The convention program will be enlivened by Convention Seminars, each led by a Featured Seminar Leader.

Seminar Leaders

• Ann George (Burke in the 1930’s)
  Ann George (Texas Christian University) examines archives of modern American writers, critics, and theorists to reconstruct the cultural scenes from which rhetorical theories emerge. In addition to several articles and chapters, her archival research on Burke has provided the material for two books. A critical edition of Burke’s Permanence and Change is currently in progress, while Kenneth Burke in the 1930s (co-authored with Jack Selzer), will be the basis of the conference seminar: Burke in the 1930’s.
• Scott Newstok (Burke and Shakespeare)
  Scott Newstok (Rhodes College) has focused on the cultural history of textual recitation, including forthcoming book on Renaissance epitaphs (Quoting Death). More contemporaneously, he has published essays exploring the ways in which Shakespeare gets “translated” into American literature and culture, from Willa Cather's novels and T. S. Eliot’s poetry to Orson Welles’ films and Presidential politics. In 2007, he edited the definitive collection of Burke’s Shakespeare writings: Kenneth Burke on Shakespeare, which will form the subject of this convention seminar: Burke and Shakespeare.
• Mari Boor Tonn (Burke and Feminism)
  Mari Boor Tonn (University of Maryland) studies rhetorical criticism, political communication, feminist criticism, and public address. Much of her work treats women labor leaders, feminist rhetors in the first and second wave, and the theories of Kenneth Burke. Her research has earned several awards, including the Karl Wallace Memorial Award from the National Communication Association, the Best Essay of the Year Award from the Organization for the Study of Language, Communication, and Gender. Representative research includes “Taking Conversation, Dialogue, and Therapy Public,” “Hunting and Heritage on Trial in Maine: A Dramatistic Debate Over Tragedy, Tradition, and Territory,” and “Militant Motherhood: Labor’s Mary Harris ‘Mother’ Jones.” Her current research projects will form the subject of the convention seminar: Burke and Feminism.
• Robert Wess (Transcendence by Perspective)
  Robert Wess (Oregon State University) has published extensively on philosophical and critical dimensions of Burke's work and, more recently, has begun to focus on issues of ecocriticism. Among Burkeans, he is likely most familar as the author of Kenneth Burke: Rhetoric, Subjectivity, Postmodernism. He also recently edited a special issue of KB Journal on Burke and Ecocriticism, and he is co-editor of the forthcoming volume (with Jack Selzer), Kenneth Burke and His Circles. In addition to many other awards and positions, he is a recipient of the Kenneth Burke Society's distinguished service award and is its current president. His seminar takes its title from the conference theme, "Transcendence by Perspective," and will focus principally on Burke's philosophical argument in part 3 of A Rhetoric of Motives, entitled "Order."
• James F. Klumpp (Burkean Criticism)
  James F. Klumpp (University of Maryland) is a Burkean theorist and critic working on problems of social change and political speaking. His critical work includes essays in Quarterly Journal of Speech, Western Journal of Communication, Argumentation and Advocacy, and many other places. He is co-author of Making Sense of Political Ideology. His critical work includes consideration of hierarchy in Burke’s thinking and the estrangement of argumentation studies from Burkean rhetorical principles. He has edited Argumentation and Advocacy, and several volumes of selected essays in argument and criticism. He has led seminars at previous Burke conferences on rhetorical criticism, political analysis, and democracy.
• Robert L. Scott (Burkean Criticism)
  Robert L. Scott (University of Minnesota) is a leading theorist and critic. His critical work includes The Rhetoric of Black Power, Moments in the Rhetoric of the Cold War, and numerous essays in the Quarterly Journal of Speech, and many other journals. He is co-author of Modern Rhetorical Criticism: A Twentieth Century Approach. He is a former editor of the Quarterly Journal of Speech. His lifetime honors include the National Communication Association Distinguished Scholar Award, the Central States Communication Association Hall of Fame, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Public Address Conference.