Readings in Rhetorical Fieldwork compiles foundational articles highlighting the development of fieldwork in rhetorical criticism. Presenting a wide variety of approaches, the volume begins with a section establishing the starting points for the development of fieldwork in rhetorical criticism and then examines five topics: Space & Place; Public Memory; Publics and Counterpublics; Advocacy and Activism; and Science, Technology, and Medicine. Within these sections, readers evaluate a full spectrum of methods, from interviews, to oral histories, to participant observation. This volume is invaluable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of rhetorical criticism, rhetorical fieldwork, and qualitative methods looking for a comprehensive overview of the development of rhetorical fieldwork.

Readings in Rhetorical Fieldwork compiles foundational articles highlighting the development of fieldwork in rhetorical criticism. Presenting a wide variety of approaches, the volume begins with a section establishing the starting points for the development of fieldwork in rhetorical criticism and then examines five topics: Space & Place; Public Memory; Publics and Counterpublics; Advocacy and Activism; and Science, Technology, and Medicine. Within these sections, readers evaluate a full spectrum of methods, from interviews, to oral histories, to participant observation. This volume is invaluable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of rhetorical criticism, rhetorical fieldwork, and qualitative methods looking for a comprehensive overview of the development of rhetorical fieldwork.

Gerry Nolan coordinated 10 of the Antarctic day flights and took part in eight of them himself. On the first flight he remarked to people in the upstairs lounge, including several newspaper editors and senior journalists, that he thought a crash with survivors would make an interesting story. However, it wasn't until more than two years later, in March 1979, that he started writing ICESCAPE. He finished it in six weeks. Several publishers were interested but Horwitz were quickest off the mark. If they had stuck to their publishing schedule, the book would have been released in September 1979, about 10 weeks before the 28 November crash of Air New Zealand flight TE-901 on Mount Erebus in Antarctica, which killed all 237 passengers and 20 crew. To avoid giving the impression of benefiting from the tragedy, publication was delayed until 1980. Nevertheless, ICESCAPE sold all 8000 copies quickly. On a personal note, Gerry remarks how eerily similar the Air New Zealand crash and the events surrounding it were to the situations depicted in ICESCAPE; in particular, the radio silence and whiteout conditions. On the evening of the crash he was repeatedly telephoned by friends who rang to ensure that he wasn't on flight TE-901 and also, due to the long period of uncertainty about the fate of the flight, to question him about what might be happening. The rewrite has not changed the story at all in light of the TE 901 crash. In fact it is not even mentioned. Ironically, the eeriness continues. Just after Gerry started this rewrite, Malaysian Airlines flight MH-370 disappeared and, at the time of writing this, it has still not been found. The original story been changed, although Gerry believes he has improved the writing of it considerably.

Increasingly, rhetorical scholars are using fieldwork and other ethnographic, performance, and qualitative methods to access, document, and analyze forms of everyday in situ rhetoric rather than using already documented texts. In this book, the authors argue that participatory critical rhetoric, as an approach to in situ rhetoric, is a theoretically, methodologically, and praxiologically robust approach to critical rhetorical studies. This book addresses how participatory critical rhetoric furthers understanding of the significant role that rhetoric plays in everyday life through expanding the archive of rhetorical practices and texts, emplacing rhetorical critics in direct conversation with rhetors and audiences at the moment of rhetorical invention, and highlighting marginalized voices that might otherwise go unnoticed. This book organizes the theoretical and methodological foundations of participatory critical rhetoric through four vectors that enhance conventional rhetorical approaches: 1) the political commitments of the critic; 2) rhetorical reflexivity and the role of the embodied critic; 3) emplaced rhetoric and the interplay between the field, text, and context; and 4) multiperspectival judgment that is informed by direct participation with rhetors and audiences. In addition to laying the groundwork and advocating for the approach, Participatory Critical Rhetoric also offers significant contributions to rhetorical theory and criticism more broadly by revisiting the field's understanding of core topics such as role of the critic, text/context, audience, rhetorical effect, and the purpose of criticism. Further, it enhances theoretical conversations about material rhetoric, place/space, affect, intersectional rhetoric, embodiment, and rhetorical reflexivity.

Increasingly, rhetorical scholars are using fieldwork and other ethnographic, performance, and qualitative methods to access, document, and analyze forms of everyday in situ rhetoric rather than using already documented texts. In this book, the authors argue that participatory critical rhetoric, as an approach to in situ rhetoric, is a theoretically, methodologically, and praxiologically robust approach to critical rhetorical studies. This book addresses how participatory critical rhetoric furthers understanding of the significant role that rhetoric plays in everyday life through expanding the archive of rhetorical practices and texts, emplacing rhetorical critics in direct conversation with rhetors and audiences at the moment of rhetorical invention, and highlighting marginalized voices that might otherwise go unnoticed. This book organizes the theoretical and methodological foundations of participatory critical rhetoric through four vectors that enhance conventional rhetorical approaches: 1) the political commitments of the critic; 2) rhetorical reflexivity and the role of the embodied critic; 3) emplaced rhetoric and the interplay between the field, text, and context; and 4) multiperspectival judgment that is informed by direct participation with rhetors and audiences. In addition to laying the groundwork and advocating for the approach, Participatory Critical Rhetoric also offers significant contributions to rhetorical theory and criticism more broadly by revisiting the field's understanding of core topics such as role of the critic, text/context, audience, rhetorical effect, and the purpose of criticism. Further, it enhances theoretical conversations about material rhetoric, place/space, affect, intersectional rhetoric, embodiment, and rhetorical reflexivity.