Abstract
Humanities faculty may struggle to get STEM students to engage with humanities classes in their general education. In classes centered on teaching social justice through global social movements, presenter one formulates major assignments around group podcasts as an entry point for archival research methods. In groups, students locate a commonplace archival text from that social movement, then rhetorically connect the textual products from their shared social movement to craft a rhetoric of social justice. Groups produce two podcast episodes over the course of the semester: one focused on a historical social movement, and another focused on a contemporary social movement. Through these assignments, students gain firsthand experience with archival research methods and popular culture media production. Presenter two discusses incorporating pop culture artifacts to cultivate students’ rhetorical knowledge and critical thinking skills in engaging with current social/political issues. Students explore the rhetorical concepts and elements of persuasion in a pop culture artifact, situating it in an ongoing conversation on a given social/political issue (timeliness/ kairos). Students investigate how a pop culture product persuades by identifying argumentative strategies within contextual constraints and exigencies. These practices aim at inviting students to become a more critical consumer of pop culture, and to engage with pop culture artifacts as one representation of a particular issue. Students further research the same issue to expand their knowledge of the public spaces surrounding that issue. The course concludes with multimodal presentations advocating for social change, inspire the audience to take action, and offer ideas for involvement/social change.
Presenters
Caroline KoonsAssistant Professor of Communication, Humanities and Communication, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott, Arizona, United States Melika Nouri
Assistant Professor, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Past and Present in the Humanistic Education
KEYWORDS
Rhetoric, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Research Methods, Archives, Social Movements, Persuasion
