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03/24/2025
2025 ECA Convention: Rhetoric & Public Address Interest Group Business Meeting
Dear ECA Rhetoric & Public Address Interest Group Members:
I hope you are all doing very well! I’m excited to see many of you this week in Buffalo! The Rhetoric & Public Address Interest Group has some exciting offerings at the convention. I have put each of our panels and meetings below, to peruse for your convenience. I would love to get as many folks at our Thursday business meeting as possible: we need to elect a new planner and a new representative to the EC council for ECA 2026—and celebrate our top paper! Please reach out to me at tbarney@richmond.edu for any questions. Thanks to all and safe travels!
Tim Barney
ECA Rhetoric & Public Address Interest Group, Planner 2025
THURSDAY, MARCH 27
8:30-9:45 AM: Rhetoric and Public Address Business Meeting, Grand E
10:00 AM to 11:15 AM: Top Papers in Rhetoric & Public Address, Grand E
Chair and Respondent: Timothy Barney, University of Richmond
“A Great Deceleration? Narrativizing the Degrowth Future” Eric C. Miller, Bloomsburg University
“Sad!; or, Bathos and the Rhetorical Failures of Donald Trump” Mark LaVoie, Harrisburg Area Community College “Walking Through Memory: The Role of Personal Narrative in Activating the Hector Pieterson Memorial” Cora G. Farra, Ohio University
FRIDAY, MARCH 28
8:30 AM to 9:45 AM: “It’s Showtime!”: Using Rhetorical Criticism and Communication Theory to Explore Messages in Different Adaptations of “Beetlejuice,” Grand E
Chair: Valerie Schrader, Penn State University - Schuylkill Campus
Respondent: Jessica Neu, Carlow University
“Discussing Death: ‘Beetlejuice,’ Invitational Rhetoric, and Engaging in Conversations about Death” Sarah Ailene Tran, Penn State University - Schuylkill
“Every Family Has Its Flaws: Facework, Family Values, and Teenage Angst in ‘Beetlejuice’” Erik Matthew Dubbs, Penn State University - Schuylkill
“’All You Gotta Do is Say His Name:’ Burkean Identification in ‘Beetlejuice: The Musical’” Jenalise Emily Muir, Penn State Schuylkill
“’I’m the Ghost with the Most, Babe:’ Relational Dialectics in ‘Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice’” Lily Kay Kreiser, Penn State Schuylkill
2:30 PM to 3:45 PM: New Pathways in Rhetoric & Public Address, Grand E
Chair: Valerie Schrader, Penn State University - Schuylkill
Respondent: Abbe S. Depretis, Carnegie Mellon University
“’You wanted to condemn the wild mob when it’s on the left side. What are you going to do when it’s on our side?’: An Examination of the Defense Discourse Surrounding the Disinformation Campaign in the 2020 Presidential Election” Anne M. Czerwinski, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg
“Intersectional Identity: Barbie, Hyperreality, and the Contestation of (Re)Signification” Gui G. Caliendo, Carnegie Mellon University
“Tale as Old as Time: Boasting of Inevitable Decline (or, Trying One’s Best to Will it Be So)” Matt Brigham, James Madison University
SATURDAY, MARCH 29
8:30 AM to 9:45 AM: Works in Progress in Theatre, Film, and Television Rhetorics, Grand E
Chair and Respondent: Timothy Barney, University of Richmond
“’They’re Eating the Cats and Dogs!’: An Analysis of the Use of Horror Genre Aesthetics in Contemporary White Supremacist Rhetoric” Clifford T. Manlove, Penn State Greater Allegheny
“It’s Not Just for Kids: Teachable Moments and Burkean Identification for Adult Viewers of the Television Program Bluey” Janelle Gruber, Penn State Schuylkill
“Rewriting Women’s Stories in Musical Theatre: Empowerment, Revisionism, and Changing the Victimage Narrative in & Juliet, Redwood, and Six” Jessica Neu, Carlow University; Valerie Schrader, Penn State University - Schuylkill Campus
