Episode 6--An Interview with Judy Segal

06/12/13 • 37 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 Judy Segal, Professor at the University of British Columbia, features: *Why the terms of debate constrain arguments about public health policy *How public values get taken up in private bodies *Being troubled by early experience with technical writing *The usefulness of pedagogical collaboration in early ARST meetings *How the development of the rhetoric of medicine hit an exponential growth rate *The methodological turn in rhetoric of medicine *Why the rhetoric of medicine is particularly conducive to public engagement *Navigating humanities, medicine studies, and medical humanities *How rhetoric of medicine can make a contribution beyond logography *Why the internet has become a locus for illness narratives and how it has changed research methods *How analyzing rhetorical situations young academics find themselves in can help generate good advice

Previous Episode

Episode 5--An Interview with David Berube

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 David Berube, Professor from North Carolina State University, features: *The necessity of propaedeutic translation, especially for fringe and emergent sciences *The risks of mindless metaphors *Why the rhetoric of technology has less visibility *Concern about the "woe is us" attitude *On making strategic decisions about audience *Why staying on top of the science means you might never read fiction again *The inevitable frustrations that accompany trying to influence policymakers *Why avoiding the "r" word helps gain credibility in policy and industry circles *How being a rhetorician of science makes one a good rhetorician in front of scientific audiences *Contemplating the rhetoric of science as a lens to analyze search algorithms *The importance of culturally sensitive analysis of social media *What does it mean to sample Twitter meaningfully for sentiment analysis? *The importance of the screw-on lid *Re-branding rhetoric of science and technology *The importance of being relevant

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Episode 7--An Interview with Lawrence Prelli

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 Lawrence Prelli, Professor at the University of New Hampshire, features: *Why the necessity of developing mastery of particular sciences is crucial *Disciplinarity vs. program-centered research *What happens to rhetoric when invention is decentered *How rhetorical choices have consequences, and why that is particularly important in technical fields *The self-understanding of scientists vis-à-vis certainty and discovery *The potential visual, place, and performance turns in rhetoric of science *How scientific discourses become closed and how jokes open up new universes of discourses *Why the distinctive dimension of rhetorical analysis is invention *Developing relationships with people doing science where you are