Call for Papers: Understanding Rhetoric(s) of Race

 

Guest Editor: Andre E. Johnson

There has been much recently in the media in regards to race and racism. From the George Zimmerman acquittal to the killing of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and others from police officers; from the continued protests in Ferguson, to the incident involving members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and lately, the alleged hanging of a black man in Mississippi, race, how it functions, and more importantly, how we communicate it has been at the forefront. At a time when many are calling for reconciliation and the proverbial “conversations on race,” racism and racist rhetoric still abounds.

With this in mind, the editors at the Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric invite submissions for a special issue focusing on the intersection of rhetoric and race. The goal is to offer new insights that will begin to frame future communication studies on race, racism, and racialized discourses. In keeping with the mission of the Journal, we seek papers that “promote public intellectualism by providing scholarly analysis of current events. The essays in Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric should add to the public discussion of current events and help the public understand more fully the theoretical underpinnings of public debates and controversies, political discourse, social movements, and media events.”

Therefore, we are interested in essays that will contribute to our current knowledge of the rhetorics of race, while revealing their historical and cultural significance through detailed case studies of discourse across a wide range of contemporary contexts. Moreover, our hope is to demonstrate ways racial knowledge and power becomes possible through rhetorical inquiry.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):