Conference

The Lambert Family Communication Conference

Possibility and Paradox: On Rhetoric and Political Theory
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

April 2-5, 2009

Sponsored by the Lambert Family Foundation.

Co-sponsored by Northwestern University's School of Communication, The International Conference for the Study of Political Thought, Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, Center for Global Culture and Communication, Department of Political Science, and the Program in Rhetoric and Public Culture.

Co-organizers: Keith Topper, University of California, Irvine, and Dilip Gaonkar, Northwestern University

This conference brings together distinguished and emerging scholars in political theory, philosophy, communication, literature, history, and other areas of the social sciences and humanities who share an interest in the rhetorical character of political thought and discourse. Our discussions will focus on a wide range of issues regarding the pivotal function of rhetoric in the history of political thought and contemporary political theory. These include, but are not limited to, questions about the performative dimensions of language, the role of affect and emotion in political life, the poetics and aesthetics of political discourse and experience, the rhetorical structure of political texts, the relationship between the logic and style of political argument, between author and audience, and between what political texts say and what they do. To provide our inquiries with historical scope and interpretive depth, each of our nineteen speakers will focus on a single key figure in the history of social and political theory, from Thucydides and Plato to Hannah Arendt and Frantz Fanon. Our goal is to make the case that an understanding of rhetoric is not just relevant but central to an understanding of political thought and conduct.

We hope this event will appeal to scholars of political thought and rhetoric across North America and beyond it borders. To facilitate discussion, papers will be circulated among all participants two weeks prior to the conference and will be available to Conference for the Study of Political Thought members. The event is free and open to the public. Scholars planning to attend the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association should note that the Evanston campus of Northwestern University is easily accessible via public transportation from downtown Chicago. Using the "L," take the Red Line north to the Howard Street station. From the platform on which you exit the train, transfer to the Purple Line going toward Linden and get off at the Davis Street exit. Proceed east on Davis Street until you reach Chicago Avenue. Turn left on Chicago Avenue until you reach Sheridan Road, which borders Northwestern University. "L" maps can be accessed on-line at http://www.chicago-l.org/index.html

For other queries about the conference, including questions about the location of panels, lodging, restaurants, and transportation, please contact Jesse Baldwin-Philippi (j.baldwin.philippi@northwestern.edu).

Tentative Schedule

THURSDAY, APRIL 2
Hardin Hall

Opening Remarks

SESSION I: 12:45-2:45

Moderator: Keith Topper, University of California, Irvine
Speakers:
“Thucydides in Baghdad”
Peter Euben, Duke University
“Rhetoric and Representation in Plato’s Republic”
Jill Frank, University of South Carolina

Coffee: 2:45-3:00

3:00-3:30

Welcoming Remarks
Henry Bienen, President, Northwestern University
Barbara O’Keefe, Dean, School of Communication, Northwestern University

SESSION II: 3:30-5:30

Moderator: Robert Hariman, Northwestern University
Speakers:
“Subdue the Senate: Machiavelli’s ‘Way of Freedom’ or Path to Tyranny?”
John McCormick, University of Chicago
“Fanon’s Revolutionary Rhetoric”
Anne Norton, University of Pennsylvania

FRIDAY, APRIL 3
Scott Hall, Room 212

SESSION I: 9:00-12:00

Moderator: Penelope Deutscher, Northwestern University
Speakers:
“Spinoza’s Failed Rhetoric of a Supposedly Inconspicuous Transition to Secularity”
Ronald Beiner, University of Toronto
“Bringing Home the Case of the Poor: The Rhetorical Achievement of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations”
Samuel Fleischaker, University of Illinois at Chicago
“Burke and the Rhetoric of Self Knowledge”
Uday Mehta, Amherst College

Lunch: 12:00-1:00

SESSION II: 1:00-3:00

Moderator: John Wynne, Northwestern University
Speakers:
“Aristotle’s Rhetoric as Political Philosophy”
Bernard Yack, Brandeis University
“Cicero and the Other Scene: Integrity and Instability in the Rhetorical Republic”
Joy Connolly, New York University

Coffee: 3:00-3:30

SESSION III: 3:30-5:30

Moderator: Lars Tønder, Northwestern University

Speakers:
“Hobbes Reading Hobbes: Applying Hobbes’ instructions for reading Scripture to a reading of Leviathan itself”
James Martel, San Francisco State University
“Rhetorical Investments: The Topos of the Ages and Locke’s Narrative of Political Beginnings”
Kirstie McClure, University of California, Los Angeles

SATURDAY, APRIL 4
Hardin Hall

SESSION I: 9:00-12:00

Moderator: James Farr, Northwestern University

Speakers:
“Rousseau and the Ends of Rhetoric”
Peter Meyers, Sorbonne Nouvelle and Princeton University
“Words as Weapons in Benjamin Constant’s Thought”
Bryan Garsten, Yale University
“Ambivalent Prophecy: the Rhetoric of Tocqueville’s Democracy in America”
George Shulman, New York University

Lunch: 12:00-1:00

SESSION II: 1:00-3:00

Moderator: Patchen Markell, University of Chicago

Speakers:
“‘Hyperbolic Rhetoric and Polemics’: the Question of Nietzsche”
Tracy Strong, University of California, San Diego
“On Public Action: Rhetoric and Glory in Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition”
Andrew Norris, University of California, Santa Barbara

Coffee: 3:00-3:30

SESSION III: 3:30-5:30

Moderator: Dilip Gaonkar, Northwestern University

Speakers:
“Political Philosophy as Rhetoric: the Case of Leo Strauss”
Miguel Vatter, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
“Quentin Skinner’s ‘Rhetorical Turn’ and its Implications for the Study of Political Thought”
Kari Palonen, University of Jyväskylä