RHET: 2065 Persuading Different Audiences
Joseph Steinitz
TTH 3:30 pm - 4:45 pm
Preparing students for future persuasive demands as they start their careers; students create several short projects addressing a variety of audiences, context, and situations with the goal of developing a professional and personable style; assignments reflect challenging circumstances in the workplace. 

RHET: 2070 Persuasive Stories: Stories of the Midwest
Wayne Anderson
MW 3:30 pm - 4:45 pm
The Midwest is often described as “flyover country” and “America’s heartland,” but beyond the stereotypical cornfields and small towns, the region is also home to large cities, impressive universities, unique ethnic communities, and much more. This course will provide students with the skills to analyze movies, literature, and news stories that take place in these various Midwestern settings. Students will also learn how to tell their own unique Midwestern stories as they share their insights in a podcast, a series of posts on their personal course blog, and other formats.

RHET:2055 Persuasion and Advocacy
Dylan Nice
W 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Maya Angelou said, "The wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me"; how to craft a powerful voice that aligns intellect with passions, shape audience impressions, and gain acceptance and recognition from others when advocating for yourself and for things you believe in; assignments tailored to student's interests and goals.

RHET: 2135 Rhetorics of Diversity and Inclusion
Dhruba Neupane
11:00A - 12:15P TTh Online
Disability activist, Emily Ladua, asks in her 2021 book Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, And How to be an Ally (our course textbook): “How do we appropriately think, talk, and ask about disability?” This course takes up that question through reading and discussing the research of disability scholars; narratives in disability life writing; representations of disability in popular media, and more. For example, why did so many disability advocates protest the film Tropic Thunder (2008) or the film Me Before You (2016)? Why was the series The Big Bang Theory criticized for its portrayal of Sheldon Cooper? Answering these questions means developing an awareness of how common narratives draw upon ableist assumptions and perpetuate structures of oppression. Historically, the rhetoric of disability has examined how certain language practices generate harm. Certainly, we will examine how cultural, social, and political influences shape understandings of bodies and difference, leading to rhetorical hierarchies which underpin ideologies which police, control, dehumanize, or otherize. This course counts as credit toward the Disability Studies Certificate Program, as well as the minor in Rhetoric and Persuasion and the Social Justice major. It also fulfills the General Education “Diversity & Inclusion” Core requirement.