I study pictures and Latin America. When I tell people I'm an English professor, that raises eyebrows, so I generally go with, "I teach rhetoric."
That clears everything up.
Depending who you ask, studying rhetoric can mean having the ability in all circumstances to find the available means of persuasion (that's Aristotle) or practicing "the art, the fine and useful art, of making things matter" (that's Thomas Farrell), or any number of other similar things. Ultimately, being a rhetorician (an expert in rhetoric) means paying attention to how we use symbols (words, pictures, sounds, gestures, etc.) in our attempts to influence others; it also means teaching other people to pay attention to persuasive force. That second part--the teaching piece--is essential. My research on rhetoric comes full circle in classrooms focused on writing, analysis, and public life.
This site houses information about both parts of my rhetorical vocation: the research and the teaching. I do this work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I'm the Marjorie and Lorin Tiefenthaler Professor of Composition & Rhetoric and Chair of the Department of English. I received my ph.d from the Center for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I have an MA in performance studies from New York University, and I did my undergraduate work at Saint Olaf College. I'm originally from Minnesota. Contact me at christa.olson at wisc.edu
That clears everything up.
Depending who you ask, studying rhetoric can mean having the ability in all circumstances to find the available means of persuasion (that's Aristotle) or practicing "the art, the fine and useful art, of making things matter" (that's Thomas Farrell), or any number of other similar things. Ultimately, being a rhetorician (an expert in rhetoric) means paying attention to how we use symbols (words, pictures, sounds, gestures, etc.) in our attempts to influence others; it also means teaching other people to pay attention to persuasive force. That second part--the teaching piece--is essential. My research on rhetoric comes full circle in classrooms focused on writing, analysis, and public life.
This site houses information about both parts of my rhetorical vocation: the research and the teaching. I do this work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I'm the Marjorie and Lorin Tiefenthaler Professor of Composition & Rhetoric and Chair of the Department of English. I received my ph.d from the Center for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I have an MA in performance studies from New York University, and I did my undergraduate work at Saint Olaf College. I'm originally from Minnesota. Contact me at christa.olson at wisc.edu