What is nonviolent rhetoric? Dr. Ellen W. Gorsevski from BGSU’s School of Communication Studies will explore that question and more in her talk, “Exploring Nonviolent Rhetoric: From Everyday Speech to Research and What to Teach, ” part of this semester’s Linguistics Brown Bag Lecture Series. Her talk will take place Friday, February 22, 2008, at 12:30 pm in Room 114 of the Education Building.
Nonviolent rhetoric is discourse that, in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, encourages one to be a “nonconformist.” For Mohandas K. Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is “noncooperation” with systems one deems unjust, including forms of communication. In our everyday speech interactions, our language and idioms are replete with violent metaphors. Using mindful awareness, we can transform our own use and understanding of language, thus restructuring our reality in positive, nonviolent ways. An awareness and support of nonviolent perspectives and communication strategies, when incorporated into research and teaching, can be equally empowering.
Everyone is welcome! No prior knowledge of linguistics is required. This event is sponsored by the BGSU Department of English and the Black Swamp Literary Society.
