Dear Friends and Colleagues:
I’m pleased to announce the next conference of the Kenneth Burke Society, “Kenneth Burke, the Humanities, and Agency in the Era of AI,” an Onsite and Virtual Inter-Conference and Film Festival. The conference will be hosted by Clemson University from May 22–25, 2025, and allows for both onsite and virtual participation.
We welcome proposals that focus on any Burkean subject. Proposals that address the conference theme, “Kenneth Burke, the Humanities, and Agency in the Era of AI,” are especially welcome. In addition to lively onsite and virtual presentations, performances, exhibits, a film festival, games, and unending conversation in the parlor, KBS 2025 will also feature a virtual exhibition space in New Art City with presentations, installations, art, and video and a virtual space for engagement and interaction in Gather. A film production crew will film a live theatrical and cinematic enactment of the Burkeian parlor for The Wordman film. The theatrical trailer for The Wordman will premiere at the conference.
The conference website is here: https://kbjournal.org/kbs25. Learn about registration, proposal formats, and guidelines, and more. The proposal submission portal at Submittable is here: https://bit.ly/kbs-2025-submissions. The proposal deadline is 1 March 2025.
Conference Theme: Kenneth Burke, the Humanities, and Agency in the Era of AI
Daniel Plate and James Hutson argue that we must view AI “not merely as a technological tool, but as a powerful extension of our symbolic lives, with profound ethical implications” (“Reclaiming the Symbol: Ethics, Rhetoric, and the Humanistic Integration of GAI: A Burkean Perspective,” p. 69). They view AI as an extension of human symbolic action and argue for a balanced approach to its use, which can potentially bridge the divide between humanistic inquiry (what Burke advocates) and continuing digital innovation. Is it possible to view AI as anything other than an adversary of the humanities (especially since AI isn’t going anywhere soon)? Plate and Hutson argue that it is possible to develop a more nuanced understanding of AI by viewing this technology specifically within the context of Burkean rhetorical theory. The LLMs that fuel generative (and textual) AI may enable contextually coherent and persuasive or informative predictions, so how might this generative capacity be differentiated from what Burke calls the entelichial nature of language, our efforts to track down the implications of a terminology (dramatism, terministic screens), or the idea that language does our thinking for us. What might Burke have thought of the technological, linguistically infused golems of generative AI? How does or might generative AI transform (for better or worse) the understanding and value of the humanities? What’s the difference between human and AI agency? What acts might human-AI agency or agents perform? This theme welcomes presentations that offer Burkean readings of AI, which collectively may attest to the importance of the humanities in guiding our ethical and creative uses of AI technology.
“I expect AI to be capable of superhuman persuasion well before it is superhuman at general intelligence," ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman tweeted on X (formerly Twitter) in October of 2023, "which may lead to some very strange outcomes." We welcome proposals for individual presentations, panels, flash talks, Film Festival entries, critical AI projects installations, games, BAHFest presentations, or seminars that explore them:
- What strange outcomes might those be?
- What does AI have to do with Kenneth Burke?
- How might dramatism (Burke) differ from pattern recognition (AI)?
- How does AI complicate our understanding of Agency? Act? Scene? Agent? Purpose? Attitude?
- In what ways might generative AI and its superhuman persuasion/rhetoric function as a counter-statement to traditional principles of rhetoric?
- For Burke, pure persuasion is a motive. Can AI simulate pure persuasion? Agency?
- How does generative AI reinforce or challenge systemic racism, ableism, sexism, classicism, and the intersectional nature of identity and identification?
- In the era of AI, why/how does rhetoric matter?
As with prior KBS conferences, we also welcome all proposals from all disciplines—and all students and scholars of Kenneth Burke’s work.
Throughout the conference, a combination of keynote speakers, featured presenters, and performers will explore these topics and more. Keynote speakers will be announced in February or March 2025.
We invite proposals for individual presentations, panels, flash talks, Film Festival entries, critical AI projects installations, games, BAHFest presentations, or seminars exploring the above ideas and concerns. Proposals should be submitted in Submittable HERE. The submission window opens January 21, 2025, and closes Saturday, March 1, 2025, at midnight wherever you are. Proposals for individual presentations, flash talks, short films, critical AI projects, installations, performances, or BAHFest presentations should be no more than 250 words. Proposals for panels with multiple presenters may be up to 500 words. Acceptances will be announced by March 15, 2025, or earlier.
Film Festival
We invite conference attendees, both in person and virtual, to submit short films for the inaugural Kenneth Burke Film Festival. Those who wish to participate should submit pitches of 150-200 words for their films (also due by March 1, 2025). A film pitch is a brief but concise rundown of your film: title, premise, style, and thematic relevance. The pitch doesn’t have to completely summarize the film but should highlight a compelling idea that connects with the theme of this year’s conference (“Kenneth Burke, the Humanities, and Agency in the Era of AI”). Conference attendees whose pitches are accepted will be notified by March 15, 2025, and invited to submit a rough cut or trailer at the next step. For additional details, examples, prize information, and process, check out the Film Festival details here: https://kbjournal.org/kbs25
Submit Proposals
The proposal submission portal at Submittable is here: https://bit.ly/kbs-2025-submissions. The proposal deadline is 1 March 2025.
Conference Hosts
- Conference Chair: David Blakesley (dblakes
- Program Chair: Taylor Wyatt (tjwyatt)
- Onsite Conference Coordinator: Andrew Okai (aokai)
- New Art City Coordinator: Eddie Lohmeyer (elohmey)
- Film Festival Coordinator: David Williams (dgwilli)
- Accessibility Coordinator: Ashlyn Walden (acwalde)
Sponsors
Hosts, program planners, and liaisons are students and faculty in the Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design PhD program at Clemson University. Funding for the conference is sponsored by the Campbell Chair in Technical Communication at Clemson, the Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design Program in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Clemson University, the Society of the Third Sophistic, Parlor Press, and the Kenneth Burke Society.
Cheers,
Dave Blakesley
Campbell Chair in Technical Communication
Interim Director, Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design (PhD)
Professor of Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design
Immediate Past President of the Faculty Senate
Publisher, Parlor Press
he/him/his
Clemson University
616 Strode Tower
Clemson, SC 29634
dblakes or david.blakesley