Colleagues,
The Digital Rhetorical Privacy Collective invites you to register for their 2027 Rhetoric Society of America Institute Workshop, “Updating Our Privacy Settings: Protecting Our Public Places, Bodies, and Classrooms,” on June 10-11, 2027, at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. Join us as we work to advance the mission of the DRPC and celebrate the launch of our edited collection, which will be available then from the University of Pittsburgh Press!
More About the Workshop: In an age of ubiquitous digital surveillance, the issue of privacy is paramount. While rhetorical scholarship has examined privacy thoroughly, including strong critiques and equally strong defenses, the rhetorical geographies of privacy have been taken for granted. In this workshop, which is facilitated by members of the Digital Rhetorical Privacy Collective (DRPC) (drpcollective.com) and connected to the publication of our edited collection, Privacy Settings, available in Spring 2027 from the University of Pittsburgh Press, participants will interrogate how privacy is contextualized under varying terms of engagement across public spaces, bodily borders, and learning landscapes. A play on words, “privacy settings,” as our guiding framework for the workshop, offers insight on the places and spaces where privacy and surveillance are in tension as well as the choices (the settings) users choose to take control of their privacy. Guided by discussions on scholarship in surveillance studies, rhetoric/communication theories, writing studies, and intersectional and embodied analysis, participants will work on deliverables of their choices that interrogate and investigate issues of privacy and surveillance. The workshop topics draw from the three sections of our edited collection: Public Spaces, Bodily Borders, and Learning Landscapes. Other than exploring scholarly conversations, participants will gain practical resources on how to protect our privacy in day-to-day life and how to teach students to be more conscious of privacy issues and be better custodians of our rights to privacy. Participants will work towards developing research project ideas, public-facing projects, or pedagogical materials by the completion of the workshop.
Note from the organizers:
As per previous workshops, there may be pre-reading and pre-work required before June. Your leaders will reach out to you some time after registration with additional details.
Thanks,
Charles