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New Fascism Conference Program 2018

Rhetoric and the New Fascism - Rhetoric Conference 2018

We would like to thank our generous sponsors:

The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research

The Aggie Agora, The A&M Philosophy Department, The A&M English Department, The Public Policy Research Institute, #BTHOHate,  The A&M Communication Department

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2018

Memorial Student Center, Gates Ballroom MSC 2400

8:00 – 8:30     COFFEE

8:30 – 9:00     Introduction: Matthew May, Texas A&M University

9:00 – 10: 30

Faking the News: What Rhetoric Can Teach Us about Donald J. Trump

  • “Trump’s Not Just a Bad Apple: He’s Part of a Spoiled Bunch,” Jennifer Wingard, University of Houston
  • “The Perverse Reversal of Lying and Truth-Telling in the Trump,” Ryan Skinnell, San José State University
  • “Charisma Isn’t Leadership, and Other Lessons We Can Learn from Trump the Businessman,” Patricia Roberts-Miller, University of Texas, Austin

10:45 – 12:15

Public Intellectuals in Histories of Resistance

  • “‘You Will Conquer, but You Will Not Convince’: Miguel de Unamuno, Tragic Resentment, and the Courageous Public Intellectual,” Elizabeth Earle, Texas A&M University
  • “Vargas Llosa and the Creation of a New Rhetorical Orientation,” Ismael Quinones, University of Northern Iowa
  • “Hu Shi on the ‘Conflict of Ideologies’,” Rya Butterfield, Nicholls State University,
  • “The Manhattan Project Collaboration: Expertise Resisting Fascism,” Wade Walker, Auburn University

12:30 – 1:20  BROWN BAG LUNCH (Pizza provided)

#BTHOHate Spotlight Debate: “Universities ought to have the right to ban hate speech on their campuses”

  • Prairie View A&M vs. Texas A&M Speech and Debate

1:30 – 3:00

The Nature of Fascism

  • “The Fascist Spectacle,” Zac Gershberg, Idaho State University & Sean Illing, Vox.com
  • “The Voices of 20th Century Fascism,” Nathan Crick, Texas A&M University
  • “Liberalism’s Exhaustion: Pragmatic Utopianism and the New Fascism,” Ira Allen, Northern Arizona University

3:30 – 5:00

Blood, Soil, and Masculinity

  • “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution: White Masculine Violence and the Sexual Politics of Neo-fascism,” Casey Ryan Kelly, University of Nebraska
  • “Fascism’s agrarian roots: What Richard Darré’s mythic construction in Blood and Soil teaches us about Charlottesville,” Jacob Miller, Kansas State University
  • “Dog Whistle Rhetoric,” Bradley A. Serber, University of North Dakota

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Memorial Student Center, Gates Ballroom MSC 2400

8:30 – 9:00     COFFEE

9:00-10:30

The Aesthetic Appeal of Fascism

  • “Every Border Wall a ‘Big, Beautiful’ Door: Retaliation and the ‘Aesthetically Pleasing’ North Side,” Dylan Rollo, Northwestern University
  • “Trumpism as Populist Fascism,” Freya Thimsen, Indiana University
  • “Inside Christofascism: An Ethnography of Congregational Life and Leadership in American Evangelicalism.” Mark Ward Sr., University of Houston-Victoria

10:45 – 12:15

Violence and the Fascist Character

  • “An Examination of the Cathartic Model as Related to American Political Violence,” Pearse McNally, Northeastern University & Odile Hobeika, Northeastern University
  • “‘The Plow Digs the Furrow but the Sword Defends It’: Some Speculations on Ur-Fascism and the Rhetoric of the Militant Subject,” Gregory A. Spicer, California University of Pennsylvania
  • “The Trump-Duterte Analog: An Examination of Demagoguery and Scapegoating Across the Pacific,” Ryan Greene, Colorado State University

12:15 – 1:30   LUNCH (on your own)

1:30 – 3:00

Practicing Rhetoric in a Fascist Age

  • “Factish Fascism and Spiritual Statism: The Value of Kenneth Burke’s The War of Words for the Contemporary Political Moment,” Kyle Jensen, University of North Texas & Ned O’Gorman, University of Illinois
  • “Digitality, Rhetoric, and the New Fascism; or, Fascist Ants & Democratic Cicadas,” Damien Smith Pfister, University of Maryland

3:30 – 5:00

Programming Resistance: Education, Politics, and Action

  • “The Red, White, and Blue Tools of 21st Century Fascist Totalitarianism,” John C. O’Day, Texas A&M University
  • “A Post-Apocalyptic Theory of Amerikan Fascism: The Anti-Fascist Legacy of C. Wright Mills,” Patrick D. Anderson, Texas A&M University
  • “‘Organize Your Own:’ Hillbilly Nationalists & Multiracial Coalition Building,” Kate Siegfried, Texas A&M University

5:30 – 7:00

Introduction: Jennifer Mercieca, Texas A&M University

Kurt Ritter Lecture: “Trumpism, Amnesia, and the Politics of ‘New Fascism’ Rhetoric.”

Stephen John Hartnett, Professor, Department of Communication, University of Colorado, Denver

 

7:00 – 9:00     RECEPTION (food, drinks, music)