Call for Articles on the Rhetoric of Fat Acceptance



The Rhetoric Society Quarterly (official journal of RSA, the Rhetoric Society of America) has put out a call for guest editors to create a special issue on the scholarly manifestation of fat acceptance and activism.

According to its website,

“RSA is the umbrella organization for scholars and teachers in every discipline who are interested in rhetoric, the art of effective communication.

RSA defines rhetoric quite broadly as the study of rhetorical theories, praxes, criticism, and pedagogies that help us to understand (1) how discourses construct our perceptions of the world around us, including people, texts, institutions, and cultures, (2) how we may employ rhetorical theories and tactics to facilitate critical thinking as we analyze the world around us via reading, writing, speaking, and listening, and (3) how rhetorical theories and tactics may help us compose our own texts in ways that persuade our audiences to agree or, at least, to give us a fair hearing.”

The journal is seeking critical and fat-positive essay proposals on the rhetorical intersections within Fat Studies.

The collection, titled “The Rhetorics of Fat Stigma and Fat Acceptance”, will explore and identify the rhetorical constructions of both stigma and pride.

According to the call, the following topics would be ideal for this collection (but other scholarly explorations of rhetoric and fat studies are welcome):

* Fat and health care
* Narrative and fat
* Rhetoric, fat and resistance
* Fat and public information campaigns
* Fat and rhetorical constructions of activism
* Fat acceptance and language
* Visual rhetoric and fat
* Rhetoric, fat and sex/sexuality/sexual identity/ gender
* Demographic representations of fat (race/ethnicity/socio-economic class)

Proposals should be 250-500 words and be sent to Lonie McMichael (lonie.mcmicheal@gmail.com) or Erec Smith (esmith@ursinus.edu) by December 15th, 2012.

It would be great to see contributions from Canada for this issue – I am sure some of my readers would be eager to contribute.

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta

Hat tip to Pamela Brett-MacLean for passing this on.