Call for Papers
Weapons of Mass Seduction: Rhetoric and Political Discourse in The United States
Middelburg & Ghent, November 6-9, 2013
One year after the 2012 US presidential elections an international conference will be held in the neighbouring towns of Middelburg (the Netherlands) and Ghent (Belgium). This four-day event (November 6-9, 2013) will be hosted jointly by the Roosevelt Study Center (Middelburg) and Ghent University.
Both Ghent and Middelburg possess close links with former US presidents: the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, negotiated the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, while the Roosevelt family originated from the province of Zeeland, of which Middelburg is the main town.
The conference encompasses American political discourse and rhetoric in their widest sense. We welcome paper proposals that analyse aspects of discourse and rhetoric in the United States since the 18th century. The conference aims to cover a wide range of political actors, from presidential rhetoric and campaigns to state-level politics, from the role of the media to online fora, from social movements to public intellectuals.
The conference aims to bring together specialists of ancient and modern rhetoric, historians, political scientists, linguists, and communication specialists. While the event welcomes perspectives on the use of both classical and modern rhetoric in American politics. This will allow not only for contrast and comparison but will also emphasise the continuity between the two. By bringing classicists and modernists together around the subject of American political discourse and rhetoric, the conference will develop a fruitful interaction between disciplines that have been held apart too often.
The language of the conference will be English.
Proposals of no more than 300 words should be submitted to the organizing committee at https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=usrhetoric2013. (In order to access the submission page, the creation of an EasyChair account will be required.) Proposals should include a short CV.
More details can be found at the conference website: http://www.weaponsofmassseduction.ugent.be.
Deadline for proposals is April 15, 2013.
Notification of acceptance: May 20, 2013.
Organising Committee
Prof. Dr. Gert Buelens, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University
Prof. Dr. Michael Burke, Roosevelt Academy (Utrecht University)
Prof. Dr. Danny Praet, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University
Prof. Dr. Giles Scott-Smith, Roosevelt Study Center / Leiden University
Scientific Committee
Prof. Dr. Rik Coolsaet, Faculty of Political Sciences, Ghent University
Prof. Dr. Koen De Temmerman, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University
Prof. Dr. Adam Fairclough, Institute of History, Leiden University
Prof. Dr. Jan Verplaetse, Faculty of Law, Ghent University