward a Rhetoricity of the Living," and "Writing-Being: Another Look at the Symbol-Using Animal." A piece entitled "Afterword: Some Reflections on the Limit" will appear in "A Rhetorical Bestiary," a forthcoming special issue of the journal Rhetoric Society Quarterly. In this interview, we discuss the genesis, development, and future of Davis's use of the term "rhetoricity"; her recent work on non-/extrahuman rhetorics; and two panels she was a part of at the 2016 Rhetoric Society of America conference in Atlanta, Georgia. This episode includes clips and selections from the following sources: Esther Garcia - "Aquarium" from Camille Saint-Saëns' Le carnaval des animaux Jean-Luc Nancy's The Inoperative Community Emmanuel Levinas's "The Name of a Dog, or Natural Rights" (included in the collection Difficult Freedom) Arnold Schoenberg's Verkläte Nacht, Op. 4 "Do Plants Feel Pain?" from the Smithsonian Channel and freesound.org

  Rhetorical Landscapes in America: Variations on a Theme from Kenneth Burke by Gregory Clark Welcome to Mere rhetoric, the podcast for beginners and insiders about the ideas, terms and movements that shaped rhetorical history. I’m Mary Hedengren and if you’ve like to get in touch with me you can email me at mererhetroicpodcast @gmail.com or tweet out atmererhetoricked. Today on Mere Rhetoric I have the weird experience of doing an episode on someone who isn’t just living, but someone who was my mentor. If you’ve ever had to do a book report on a book your teacher wrote, you understand the feeling. But I really do admire the work of Gregory Clark, especially his seminal work in Burkean Americana. Clark is was been the editor of the Rhetoric Society Quarterly for eight years and recently became the President Elect of the Rhetoric Society in America, which means, among other things, he’s responsible for the RSA conference, like the one I podcasted about earlier this summer. He also wrote a fantastic book called Rhetorical Landscapes inAmerica, that became the foundation for a lot of work that looks that the rhetoricality of things like museums, landscapes and even people. In the final chapter of Gregory Clark’s Rhetorical Landscapes in America: Variations on a Theme from Kenneth Burke, he poses the question “where are we now?” (147). We’ve certainly been many wonderful places. In Rhetorical Landscapes, Clark has packed up Kenneth Burke’s identification theory of rhetoric and applied it to the national landscapes of America. Clark suggests that our identity as Americans comes, largely, from our experiences with common landmarks. To demonstrate this power of Burke’s concept of identification, Clark has taken us through more than a century of American tourism, from New York City in the early 19th century to Shaker Country to the Lincoln Memorial Highway. We’ve been convinced by Clark of the rhetorical power of these places to create a national identity. We’ve seen how mountains and parks and even people can evoke a feeling of identification. It’s been a long, lovely ramble by the time we get to Clark’s question. Reading his words, one can’t escape the image of a wanderer who, having ambled through one delightful landscape after another finds himself suddenly disoriented as to his current location. Clark himself describes his project as “a ramble” and it is this apt description that encapsulates both the dizzying strengths of the book (147). Surely one of the most striking strengths of this ramble is the remarkable company we keep. Clark has brought the human and extremely likable specter of Kenneth Burke along for this meander through American tourism. The Burke of this book has not only provided us with the language of identification in our community of travelers to “change the identities that act and interact with common purpose;” he’s consented to come along with us (3). Clark presents Burke as one who was “himself a persistent tourist in America” (5). Burke very charmingly has written about his traveling “’go   go    going West, the wife and I/.../ “Go West, elderly couple”’” (qtd. Clark 7). When Burke’s theories of national identification are presented to us chapter-by-chapter, we enjoy their application in the presence of a critic who is not cynically immune to the process of identification, only acutely aware of it. Presented as accessibly and understandable, Clark has written us a Burke we can road trip with. If Clark has presented for us a clear, insightful and accessible version of Burke through this rambleit is because of his own remarkable prowess as a teacher. He is willing to let Burke be a fellow-traveler with us and he is willing, himself, to join us personally in the ramble. We readers are fortunate to have Clark with us, just as much as we are to have his clear explanations of what Burke would say if the deceased were alongside us. Just as Burke is not immune to the seduction of American tourism, Clark gives us ample insight into how the American landscape affected his own identification as an American as a child. In the chapter on Yellowstone, Clark describes how, as a child from “a marginal place in America” he had been taught that “America was in faraway places like New York or Washington, D. C., or Chicago or California” (69). When Clark first went to Yellowstone National Park, he noticed the variety of license plates in the parking lot and could suddenly feel “at home among all those strangers in a new sort of way—at home in America” (69). While Clark gives us every possible reason to respect him as a serious, meticulous scholar of both rhetoric and American tourism history, he never lets us forget that he, like Burke, like us, is also another tourist in awe of the places we define as quintessentially American. With knowledgeable and accessible teachers like Burke and Clark at our sides, we readers feel comfortable seeing how we, too, fit into this landscape. While the scope of the book covers the extremely formidable years of American nation-making (from the days of “these” United States to when the country is solidly coalesced into “the” United States), the institutions then established are still foremost in the psyche of Americans of all generations. Readers of Rhetorical Landscapes in America will be hard-pressed to read a chapter without immediately applying the Burkean theories to their own individual experiences with these ensigns of American identity. Have you been to NYC? Have you been told that you have to see Yellowstone? All of these places are part of how we structure our American identity. Where are we going? Working topically, vaguely chronologically, Clark and Burke accompany us through New York City, Shaker country, Yellowstone, The Lincoln Highway, the Panama-Pacific world’s fair and the Grand Canyon. It’s almost like a car game on a long road trip: okay, what do these six things have in common? While each of these locations lead themselves to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a touring American (eg, in the chapter Shaker country we discover how guides to the region have lead to identification “not with the Shakers, but with the other touring Americans who gather to wonder at the spectacle the Shakers create” and thus objectified Shakers), (52). Including a city, a people, a park, a road, an event and a building in a park could arguably be a way to expand the definition of the “landscape.” Why are we rambling through these American landscapes with Burke and Clark, after all? The argument appears to be, after all, to situate a Big Rhetoric theory of identification into a series of Big Rhetoric artifacts—so big, in fact, that it includes mountains and highways. Those who are resistant to wholeheartedly adopting Burke’s expansion of rhetoric to include not just persuasion, but also identification, will find Clark’s scope of artifacts as unconvincing; those who are frosty towards opening the canon of rhetoric past the spoken word, and past the written word into the very land we travel will bristle at the idea of giving something as Big Rhetoric as a city, a people, a landscape a “meaning.” These two groups of reader are by-and-large impervious to the convincing and meticulous readings that Clark provides of these locations. They’ve already made up their minds and aren’t likely to change them, despite the quality of Clark’s argument. Clark and Burke are observant, meticulous and personable traveling companions, This is an excellent book, one that opens up rhetoric to more than just written texts, but something that can encompass views and groups of people as well. I love thinking about the implications of place on national identity and I’m not the only one: scholars from Diane Davis to Ekaterina Haskin have taken up the idea of how a tour of places and spaces and people can create an argument for national identity. So when you come back from your summer vacation this year, think about not just what you saw, but who it made you become.    

In this episode, I explore the concept from which this podcast derives its title and part of its inspiration: rhetoricity. In keeping with a spirit of weirdness, I pursue this by asking a few rhetoric scholars--Diane Davis, Will Burdette, Steven LeMieux--the following question: what isn't rhetoricity? This and all other Rhetoricity episodes are also available on iTunes and Stitcher.