Recovering Overlooked Pragmatists in Communication

Robert Danisch is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Danisch is a founder and international authority on “rhetorical pragmatism”—an ambitious re-imagining of what democracy can be in today’s urban, multicultural, and globalized world. He is author of Pragmatism, Democracy, and the Necessity of Rhetoric (2007) and Building a Social Democracy: The Promise of Rhetorical Pragmatism (2015).

• 1. On the Uses and On-going Relevance of Pragmatism for Communication Studies (Robert Danisch).- 2. Richard McKeon in the Pragmatist Tradition (Peter Simonson).- 3. Hu Shi’s Search for the “Chinese Sophist” and “Spirit of Courageous Doubt” (Rya Butterfield).- 4. Echoes of Pragmatism in India: Bhimrao Ambedkar and Reconstructive Rhetoric (Scott R. Stroud).- 5. The Art of Adjustment: Ralph Ellison’s Pragmatist Critique of Irving Howe (Jansen B. Werner).- 6. Living Pragmatism: Alice Dewey’s Open-Minded Approach to Experiential Education and Cross-Cultural Immersion (Karen Shea & Krysten Manke).- 7. The Accidental Pragmatist: Jonathan Haidt’s Moral Psychology as Pragmatic Popular Science  (Jeremy Smyczek).- 8. Jane Addams’ Rhetorical Ear: Teaching, Learning, and Listening in the Settlement House Model (Amy E. Dayton).- 9. Emergent Publics, Public Emergencies: The Importance of John Dewey in Jane Bennett’s Nonhuman Politics of Vital Materialism (Daniel P. Richards).