Digital Rhetoric / Digital Media in the Post-Truth Age
March 1-2, 2019
Tentative Symposium Program
Friday March 1
8:00 – 9:00: Check in and breakfast
9:00 – 9:15: Opening Remarks
Cindy Tekobbe, Assistant Professor
Joel Brouwer, Chair, Department of English
Amber Buck, Assistant Professor
9:30 – 10:45: Session #1: Calling for Reflection and Change in Digital Rhetoric Scholarship and Activism
“The Cost of Ignoring Surveillance Culture”
Estee Beck, University of Texas at Arlington
“The Issue of Scope or Why I Failed to See or Predict 2016”
Douglas Walls, North Carolina State University
“Ethics, Activism, and Scholarly Practice in the Age of Disinformation”
Bill Wolff, Saint Joseph’s University
10:45 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:15: Session #2: Perspectives on Social Media Activism
“Seizing Kairos: Never Again’s Canny Enactment of (Digital) Rhetoric”
Kathleen Yancey, Florida State University
“#MeToo China: An Analysis of Contemporary Chinese Feminist Rhetoric on Social Media Platforms”
Chen Chen, Winthrop University
Xiaobo (Belle) Wang, Emory University – Oxford College
“‘I’m Already Blacked Out’: Understanding the Necessity of Paying Attention to Black Girls’ Literacies in a Post-Truth Age”
LaToya Sawyer, St. John’s University
12:30 – 2:00 Lunch
2:00 – 3:15 Session #3: Disinformation and Political Discourse
“Coping with Dissentivism and the Rise of Anti-Knowledge Making”
Michael Trice, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“The Dangerous Rhetoric of Information Operations: Russian Targeting of #BlackLivesMatter”
Laura Tetreault, SUNY Albany
“Gaming Reddit: r/the_donald and the 2016 Presidential Election”
Ryan Shepherd, Ohio University
3:15 – 3:30 Coffee Break
4:00 – 5:00 Keynote
Alice Marwick, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Why Do People Share Fake News?
6:00 – Dinner
Saturday March 2
8:00 – 9:00 – Breakfast
9:00 – 10:15 – Local Activist Panel
10:15 – 10:30 Coffee break
10:30 – 11:45 Session #4: Teaching in the Post-Truth Age: Pedagogical Implications
“‘We’ll Fight for Us -- Young. #000000. Feminist’: The Black Digital-Cultural Imagination and
Its Implications for Undergraduate Teaching Today”
Carmen Kynard, John Jay College of Criminal Justice / Graduate Center, CUNY
“Beyond ‘Fake News’: Teaching a Nuanced Understanding of Post-Truth Rhetoric via Tutorials”
Abigail Bakke, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Jenny Turner, Minnesota State University, Mankato
“Google’s ‘Ground Truth’ and the Rhetoric of Anti-Conservative Bias”
Jeremy David Johnson, Penn State University
12:00 – 1:30 Lunch
1:30 – 2:45: Session #5: Examining Platforms and Civic Discourse
“Using Actor-Network Theory to Assess the Rhetorical-Political Construction of Climate Change On EPA.Gov”
Zachary Lundgren, East Carolina University
“Designing Discord in Public Political Discourse: A Critical Interface Analysis of Facebook”
Jennifer Sano-Franchini, Virginia Tech
“Political Memes and the Party Divide: A Case Study of Kim Davis and Hillary Clinton Memes”
Erika Sparby, Illinois State University
2:45 – 3:00 – Closing Remarks
Cindy Tekobbe
8:00 – 9:00: Check in and breakfast
9:00 – 9:15: Opening Remarks
Cindy Tekobbe, Assistant Professor
Joel Brouwer, Chair, Department of English
Amber Buck, Assistant Professor
9:30 – 10:45: Session #1: Calling for Reflection and Change in Digital Rhetoric Scholarship and Activism
“The Cost of Ignoring Surveillance Culture”
Estee Beck, University of Texas at Arlington
“The Issue of Scope or Why I Failed to See or Predict 2016”
Douglas Walls, North Carolina State University
“Ethics, Activism, and Scholarly Practice in the Age of Disinformation”
Bill Wolff, Saint Joseph’s University
10:45 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:15: Session #2: Perspectives on Social Media Activism
“Seizing Kairos: Never Again’s Canny Enactment of (Digital) Rhetoric”
Kathleen Yancey, Florida State University
“#MeToo China: An Analysis of Contemporary Chinese Feminist Rhetoric on Social Media Platforms”
Chen Chen, Winthrop University
Xiaobo (Belle) Wang, Emory University – Oxford College
“‘I’m Already Blacked Out’: Understanding the Necessity of Paying Attention to Black Girls’ Literacies in a Post-Truth Age”
LaToya Sawyer, St. John’s University
12:30 – 2:00 Lunch
2:00 – 3:15 Session #3: Disinformation and Political Discourse
“Coping with Dissentivism and the Rise of Anti-Knowledge Making”
Michael Trice, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“The Dangerous Rhetoric of Information Operations: Russian Targeting of #BlackLivesMatter”
Laura Tetreault, SUNY Albany
“Gaming Reddit: r/the_donald and the 2016 Presidential Election”
Ryan Shepherd, Ohio University
3:15 – 3:30 Coffee Break
4:00 – 5:00 Keynote
Alice Marwick, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Why Do People Share Fake News?
6:00 – Dinner
Saturday March 2
8:00 – 9:00 – Breakfast
9:00 – 10:15 – Local Activist Panel
10:15 – 10:30 Coffee break
10:30 – 11:45 Session #4: Teaching in the Post-Truth Age: Pedagogical Implications
“‘We’ll Fight for Us -- Young. #000000. Feminist’: The Black Digital-Cultural Imagination and
Its Implications for Undergraduate Teaching Today”
Carmen Kynard, John Jay College of Criminal Justice / Graduate Center, CUNY
“Beyond ‘Fake News’: Teaching a Nuanced Understanding of Post-Truth Rhetoric via Tutorials”
Abigail Bakke, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Jenny Turner, Minnesota State University, Mankato
“Google’s ‘Ground Truth’ and the Rhetoric of Anti-Conservative Bias”
Jeremy David Johnson, Penn State University
12:00 – 1:30 Lunch
1:30 – 2:45: Session #5: Examining Platforms and Civic Discourse
“Using Actor-Network Theory to Assess the Rhetorical-Political Construction of Climate Change On EPA.Gov”
Zachary Lundgren, East Carolina University
“Designing Discord in Public Political Discourse: A Critical Interface Analysis of Facebook”
Jennifer Sano-Franchini, Virginia Tech
“Political Memes and the Party Divide: A Case Study of Kim Davis and Hillary Clinton Memes”
Erika Sparby, Illinois State University
2:45 – 3:00 – Closing Remarks
Cindy Tekobbe
