Friday, February 5, 2010

Credibility, Reason, and Passion in an Age of Global Uncertainty: Hugh Burns, Ph.D.

"We who study rhetoric define, explain, and predict the purposes, audiences, and techniques of written, spoken, and visual discourse. We investigate how texts and signs are used and abused in constructing meanings, identities, and knowledge. We study the very ideas of credibility, reason, and passion in an age of global uncertainty." --Hugh Burns

I am delighted to announce that the English Department and First Year Composition Program (FYC) at CSU-Pueblo will be hosting my former professor, mentor, and dear friend, Dr. Hugh Burns, the week of February 22nd. He'll spend the early part of the week reading, interviewing, and offering feedback as our external reviewer for the comprehensive "MA in English Program Review" that, as graduate faculty, we've been busily working to complete for almost a year. It is a comprehensive, 100-page, self-study -- one that is full of recommendations, current student and alumni feedback, program statistics, program problems, program successes, student research, and much, much more. In addition to all the feedback he'll provide on our MA Program Review, we're also privileged to have him conduct a training workshop for all our FYC instructors. He'll do a sort of "Rhetoric Boot-Camp," and connect it to current methodologies for "authentic assessment." We're excited to see what he shares with us, and if any of you are around, and are interested, email me, and I'll wrangle you an invitation too!

Of course, while he's here, we'll also enjoy having him speak to the English 501 (Theories of Writing) students, and (if we're really lucky!) to the Advanced Rhetoric undergrads. Put on your best rhetoric people! Start the pleading now! In the meantime, I want to tell you a few interesting tid-bits about Dr. Burns. Sure. I could tell you what an interesting, wonderful man Hugh Burns is (ahem -- he is), but, instead, why don't you check out his Texas Women's University web site, HBurns at TWU, for yourself? Yep, he studied under James Kinneavy at the University of Texas, broke bread with Wayne Booth, and counts Cynthia Selfe among his BFFs. In fact, Dr. Selfe and Dr. Burns collaborated as recently as 2009, when Burns was able to spend a well-earned sabbatical as a member of Ohio State University's Visiting Scholars in Digital Media and Composition at the OSU Department of English.

While he was at OSU, the students shot a short video in which they asked Burns to talk about his entrée into the fields of Rhetoric and Technology in the 1970s, the ways in which those scholarly pursuits are still morphing into new and innovative multimodal opportunities, and how his experiences at OSU proved to him that HE was an "episodic, collaborative narrative." Awesome! Watch the video here: Burns at OSU. And, if you're really interested in the ways in which these most recent academic experiences are continuing to shape his ever-evolving pedagogy, you can peruse his personal "Apple Cloud" here: Hugh Tube Productions. The first video, "Reflections on Global Learning," opens with my friend, Marc Azard, a Ph.D. student at TWU, discussing technology, memory, and his role as a "21st century student...". Those of you who know me best probably aren't suprised to hear that I fully intend to appropriate Dr. Burns' techniques and create our own digital reflection for the upcoming study abroad trip to Germany, The Czech Republic, and Poland. Are you ready for your close-ups, Jazmine, Amanda and Jean-Luc?

So, gear up -- a TWU Pioneer is headed to greet the CSU-Pueblo Thunderpups!

Start thinking now. What questions will YOU ask a real, live, walkin', talkin' rhetorician? --DR. SOUDER

10 comments:

  1. I'd ask him what sound a tree falling in the woods makes...Oh, wait, that's philosophy, not rhetoric. Well, maybe bad rhetoric. Okay, then I have nothing.

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  2. Hi Katie, I have a feeling he'd have an answer... :)

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  3. I'm happy that we'll get the opportunity to hear from and talk to Dr. Burns! I have high hopes that his thoughts and perspective on rhetoric will, along with yours, give us more context as to where the field is currently focused and how it has incorporated previous theories. It'll be like talking to a real, live branch of the Rhetorical Family Tree (which it is, actually)! Thanks for setting this up.

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  4. A rhetorical question I would ask Dr. Burns is how he views the current technological movement in composition, the disparity in access to technology that exists, and how this trend continues to effect traditional hierarchies.

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  5. I saw Dr. Burns speak the last time he was on campus. I'm sure I will appreciate his expertise now that I have the framework of this class. I'd like to ask how he recognizes when it's time to revise his pedagogy. I look forward to being in a personal setting with him.

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  6. Aside from the obvious "What's the answer to number three?" I would probably ask what his greatest influence from Kinneavy is -- pedagogical, rhetorical, combo?

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  7. I love the use of 3s throughout the quotation and your post, Donna. Very Aristolean of you both... :)

    I'm doing a video-assignment, too, with my UB and Honors students. Dr. Burns' video inspired me, too, to be a "21st century student."

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  8. I have the feeling that if Dr. Burns were to come to our Advanced Rhetoric class (my fingers are crossed!) that I'd be terrified to speak. I'm pretty sure hearing a man as intelligent as he is say "Good afternoon," would be an enlightening experience. I can't even fathom the sort of questions I'd ask him...Yet. Let me look around and I'll get back to you with SOMETHING...I hope.

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  9. My question for Dr. Burns is as follows:

    Considering the diversity of audience in our current day technical Kairos amid global uncertainty, how can we support meaningful discourse or persuasive argument with an audience neither universal or particular, without inviting cultural dissonance and possible political misuse, especially given the often cryptic dialogue that technology invites?

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  10. After watching the video "Visiting Scholars in DMAC," I would like to know more about multi-modal composing. As a teacher, I'm always looking for different, better, and current applications in technology. I'd also like to know how Dr. Burns speeds up MP3s, but if I'm allowed only one question, it is the first.

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