The second part of Medievalism and the Academy identifies the four specific questions that have come to focus recent scholarship in medievalism: What is difference? what is theory? woman? God? The impact of cultural studies on contemporary medieval studies is investigated in this latest volume of Studies in Medievalism, which also offers an account of the developing interest of contemporary cultural theorists inthe medieval period. Rather than dismissing the connection between medieval studies and cultural criticism as an expression of academic self-interest, the essays identify specific questions which engage both, such as race, history, women, religion, and literature. Topics include the use of Augustine by postcolonial theorists; the influence of studies in medieval mysticism on the development of women's studies programs; and the influence of Foucault and NewHistoricism on the study of medieval history. Contributors: ELLIE RAGLAND, TIMOTHY RICHARDSON, MICHAEL BERNARD-DONALS, CLAY KINSNER, LINDA SEXSON, REBECCA DOUGLASS, LOUISE SYLVESTER, RICHARD GLEJZER, CHARLES WILSON, ANDREW J. DELL'OLIO

Extending the feminist rhetorical project to define and model rhetorical listening

Long-ignored within rhetoric and composition studies, listening has returned to the disciplinary radar. "Rhetorical Listening: Identification, Gender, Whiteness "argues that rhetorical listening facilitates conscious identifications needed for cross-cultural communication.

Krista Ratcliffe establishes eavesdropping, listening metonymically, and listening pedagogically as approaches to rhetorical listening. She defines and models rhetorical listening, addressing identifications with gender and whiteness within public debates, scholarship, and pedagogy. Offering an approach grounded in classical rhetorical theory, Heideggerian theory, feminist theory, and critical race theory, Ratcliffe presents rhetorical listening as an invention tactic that engages spoken and written texts and supplements reading, writing, speaking, and silence as a rhetorical art.

Theorizing intersections of gender and whiteness, "Rhetorical Listening "examines how whiteness functions as an "invisible" racial category and provides disciplinary and cultural reasons for the displacement of listening and for the use of rhetorical listening as a code of cross-cultural conduct. Ratcliffe presents rhetorical listening in terms of cultural logics, stances, and dominant interpretive tropes. She highlights the modern identification theory of Kenneth Burke and the postmodern identification and disidentification theory of Diana Fuss and presents nonidentification as a more productive site for rhetorical listening.