My experience of the conference on Rhetoric, Politics, Ethics at the University of Ghent last week was great, particularly because I felt my session went quite well. The session title was "Direct Address" and featured Maria Boletsi from the University of Amsterdam, Olaf Du Pont from Hogeschool Ghent, and Fernand Vandamme from Ghent University (and me, of course!).
Boletsi's paper (abstract) on the conflicts between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia over the issue of the name "Macedonia" was a very interesting counterpart to my paper (abstract) on the naming of Taiwan in R.O.C. presidential inaugural addresses. Du Pont's paper (abstract) on the rhetoric of American exceptionalism also fit our "mini-theme" of rhetoric and national identity quite well. And the final paper by Vandamme introduced the idea of content management as it related to the study of rhetoric. I think the best part of this session was that the four of us hadn't planned to present together (we didn't submit a panel proposal, that is), but our papers still fit together so well. (This usually doesn't happen to me...) And the fact that we were all talking about different nations broadened our views of the rhetoric and politics of national identity.
I'll say more about the conference later. Just wanted to post this for now...
2 comments:
This conference must have been fascinating. Can't wait to hear more! Meanwhile, you might appreciate what's happening here at SU re national identity. Oog.
Yeesh!
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