Intro to Digital Cultural Rhetorics

Read & Discuss Haas’s “Race, Rhetoric, and Technology” (pdf, requires ECU login)

For January 22, read and respond to the following:

• Eyman, Digital Rhetoric, pp 1-60.
• Haas, “Toward a Digital Cultural Rhetoric” (pdf)

Discussion: What are the boundaries around “digital rhetoric,” “cultural rhetorics,” and “digital cultural rhetorics”?

For January 29, read and respond to the following:

• Eyman, Digital Rhetoric, pp 61-92
• Ballif, “Writing the Third Sophistic Cyborg” (1998)
• Arroyo, “Exploring Rhetorical Convergences in Transmedia Writing” (2010)
• Rice, “English <A>” (2010)
• Ridolfo & DeVoss, “Composing for Recomposition” (2009)
• NCTE, Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age (2019)

For February 5, read and respond to the following:

• Pomerantz, Metadata, Chs 1, 2, 3, and 7
• Kennedy, “Textual Curation” (2016)
• Nicotra, “Folksonomy & the Restructuring of Writing Space” (2009)

Discussion: How does metadata function rhetorically, and how might data-about-data/text shape how we engage with texts? What impact do data encoding and decoding schemes have on how historically marginalized writers/texts are framed, discovered, or ignored/isolated?

For February 11, read and respond to the following:

• Benjamin, Race After Technology

Discussion: In our “race after technology,” how are our understandings of race being rewritten and/or maintained by various technologies? What does race mean in online/digital contexts? How do algorithms, databases, and other disembodied technologies also reinscribing racist frameworks on users?

Federal Agencies Use Cellphone Location Data for Immigration Enforcement (WSJ)

For our next class, read and respond to the following

• Eyman, Digital Rhetoric, pp. 93-111
• Gonzales, Sites of Translation (Individual Chapters or Download Book)

Discussion: In moving from theory to method, part of what we’re now asking is “the how” of digital cultural rhetorics: how do digital cultural rhetorics do what they do, and how do we know? What roles are digital technologies and tools playing in traditional contexts of translation? And how are digital technologies part of what Gonzales calls “translation moments” in perhaps unexpected ways>?

For February 25, read and respond to the following:

• O’Neil, Weapons of Math Destruction (Read pp 1-67 and then choose 2 other chapters that interest you)
• Brock & Shepherd, “Understanding How Algorithms Worth Persuasively through the Procedural Enthymeme“
• McIlwain, “Racial Formation, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Web Traffic“

Discussion:

For March 4, read and respond to the following:

• De Hertogh et al, “‘Feminist Leanings’: Tracing Technofeminist and Intersectional Practices and Values“
• Carlson, “Metis as Embodied, Technofeminist Intervention“
• Shivers-McNair et al, “An Intersectional Technofeminist Framework“
• Reilly, “Sexualities and Technologies“
• Keeling, “QueerOS“
• Barnett et al, “QueerOS User Manual“

DUE: Research Project Mini-Proposal

Discussion:

For March 18, read and respond to the following:

• Eyman, Digital Rhetoric, pp. 112-136
• Medina, “Digital Latinx Storytelling” from Racial Shorthand
• Williams, “#BlackLivesMatter” from Racial Shorthand
• Butler, “Integral Captions & Subtitles“
• Bennett et al, “The ‘Digital Natives’ Debate“
• boyd, “Are Today’s Youths Digital Natives?“
• Arola, “Indigenous Interfaces“

Due: Research Project Proposals

Discussion:

Due: Research Project Proposals

For April 1, read and respond to the following:

• Keller, Chasing Literacy
• Payne, “Frictionless Sharing & Digital Promiscuity“

Discussion:

For April 8, read and respond to the following:

• Noble, Algorithms of Oppression
• Beck, “A Theory of Persuasive Computer Algorithms for Rhetorical Code Studies“
• Salbury, “Just a Tool: Instructors’ Attitudes … OWI“

Discussion:

For April 15, read and respond to the following:

• Kynard, “Blackboard Flava-Flavin“
• Smith, et al, “Remix as Professional Learning“
• Buck, “Grad School 2.0“
• Hewett, “Grounding Principles of OWI“
• Blair, “Teaching Multimodal Assignments”
• Oswall, “Physical and Learning Disabilities in OWI“

Discussion:

For April 22, my plan had been for us to have this week to work on final projects and to prepare for presentations of our course redesigns so that everyone in class would have some feedback. Since that face-to-face event cannot happen, please feel free to post whatever drafted materials you have and would like feedback on instead. If you just have some random pieces and want to ask questions of me and others, then by all means do. Everyone may not be able to response, but I’ll do my best to offer feedback and I hope others will, as well.

Due: Course Design Presentations. Create a post under “Course Designs” and use the category “CD-Draft.” In the post, offer a brief context of the sort of course you’re designing, what drafted materials you want feedback on (if any), and what questions you’d like some help thinking through regarding those drafts. Then include links to your draft in Google Docs or Onedrive.

Activity: SSOI

Activity: Course Design Peer Review Presentations

For April 29, Course Design and Self-Assessments Due

Due: Course Designs

Have a great summer break!