Rhetoric of Social Movements

Nathan Crick is Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University. His publications include Dewey for a New Age of Fascism: Teaching Democratic Habits (2019), The Keys of Power: The Rhetoric and Politics of Transcendentalism (2017), Rhetorical Public Speaking: Civic Engagement in the Digital Age, 3rd edition (2019), Rhetoric and Power: The Drama of Classical Greece (2015), and Democracy and Rhetoric: John Dewey on the Arts of Becoming (2010).

"If you hadn’t noticed, social protest is surging, times ripe and desperate for reinvigorated scholarship and teaching concerning the rhetoric of social movements. Nathan Crick has assembled a superb cast of rhetorical theorists and critics, many activists themselves, to reconsider the history of social movement scholarship in rhetorical studies and, through a variety of engaging case studies, explore its theory and praxis on the streets, now and into imagined futures. This excellent volume underscores that rhetoric and social movements, in every sense, matter." – Charles E. Morris III, Professor and Chair of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Syracuse University"Premised in assumptions and goals that both locate the rhetorical study of social movements in its disciplinary roots and take such scholarship in critical new direction, this collection is a critical addition to anyone interested in movement, protest, advocacy, or networks. Together, the generative case studies take readers across a range of local, regional, national, and international movements, or events, prompting a pause on the concept of movement and mandating a scholarly project that intervenes in critical social and political moments." – Lisa A. Flores, Associate Professor, University of Colorado

• Introduction 1. From Cosmopolis to Cosmopolitics: The Rhetorical Study of Social Movements Section 1: Tactics of Rhetorical Advocacy 2. The Assembling of a March: Rhetorics of the Farm Workers’ 1966 Pilgrimage 3. Spatial Activism: The Democratization of Unruly Spaces 4. Video-Activism and Small-Scale Resistance: The Visual Rhetoric of Youtube Videos by the Greek Anarchist Group Rouvikonas 5. Strategic Storytelling: "Our Home" Narratives of Occupy Homes 6. Confrontational and Intersectional Rhetoric: Black Lives Matter and the Shutdown of the Hernando De Soto (I-40) Bridge 7. Intersectional Revisionist History: The Rhetoric of Ecuadorian Communist Feminist Nela Martínez Espinosa Section 2: Mobilizing New Media 8. Memes in Social Movement 2.0: #JeffCoSchoolBoardHistory and the Ouster of Conservative Education "Reformers" in Colorado 9. Affective Winds, De-Centered Knots of World-Making, and Tracing Force: Thinking Activism in Chinese Protests 10. Social Movements, Media, and Discourse: Using Social Media to Challenge Racist Policing Practices and Mainstream Media Representations 11. Fan-Based Social Movements: The Harry Potter Alliance and the Future of Online Activism Section 3: Power in Network 12. Performing Embodied Collectivity: Organizing LGBTQ Activists at Camp Courage 13. The Significance of the Radical Flank: The Role of GetEQUAL in the Marriage Equality Movement 14. Analogical Arguments: Bridging Trans Social Movements and the Civil Rights Movement 15. Voice Infrastructures and Alternative Imaginaries: Indigenous Social Movements Against Neocolonial Extraction Section 4: Emerging Contexts 16. Viral Mythologies: The Movement to Decriminalize HIV 17. Motherhood & Environmental Justice: Women’s Environmental Communication, Maternity, and the Water Crisis in Flint, Michigan 18. Food Justice Advocacy Tours: Remapping Rooted, Regenerative Relationships through Denver’s "Planting Just Seeds"