Rhetoric in Digital Environments

Course Schedule

August

Mo.21 "Rhetoric" 👏 "In" 👏 "Digital" 👏 "Environments" 👏
Introductory keywording, fives, and blurbs
Syllabus, projects, and schedule (as well as a few foreseeable modifications)
Wayfinding with-among six lodestars: attention, artificiality, dataism, hypertext & hodology, database & narrative, and avatar & identity
Nineties pace: 1-2 by Mon., 8/28, at 1 p.m. ET
Mo.28 Disciplinary Identities/Tangles/Hyper- Paths
Read: Steven Mailloux, "Disciplinary Identities: On the Rhetorical Paths between English and Communication Studies" (PDF, Canvas) [60]
Read: Jorge Luis Borges, "The Garden of Forking Paths" (PDF, Canvas) [30]
Read: Byung-Chul Han, "Tourist in a Hawaiian Shirt," "Culture as Home," and "Hypertext and Hyperculture," from Hyperculture (2022/2005), 1-10 (PDF, Canvas) [30]
In-class intro to 6344's Wordpress blog
Nineties pace: 3 by Mon., 9/11, at 1 p.m. ET

September

Mo.4 Labor Day - No classes
Hokie Nation trivia: Do you know which divisions (graduate students, NTT faculty, TT faculty, staff, food services, custodial, etc.) have active labor union chapters at Virginia Tech?
Mo.11 Database/Narrative and Digital Cultural Rhetorics
Read: N. Katherine Hayles, "Narrative and Database: Natural Symbionts" (PDF, Canvas) [45]
Read: Ed Folsom, "Reply" (PDF, Canvas) [30]
Read: Angela M. Haas, "Toward a Digital Cultural Rhetoric" from The Routledge Handbook of Digital Writing and Rhetoric (PDF, Canvas) [60]
Nineties pace: 4-5 by Mon., 9/18, at 1 p.m. ET
Mo.18* Digital Griots, Blog Carnivals (and Conferences on Zoom)
Read: Adam Banks, "Scratch," and "Ch. 1 Groove" from Digital Griots (Canvas, PDF) [75]
Read CFP and 1-2 selections from Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative Blog Carnivals 1 "What Does Digital Rhetoric Mean to Me," 14 "Digital Rhetorics’ Futures," and 16 "Digital Community Building as Social Justice Praxis"
Discuss (focus for conferences): 6344 so far and RIDE Blog Carnival 1
Nineties pace: 6-7 by Mon., 9/25, at 1 p.m. ET
Mo.25* Digital Griots, Blog Carnivals (and Conferences on Zoom), cont.
Discuss (focus for conferences): 6344 so far and RIDE Blog Carnival 1
Nineties pace: 7-8 by Mon., 10/2, at 1 p.m. ET

October

Mo.2*

Open Review and Non-things
Read: Byung-Chul Han, Non-things, 1-28, [60])
Draft of RIDE Blog Carnival #1 entry due (Monday, 10/2, by 4 p.m. ET in Google Folder)
Nineties pace: 9-10 by Mon., 10/9, at 1 p.m. ET

Mo.9

Non-things, Selfies, and AI
Read: Byung-Chul Han, Non-things, 29-44, [45])
Read: Bender et al., "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots" (Canvas, PDF, [60])
Nineties pace: 10-11 by Mon., 10/16, at 1 p.m. ET
Upload notes snapshot to your Google Folder by October 15
Mo.16

Dataism
Read: Byung-Chul Han, Non-things, 45-98, [75]
Read: Byung-Chul Han, "From Myth to Dataism," from The Disappearance of Rituals (2020), 76-83 (PDF, Canvas) [30]
Read: Byung-Chul Han, "The Information Regime," and "Digital Rationality," from Infocracy (2022), 1-11, 34-43 (PDF, Canvas) [30]
Nineties pace: 11-12 by Mon., 10/23, at 1 p.m. ET
Mo.23 Attention Economy Do-Nothings
Read: Jenni Odell, How To Do Nothing, ix-94 [120]
Nineties pace: 13-14 by Mon., 10/30, at 1 p.m. ET
Mo.30 Dismantling
Read: Jenni Odell, How To Do Nothing, 95-206 [120]
Steven Jackson, "Rethinking Repair," 221-239 [40]
Nineties pace: 14-15 by Mon., 11/6, at 1 p.m. ET

November

Mo.6 Extra Attention
Read: N. Katherine Hayles, "Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes" (PDF, Canvas), 187-199 [45]
Read: Nathaniel A. Rivers, "Consensual Attending" (PDF, Canvas), 55-64 [45]
Nineties pace: 16-17 by Mon., 11/13, at 1 p.m. ET
Mo.13 Earth, Thirst, Heat; Carnival #2 and Open Review
Read: Kristin L. Arola, "A Land-Based Digital Design Rhetoric" (PDF, Canvas)
Read: Clive Thompson, "AI is Thirsty" (PDF, Canvas)
Read: Rich Shivener and Dustin Edwards, "The Environmental Unconcious of Digital Composing" (online at Enculturation)
Draft of RIDE Blog Carnival #2 entry due (Monday, 11/13, by 4 p.m. ET in Google Folder)
Mo.20 Thanksgiving break - no classes
Mo.27 Dromos and Velocity
Read: James J. Brown, Jr., "Composition in the Dromosphere" (PDF, Canvas), 79-91 [60]
Read: Jim Ridolfo & Dànielle Nicole DeVoss, "Composing for Recomposition: Rhetorical Velocity and Delivery" (online at Kairos), 79-91 [60]
Nineties pace: 19-20 by Mon., 12/4, at 1 p.m. ET

December

Mo.4 Nothing Further
Due: RIDE Blog Carnival #3 entry due (Monday, 12/4, by 4 p.m. ET in Google Folder)
Mo.11 Due: Reflection

Contact Information

Derek N. Mueller, PhD
Professor of Rhetoric and Writing
Department of English
Virginia Tech
Office: 315 Shanks Hall
Fall 2023 Office Hours: Tu, 1-3 p.m. ET, and other times by appt
Phone: +1-734-985-0485
dmueller@vt.edu
http://derekmueller.net/rc/