Abstract
Geographer Tim Creswell defines place as “a way of seeing, knowing, and understanding the world” (2015:18). If place is a way of seeing the world, we expand this definition to include rhetorical situations – how we see, how we know, how we communicate – in our immediate environments. Through Intercultural Rhetoric, we build epistemic community across disciplinary, geographical, and cultural boundaries. This problem-solving, expansive framework draws on our combined research disciplines: American Studies, Geography, Global Studies, History, Rhetoric and Composition, Visual Studies, and World Art History. We engage different cultural perspectives by modeling adaptable, collaborative strategies. Our intercultural rhetorical workshop explores the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s (UNAM) UNESCO heritage campus as a site of investigation. The workshop features a unique geographical-participatory method aimed at equipping participants with pedagogically replicable tools. This session begins with an early organizational meeting to distribute workshop materials to participants. Thereafter, small groups collaborate as they develop spatial and visual awareness of their environment. The excursion takes place on UNAM’s renowned campus, including but not limited to the following: Central Library, Rectory Building, Administrative Building, School of Architecture, Sculpture Park, and the adjacent Secretariat of Public Education. Later that day, workshop participants regroup to aggregate analyses. Our objective: to make space for rhetorical analyses of intercultural places to expand informed and flexible knowledge bases – particularly during times of significant global upheaval like those of today. In particular, the workshop models visual interpretations of place as cultural signifier, fostering possibilities for positive geo-social futures.
Presenters
Fayyaz VellaniSenior Lecturer in Critical Writing, Marks Family Center for Excellence in Writing, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, United States Kate Kramer
Senior Lecturer, Marks Family Center for Excellence in Writing, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
Education and Learning Worlds of Differences
KEYWORDS
Place, Rhetoric, Epistemic, Community, Geopolitics
