CFP: Medical Rhetoric CCCC 2026 Roundtable CFP

Medical Rhetoric CCCC 2026 Roundtable CFP: Conference as Care in Rhetorics of Health and Medicine

The 2026 CCCC Conference, guided by Program Chair Melissa Ianetta, invites us to reflect on the act of conferencing itself—on why we gather, what we share, and how we co-create conversations that sustain our work, our scholarship, and our communities. This year’s theme, Conference and Our Conversations, reminds us that a conference is not merely a place but a practice—of showing up, of speaking and listening, of collaborating across difference and expertise.

This spirit resonates deeply with scholars of rhetorics of health and medicine (RHM), who have long examined the vital, vulnerable, and often invisible communicative labors that make care possible. In hospitals and classrooms, through digital tools and community partnerships, medical rhetoricians negotiate conversations that are fraught, fragile, and foundational. Whether advocating for health equity, analyzing policy discourses, teaching health writing, or collaborating with practitioners and patients, our work is grounded in conversations that matter.

This MRSG-sponsored roundtable invites participants to reflect on the conversations of care—those we initiate, inhabit, or disrupt in our RHM scholarship, teaching, and practice. We encourage submissions that engage with the CCCC 2026 theme not as a constraint, but as a prompt to consider how RHM contributes to and is shaped by our conference community and its conversations. How does our work cultivate spaces for dialogue, connection, and care? How does conferencing, broadly understood, shape what we know, how we teach, and who we become?

Roundtable Objective and Sponsored Panel Details
This CFP is for a standing group–sponsored panel at CCCC 2026; accepted proposals will be included in a panel proposal submitted by MRSG. Participation in a sponsored panel does not count toward CCCC’s one-speaking-role policy.

The roundtable will feature short (5-minute) ignite-style presentations followed by generative discussion. Presenters will be asked to conclude with a question or provocation to open up conversation with the audience.

Possible Topics Include (But Are Not Limited To):
Conferencing as RHM Method

• How do we understand the conference as a method of knowledge production in RHM?
• What counts as a “conference” space in RHM—panels, listservs, classrooms, clinics, community gatherings—and what conversations emerge there?

Medical Rhetoric as Dialogic Practice

• How do we navigate tensions in patient-provider communication, especially in transnational or marginalized contexts?
• What role do language, listening, and translation play in our field’s commitment to ethical care?

Pedagogies of Health and Medicine as Conversation

• How do we teach students to engage in conversations that are empathetic, evidence-based, and justice-oriented?
• What classroom strategies prepare students for the rhetorical demands of health communication?

Technologies of Conferencing and Care

• How do digital health tools, telemedicine platforms, or AI assistants alter the shape of conversation in medical settings?
• How do we build community and sustain care through asynchronous or hybrid communication?

Submission Details
Please submit a 250-word proposal to prigangu by Sunday, May 25, 2025. In your proposal, include: