Rhetoric of Social Movements

Catalog description

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. COURSE OVERVIEW. Examines how social movements communicate their goals, identities and demands through speech, writing, media and/or performance. Analyzes rhetorical strategies used to mobilize supporters, challenge and create institutions and/or shape public perception in democratic and non-democratic contexts. Highlights how meaning, legitimacy and resistance are constructed through communication across different eras. Course content and discussion may reference contentious or opposing viewpoints for the purpose of understanding persuasive practice across specific topics. RELEVANCE AND APPLICATION. Builds workforce preparation for careers involving advocacy, public communication, journalism, policy, law, nonprofit work or civic leadership; building understanding of how strategic messaging, storytelling and symbolism operate in public life. Enhances ability to gauge public sentiment, assess persuasive appeals and navigate disagreement in professional and community environments. Provides academic grounding for advanced study in rhetoric, media, political communication or social change. DEEPENING UNDERSTANDINGS. Reveals how definitions of “legitimate” protest or persuasion shift over time and across audiences. Considers why some tactics are celebrated while others are condemned and how public judgment is shaped by rhetoric, media coverage and institutional response. Considers social movements in terms of communication processes rather than moral binaries, revealing how communication strategies function across differing and at times opposing perspectives. TOPICS AND THEMES. Includes the study of how different groups across American history have advocated for or resisted changing the status quo. May include study of abolition, labor, suffrage, civil rights, feminist, Latina/o/x, Indigenous, environmental, gender justice, sexual rights, animal rights, student, anti-war, anti-racist, religious, conservative or populist social movements. Analysis of manifestos, speeches, protests, songs, visual rhetoric, digital campaigns or counter-movements. Exploration of strategies such as coalition-building, confrontation, satire, spectacle or moral appeal; consideration of state and media response to dissent, including repression, co-optation or commemoration. Course material may reference real-world cases involving social conflict or political controversy, examined analytically within an environment of respectful dialogue. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification.