Michael L. McGinnis

Michael L. McGinnis is a graduate student in rhetoric and composition at Wayne State University (Detroit, MI).  My research interests encompass a variety of fields within and beyond rhetoric and composition, including critical theory, public sphere theory, histories of rhetoric and composition, rhetorics of popular culture, cultural studies, protest rhetoric, writing pedagogy, and digital culture.

Please visit my online curriculum vitae at VisualCV for more information.

On 5 May 2011, I successfully defended the prospectus for my dissertation project, tentatively titled Post-Public Rhetoric: Multitude and Rhetoric in the Age of Empire. With the defense of my prospectus, I am now officially at All But Dissertation status. Below, you can find an overview of the project as described in the prospectus.

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My presentation, “Doxastic Democracy: Toward a Rhetorical Commonwealth,” has been accepted to the 2011 Federation Rhetoric Symposium, to be held at at the Sam Rayburn Student Center at Texas A&M University-Commerce in Commerce, TX, 9-11 March 2011.  An abstract for my presentation is available below.

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This semester, I have completed my qualifying exams in rhetoric and composition.  My written examination was completed on 26 October 2010, and successfully defended in an oral examination on 4 November 2010.  With the completion of the qualifying exams, I can now move officially into PhD candidate status.  I extend thanks to the members of my examination committee–Profs. Richard Marback, Jeff Pruchnic, and Jonathan Flatley–for their assistance and guidance.

My presentation, “Common Sense: Schmitt and Arendt on What We Know,” has been accepted to the 8th annual Conference in Citizenship Studies, to be held in Detroit, MI, 31 March-2 April. This conference is sponsored by Wayne State University’s Center for the Study of Citizenship; the conference theme is “Bodies and Citizenship.”

This presentation was submitted as part of the panel “Persuasive Bodies: Rhetoric of/and Citizenship.” My fellow panelists are Whitney Hardin, Derek Risse, and Michael Ristich all of Wayne State University.  An abstract for my presentation is available below.

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My proposal, “Performativity and Politics: ‘Coming Out’ as a Rhetorical Stance,” has been accepted for the Rhetoric Society of America’s Graduate Research Network, conducted as part of RSA’s 2010 conference in Minneapolis, MN.

In this proposed article, I seek to consider the rhetorical status of “coming out.” Although deeply embedded within GLBT discourses and politics, “coming out” remains a rhetorically flexible trope that has been adopted by a number of other assumedly “closeted” communities, perhaps most provocatively in the example of the “Conservative Coming Out Day” events that have taken place on several universities. This article would seek to understand what is at stake in the rhetorical stance of “coming out,” both to GLBT discourses and to other discourses which have appropriated it for rhetorical ends.

My presentation, “A Matter of Life and Death Panels: Carl Schmitt’s Anti-Rhetorical Politics,” has been accepted to the 2010 Rhetoric Society of America Conference, to be held in Minneapolis, MN, 28-31 May 2010. The conference theme is “Rhetoric: Concord and Controversy.”

This presentation was submitted as part of the panel “Scandalous!!! Reclaiming Controversy for Rhetorical Scholarship.” My fellow panelists are Kim Lacey, Marylou Naumoff, and Derek Risse, all of Wayne State University.

My presentation, “Invention: The Crowded House of Writing as a Social Process,” has been accepted to the 2010 Conference on College Composition and Communication, to be in Louisville, KY, 17-20 March 2010. The conference theme is “The Remix.”

This presentation was submitted as part of the panel “Dont Call It a Comeback: Remixing the Canons of Rhetoric.” My fellow panelists are Wendy Duprey, Jared Grogan, Mary Karcher, and Kim Lacey, all of Wayne State University.