Episode 3--An Interview with Leah Ceccarelli

04/22/13 • 34 min

The Association for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology (ARST) celebrated 20 years in 2012. The ARST Oral History Project was conceived to document the institutional history of the organization and the larger intellectual history of the rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine. This interview, with Leah Ceccarelli, Associate Professor from the University of Washington, features discussion of: *The virtues of studying the orations of scientists *Crashing the first ARST meeting as a graduate student *The prevalence of "let's beat up on Dilip" panels in the wake of "The Idea of Rhetoric in the Rhetoric of Science" *The disquiet that accompanied the intelligent design pre-conference *That science has a rhetoric is a battle that has been won *How the backlash from the Sokal hoax continues to ripple *Rhetoric as a unique set of tools, perspectives, and concepts *"The ideology of human agency" makes rhetorician's work valuable *Why polysemy is a useful contribution to the rhetoric of science *How scientific controversies are played out in the blogosphere *The importance of looking at the public-science interface, visual rhetorics of science, and internationalizing ROSTM *Why rhetoric of science can survive even as the humanities are under siege

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Episode 2--An Interview with Celeste Condit

The Association for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology (ARST) celebrated 20 years in 2012. The ARST Oral History Project was conceived to document the institutional history of the organization and the larger intellectual history of the rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine. This interview, with Celeste Condit, Professor from the University of Georgia, features discussion of: *reproductive rights issues, WHO, and the superflu *weathering the smallness issue *the early struggles of feminist perspectives in the rhetoric of science *the importance of having a scientific background to enter the field of rhetoric of science *dealing with scientists' power and public disinterest in science *the hope that robotification will produce a "digital Athens" *making interdisciplinary collaborations sing (or at least hum) *the virtues of diachronic analysis of scientific rhetorics *how the toolbox of rhetoric produces a unique sensibility *why developing public expertise requires sensitivity to social symbols *leveraging the internet to open up new avenues for rhetoric of science *the importance of rhetoric of science making a visual turn

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Episode 4--An Interview with Randy Allen Harris

The Association for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology (ARST) celebrated 20 years in 2012. The ARST Oral History Project was conceived to document the institutional history of the organization and the larger intellectual history of the rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine. This interview, with Randy Harris, Professor at the University of Waterloo, features discussion of: *how cognitive structuring patterns shape how we argue, think, and believe *on being drawn into rhetoric of science through coincidence *why anything involving John Campbell tends toward the memorable *how Gaonkar got it all wrong, but why the Gaonkar affair was good for business *on rhetoric vs. communication of science, and why Thomas Kuhn was horrified about the "r" word *why doing good work under the rubric of rhetoric will bring the philosophers, historians, and sociologists around *how the relationships of theorists, rather than theories, create the perception of incommensurability *on science as a symbol system, and how rhetoric ought to be the fundamental discipline to investigate it *what rhetoric adds to studies of science and what science adds to rhetoric *on rhetoric of science, emergent technologies, cognitive styles, and orality *why picking up cognitive directions in rhetoric of science would be useful