C4 and Lambda Pi Eta present: 
The 2nd Annual Research Lecture in Communication Studies
Dr. Pat Gehrke, Assistant Professor in the Speech Communication Program, Dept. of English, USC

Much is made of training students to be active citizens in American governmental institutions.  Through civic engagement, service learning, and our general education courses we often encourage students to take part in public debates, to participate in political organizations or events, and to develop a sustaining interest in the operation of our governments.  Yet, it seems that we do very little to teach them to be democratic.  Teaching students to be engaged American citizens can, in fact, actually disengage them from democratic practices.  This irony reminds us that there has long existed a tension between rhetorical practice and a democratic ethos, a tension that we can see manifest in our rhetorical pedagogy, our coveted technologies of communication, and our tendency toward exceptionalism in our ethics and politics.
 
Dr. Pat Gehrke is the author of over a dozen articles, essays, and book chapters on communication ethics and the history of communication pedagogy.  His writings have appeared in journals such as Philosophy & Rhetoric, Argumentation & Advocacy, Philosophy Today, and The Quarterly Journal of Speech. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Communication and Rhetoric in the Department of English at the University of South Carolina and Vice-Chair of the Communication Ethics Division of the National Communication Association.  Dr. Gehrke received his Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University.
 
TOPIC:
"Teaching for Democracy and Other Un-American Activities: Rhetoric, Technology, and Exceptionalism."
 
LOCATION, DATE, TIME: 
BLC 201-202, Wednesday, April 23, 7pm

For more information please contact:
Jason B. Munsell, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication Department of Communication and Theatre
Columbia College
1301 Columbia College Drive
Columbia, SC  29203
Phone: 803-786-3197 Fax:  803-786-3798
Email:  jmunsell@colacoll.edu