Overview

The Twenty-Sixth Biennial Conference of the
International Society for the History of Rhetoric (ISHR) 
Indiana University Bloomington & IU Gateway Mexico City

Mexico City, Mexico
July 27–30, 2027 


The time of rhetoric.

Since the inception of the discipline, time has been a central consideration for rhetoric. The opportune moment for speaking, kairos, was conceived as a brief aperture in time where one’s words had the best chance of hitting their mark. Kairos was personified with winged feet and a forelock—a fleeting moment that must be seized before it passed—and carrying a scale that could be tipped by effective rhetoric delivered at the key moment. Time has always determined the genres and purposes of rhetoric: future-focused deliberative, past-focused judicial, and present-focused epideictic. So too time has always been an important consideration for audiences, who are persuaded differently at one time or another, one stage of life or another. The discipline has sustained itself through eras of neglect and eras of rebirth, and observed how, over time, a decline in rhetorical knowledge inevitably leads to increased gullibility and susceptibility to demagoguery and manipulation. Throughout its more than two-and-a-half millennia history, rhetoric has adjusted to and been transformed by the constraints of time, socio-political crises, shifting structures of governance and sovereignty, and ever-evolving rhetorical exigencies that pertain to public life—both in eras of our political flourishing and in our darkest hours.

The 2027 biennial congress also marks an important time for the International Society for the History of Rhetoric as it is the 50th anniversary of our society.

The council is delighted to announce that we will mark our half-century with the first ISHR congress to be held in Latin America. We welcome paper and panel proposal submissions on any topic related to rhetoric and time, broadly construed.

The members of ISHR come from many countries and academic disciplines. The Program Committee recommends that all proposals contain:

A description – accessible to a non-specialist – of the field of the proposal, including its chronological period, language, texts and other sources. Maximum length: 1500 characters. Please indicate in your description a summary of the argument your paper will make, the specific problem that will be treated in your paper, its place in relation to the present state of research in the general field under consideration, and its significance and/or potential contribution.

CLICK HERE to Access the 2027 Proposal Submission Form

Please note that all submissions will be assessed anonymously.

Acceptance letters will be sent in November 2026. Please note that inclusion in the final program will depend on successful registration for the conference by the registration deadline. 

Information about the Conference, including hotel accommodation, will be provided in early 2027. The conference registration fee is still to be determined, but the organizers will endeavor to ensure that it is kept as low as possible to accommodate for currency exchange rates. Graduate students and scholars from underrepresented countries pay reduced registration fees and are eligible for travel grants. CLICK HERE to submit your application.

The Mexico meeting is being planned for in-person exchanges, both in conference sessions and in informal get-togethers. Official facilitation of remote participation is not anticipated. For information on visa requirements for visiting Mexico, please visit Mexico’s Relaciones Exteriores website.

Please direct your program-related questions to the chair of the 2027 program committee, Bob Sullivan (rsulliva@ithaca.edu).

Deadline for Proposals: June 30, 2026

Robin Reames, President of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric and host and organizer of the 2027 conference

Guidelines for the preparation of proposals in other ISHR languages are available here.