This workshop begins from the recognition that the term “argument” signals a variety of meanings, methods, and modes across the discipline of rhetoric. The three workshop leaders will explore three different perspectives on the nature, function, and relevance of argumentation in rhetorical studies:

Argument as communicative mode. We will explore the promise of argument as a particular communicative mode of creating the possibilities for productive disagreement.

Argumentation and deliberation. We will explore the notion of rhetorical citizenship as an approach to cultivating norms and habits of interaction and argumentation in democratic deliberation and disagreement.

Post-Argument rhetoric. We will explore the limits of (and alternatives to) traditional modes of argument and debate in a “post-truth” era.

The workshop aims to offer a nuanced (albeit partial) overview of scholarly (and methodological?) approaches to the overall theme of public argument. Participants with no prior training in argumentation are as welcome as participants familiar with argumentation theory. However, because the workshop’s second aim is to serve as a platform for participants’ development of a specific argument-related aspect of their own work, we recommend that participants have a project (or an idea for a project) that is sufficiently developed to be shared and workshopped. Participants will be asked to share a description or an excerpt of their project, five- to ten- pages, one month prior to the workshop.

In three full-group sessions, we will discuss each of the three overarching approaches described above based on a selection of readings put together by the workshop leaders. After these full-group sessions, participants will be divided into working groups based on shared interests and approaches to argumentation and public debate.