schizzes and flows

It’s been a busy week unpacking boxes and (finally) getting the house in order after J’s move two weeks ago. (btw, I never thought I’d love a dark basement storage room as much as I’ve learned to love ours—the perfect out-of-sight place to banish all those files and student projects I insist on carrying with me everywhere I move.) In any case, after a lot of sorting, cleaning, and building and several trips to yard sales and the Big Box Stores, the house is beginning to feel livable, or at least lived-in.

All of this is to say that I’m running a little behind on my RSA comments, which certainly echo much of what’s already been said and praised by other attendees. Simply put, an all-around fantastic conference. Though I must confess I was a bit disappointed by Memphis. The vegetarian thing aside, Memphis seemed to me to be stuck somewhere between Charleston, SC and Raleigh, unsure of which urban direction to go—the rich southern historical town or the up-and-coming modern (and commercialized) southern city. I suppose this is a fairly common tension in the South, even for places like Charleston and Savannah. Still, I found the tension in Memphis a little disheartening, particularly on Beale Street where, I think, the conflict between new and old South is most visible.

As far as the conference itself goes, I sat in on a number of terrific panels, including

1. Rethinking Rhetorical Artifacts/Theory—In particular, Thomas Rickert’s paper on the rhetorical leap, which in addition to being one of the best papers I heard at the conference reminded me that I need to reread Heidegger and Kierkegaard.

2. Rhetorics of Emotion, Affect, and Common Sense—Four terrific papers, including Donna’s on the “Burke Affect,” which made an interesting case for an affective reading of KB’s texts as well as his prevalence and persona in rhetorical theory. All of that and a t-shirt epigraph to boot. Not bad.

3. Counter-Publics, Counter-Rhetorics, Counter-Rationality—In addition to two UW-Madison presenters, a lively and productive exchange between Steve Mailloux and Diane Davis on the issue of hermeneutics and communication. I’ll have to confess I’m way out of my league on this debate and Levinas, but by my scoring Diane came from 4 down to win by 2 in the final seconds of the session. Swish….

As a grad student, however, one of things I appreciate most about RSA is the culture of mentoring that, as far as I can tell, is fairly unique to this organization. Whether in the form of official/scheduled sessions or less/unofficial meetings, RSA consistently enables novice scholars to share their work while at the same time receiving valuable support, encouragement, and feedback from more experienced and accomplished voices. All of this makes for one of the best grad student conference experiences around.

Altogether, a truly fantastic conference. Too bad we have to wait two years for Seattle.