Katy Meeks
“The Charge for Change"
Rhetoric Society of America 2022
Editor’s Note: This is the first slide of a presentation Katy delivered at the RSA in May.
Slide 1: “Birds Used to Live Here”
Hello! I am Kathryn Meeks, I am a PhD Candidate at George Mason University, and I am pleased to be here to share some of my current work. I have uploaded my materials to RSA, and I have shared them here in the chat as well. The PDF document includes the full script of my presentation and the PowerPoint PDF as well as the PDF document both have the alt text describing the images in my presentation for anyone who needs or would like to follow along.
Today I’d like to four things in my presentation: First, I want to just very briefly talk about illustration in environmental discourse o Second, I would like to highlight a case study where illustration was used as a tool to make an argument about the environment, this is what my title refers to, “Birds Used to Live Here:” George Mason Students Speak for the Trees: Illustration in Environmental Discourse.
Third, I will propose two forms of arguments that I see in environmental discourse, often connected to visual illustrations or objects.
And, finally, I will share some further questions about my case study and visual rhetoric in environmental discourse.
What influenced this piece? I presented at the Rhetoric Society of America conference this summer, and the reason I've chosen to share this piece of writing is because it's a small part of my dissertation research--so it will give you a taste of a part of my larger research project that I'm working on this year. My dissertation research is on the role of visual and material rhetorics in the public communication of science and environmental discourse and activism. The presentation you'll see here (with the written script is one part of one chapter of my dissertation).
What brought you to write it? I was initially very inspired by some photos I took on the George Mason Campus in 2019 (you can see them in the PowerPoint presentation). Students were responding to and protesting the removal of 16 Willow Oak trees on the campus.
What was/is your journey? My presentation was very successful at the conference, which was exciting and told me that my larger research project for my PhD dissertation has some good direction. As you can probably tell, this is obviously very much an ongoing journey.