Rhetoric

University of California, Berkeley

This is an archived copy of the 2015-16 guide. To access the most recent version of the guide, please visit http://guide.berkeley.edu.

Overview

The Department of Rhetoric is a leading center for interdisciplinary research and teaching in the humanities and social sciences. Linked by a common interest in the functions of discourse in all its forms, faculty and students engage the theoretical, historical, and cultural dimensions of interpretation and criticism in fields as diverse as political theory, gender, law, media studies, philosophy, and literature. The department is also committed to the study of rhetorical traditions from the classical era to contemporary rhetorical theory. 

Undergraduate Programs

Rhetoric : BA, Minor

Graduate Program

Rhetoric : PhD

Visit Department Website

Courses

Rhetoric

RHETOR R1A The Craft of Writing 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Rhetorical approach to reading and writing argumentative discourse. Close reading of selected texts; written themes developed from class discussion and analysis of rhetorical strategies. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

RHETOR R1B The Craft of Writing 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
Intensive argumentative writing drawn from controversy stimulated through selected readings and class discussion. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

RHETOR 2 Fundamentals of Public Speaking 4 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
Basic principles of rhetoric as applied to the criticism and practice of public speaking.

RHETOR 10 Introduction to Practical Reasoning and Critical Analysis of Argument 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Summer 2016 First 6 Week Session
An introduction to practical reasoning and the critical analysis of argument. Topics treated will include: definition, the syllogism, the enthymeme, fallacies, as well as various non-logical appeals. Also, the course will treat in introductory fashion some ancient and modern attempts to relate rhetoric and logic.

RHETOR 20 Rhetorical Interpretation 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2016
Introduction to the study of rhetorical interpretation, treating how the action of tropes, figures, and performance generates meaning in communication: from fiction and other forms of literature, to politics, to film, to visual and material culture generally.

RHETOR 22 Rhetoric of Shakespearean Drama 4 Units

Terms offered: Summer 1996 10 Week Session
This class examines the way in which a distinctively rhetorical concern with persuasion, tropes, topicality, and modes of appeal can be engaged in readings of Shakespearean texts. Using written documents from the period along with contemporary rhetorical criticism and theory, the class analyzes the importance of rhetoric in the production and performance of Shakespeare's plays, in their particular rendering of verbal conflict and the scene of persuasion, and in the analysis of their participation in larger cultural contests over the legitimacy of the prevailing political, legal, moral, or natural order.

RHETOR 24 Freshman Seminars 1 Unit

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016
The Berkeley Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Berkeley Seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester.

RHETOR 39I Freshman/Sophomore Seminar 1.5 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2012
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.

RHETOR 98 Supervised Group Study 1 - 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016
Instruction for a small group of students on a topic initiated by those students.

RHETOR 103A Approaches and Paradigms in the History of Rhetorical Theory 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
A broad consideration of the historical relationships between philosophy, literature, and rhetoric, with special emphasis on selected themes of the classical and medieval periods.

RHETOR 103B Approaches and Paradigms in the History of Rhetorical Theory II 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2016
A broad consideration of the historical relationship between philosophy, literature, and rhetoric, with special emphasis on selected themes within the early modern and modern periods.

RHETOR 104 Rhetorical Theory and Practice in Historical Eras 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
An examination of the relations between rhetoric, discourse, and knowledge in selected historical eras, for example the European Renaissance, the Atlantic Enlightenment, or Victorian Britain.

RHETOR 105T Rhetoric of Religious Discourse 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Consideration of the rhetoric of hermeneutics or biblical interpretation with special emphasis on the mythical, symbolic, and allegorical language as the bearer of persuasive intention.

RHETOR 106 Rhetoric of Historical Discourse 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
A study of how historical knowledge is produced and interpreted. Topics might include narrative and representation, the uses of evidence, forms of historical argumentation, and historical controversies in the public realm.

RHETOR 107 Rhetoric of Scientific Discourse 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2015, Spring 2013
Examination of the characteristic functions of discourse in and about the natural sciences; with particular examination of the ways in which scientific language both guarantees, and at the same time, obscures the expression of social norms in scientific facts.

RHETOR 108 Rhetoric of Philosophical Discourse 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
Introduction to theoretical issues involved in applying rhetorical analysis to philosophical discourse; intensive analysis of selected philosophical works.

RHETOR 109 Aesthetics and Rhetoric 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
Study of the terms and means by which we make and defend judgments involving the exercise of aesthetic sensitivity or perceptiveness. Consideration of the relationship between aesthetic qualities and aesthetic value. Discussion of aesthetic criticism as the means by which the capacities and salience of works of art are called to our attention and brought into focus. Topics include questions of taste, expression, and affect.

RHETOR 110 Advanced Argumentative Writing 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
Study and practice of advanced techniques of argumentation for students with well-developed writing skills. Ethical, logical and pathetic appeals; control of register and tone; assessment of a wide variety of real audiences; genre studies.

RHETOR 112 Rhetoric of Narrative Genres in Nonliterate Societies 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Spring 2013
Investigation of the rhetorical and cultural principles common to various genres of narrative, both prose and poetic, in nonliterate societies. Mythic, epic and folk narratives considered as well as written works from cultures in transition.

RHETOR 114 Rhetoric of New Media 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Fall 2016
This course examines a range of digital media practices including hypertext, interactive drama, videogames, literary interactive fiction, and socially constructed narratives in multi-user spaces. Through a mixture of readings, discussion, and project work, we will explore the theoretical positions, debates, and design issues arising from these different practices. Topics will include the rhetorical, ludic, theatrical, narrative political, and legal dimensions of digital media.

RHETOR 116 Rhetoric, Culture and Society 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2014, Spring 2012
Analysis of rhetorical practice in the context of social and cultural change with particular reference to the historical transition from pre-industrial to industrial society in the west.

RHETOR 117 Language, Truth and Dialogue 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Examination of philosophical dialogues from Plato to Heidegger. Focus on the interaction within the dialogue, the participation required of the reader/listener, and the relation of such interaction and participation to thinking, speaking and knowing.

RHETOR 118 Undergraduate Seminar on the Theory and Practice of Reading and Interpretation 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2013, Spring 2013
An introduction to contemporary modes of reading and interpretation in the humanities, from structuralism through psychoanalysis, with an emphasis on theories of the sign (semiotics). Examples drawn from such fields as contemporary literature, architecture, history, painting, film, and popular culture.

RHETOR 119 Rhetorical Places 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2014
Studies in the history and theory of the rhetorics of place, space, and sites.

RHETOR 121 Rhetoric of Fiction 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Study of the form and content of fictional narratives. Definition and techniques including voice, point of view, and time orders. Attention to cultural and historical contexts of selected narratives to consider interplay of works, authors, and readerships.

RHETOR 122 Rhetoric of Drama 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
Examination of the way character is created in drama by repetitive rhetorical patterns and the ways themes are defined by manipulation of such patterns.

RHETOR 123 Rhetoric of Performance 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of performance studies. While themes may vary, the course considers disciplinary genealogies from the performing arts, the social sciences, and speech act theory to investigate the many ways that humans constitute themselves and their world through performance.

RHETOR 124 Rhetoric of Poetry 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2014
Consideration of the relationship between the texture of poetic discourse largely defined by figures of speech and overall poetic structures.

RHETOR 125 Poetics and Poetry 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2012
Studies in the relationships between poetic theory and poetic practice from Aristotle's Poetics to the present day.

RHETOR 127 Novel, Society, and Politics 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Fall 2014
This course examines the complex links between novelistic discourse, society, and politics. Topics to be studied may include the social and political vocation of the and the realist novel; autobiography and the rise of liberal individualism; political censorship; and the role of the novel in imagining the nation.

RHETOR 128T The Rhetoric and Politics of Interviews 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
As a common form of interacting, documenting, and informing, the interview plays a central role in the process of social and cultural inquiry. The interview is here not only studied in its popularized use as a form of oral witnessing and of privileged access to personalities. It is also explored in its critical and potentially creative dimensions as part of a mise en scene or a setting in which interviewer and interviewees function as social actors.

RHETOR 129 Rhetoric of Autobiography 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Rhetorical analysis of autobiographical discourse, with specific attention to the evolution of the genre in relation to changing modes of human subjectivity.

RHETOR 129AC Autobiography and American Individualism 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Fall 2012
Rhetorical analysis of autobiographical discourse in American cultures, with special attention to the ideology of individualism.

RHETOR 130 Novel into Film 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Summer 2015 Second 6 Week Session
Close examination of the adaptation of written fiction to the cinema. Focus on the problems arising from the transformation of five novels, which will be read, into their filmed versions.

RHETOR 131T Genre in Film and Literature 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2014
Study of a particular genre (e.g., detective/mystery, horror/thriller, melodrama) with attention to theories of genre in popular culture.

RHETOR 132T Auteur in Film 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
The study of films from the perspective of directorial style, theme, or filmmaking career. This course may focus on a single or several directors.

RHETOR 133T Theories of Film 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013, Fall 2012
Classical theories of film by Eisenstein, Arnheim, Kracauer, Bazin, Metz, and others. Only one or two films will be analyzed in great depth to test the power of various theories.

RHETOR 135T Selected Topics in Film 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
A study of a film topic not covered by the other film categories. This course might focus on a particular cinematic "theme," or a nonhistoric and nongeneric category. Examples: Feminist Film Practice, Gay and Lesbian Cinema, Race and Cinematic Representation.

RHETOR 136 Art and Authorship 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
Study of narratives and visual cultures of art and its authors, including questions of what is art, who authors it, the boundaries of works and artistic personae, and how aesthetic, economic, and legal regimes of artistic authorship are historicized.

RHETOR 137 Rhetoric of the Image 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
This course surveys methods and theories of visual culture, including the rhetorics and discourses of images (still and moving), media (old and new), display, circulation, value, and interpretation. Topics explored will include: spectacle, reproduction, materiality, time, style, genre, archive, truth-value, and affectivity. Students will learn multi- and interdisciplinary uses of visual materials as objects of analysis, evidence, exchange, and argumentation.

RHETOR 138 Television Criticism 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Fall 2014
An introduction to the close analysis and evaluation of television texts. Consideration of a range of examples drawn from classical television series, sitcoms, dramas, news programming, and contemporary reality television. Students learn the narrative, aesthetic, and stylistic aspects of television's story-telling modes and strategies through readings, screenings, short exercises, and a final project consisting of a substantial work of criticism and an oral presentation.

RHETOR 139 Rhetoric of Visual Witnessing 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Fall 2014, Spring 2014
Studies of the theory and practice of the rhetoric of visual evidence relating to catastrophe. Themes may include witnessing, testimony, the photographic record, news media, and archival knowledge around such subjects as genocide and crimes against humanity, war and other forms of political violence, the AIDS epidemic, natural disaster.

RHETOR 150 Rhetoric of Contemporary Politics 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016
Examination of the characteristic rhetoric of a variety of manifestations of modern politics. Emphasis on building a theoretical foundation for critically observing and participating in the contemporary political process.

RHETOR 151 Rhetoric of Contact and Conquest 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Fall 2012
This course charts the discovery and conquest of the New World; it treats the ways in which New World peoples were understood--and exploited--by Europeans. It explores not only questions relating to the origins of New World peoples, but also climate and zonal theories of race, and racial ideas of degeneration and corruption. In examining Europe's multivalent relationship with the "other," the course investigates the legal, moral, and spiritual status of New World peoples.

RHETOR 152 Rhetoric of Constitutional Discourse 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2011, Spring 2002
The rhetorical context of . Examines the tradition of Anglo-American constitutional argumentation in the eighteenth century, its sources, and its implications. Readings include Locke, Hume, Montesquieu, pamphlets of the American Revolution, and Anti-Federalist writings.

RHETOR 152AC Race and Order in the New Republic 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
This course will explore how the social issue of race in the new American republic shaped the political founding of the United States in 1787. We will investigate perceptions of race at the time of the founding, and try to understand the origins of those perceptions. We will examine how those same perceptions affected the founding and establishment of a new nation and how they have affected our contemporary social and political discourse.

RHETOR 153 American Political Rhetoric 4 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2016, Spring 2014
A survey of the ways in which Americans have discussed their existence as a distinct nation their rights and obligations, and the legitimate modes of political action open to them. Readings cover the 17th through the 20th centuries and may include discussion of sermons, novels, philosophy, social and political theory, autobiographies, declassified government planning documents, Congressional testimony, and films.

RHETOR 155 Discourses of Colonialism and Postcoloniality 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2012, Spring 2011
This course critically explores key concepts and figures used in the public discourse of European colonialism to justify territorial expansion in the 19th century such as "race," "culture," "civility," and "the Orient" and their disturbing legacies for the knowledges, practical projects, and problems of contemporary postcolonial societies in a globalizing world.

RHETOR 156 Rhetoric of the Political Novel 4 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2016, Summer 2015 Second 6 Week Session
Investigation of major 19th and 20th century works of fiction in which political stances are exploited as dominant themes; close reading of authorial viewpoints and rhetorical strategies.

RHETOR 157A Rhetoric of Modern Political Theory 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2013, Fall 2012
Study of the textual strategies of important works of modern European and American political theory from the 17th through the 19th centuries.

RHETOR 157B Rhetoric of Contemporary Political Theory 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
Study of the textual strategies of important works of 20th century European and American political theory.

RHETOR 158 Advanced Problems in the Rhetoric of Political Theory 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Close study of selected works of modern political theory, including debates over the nature and interpretation of political theory and the role of the political theorist. Specific themes and readings vary from year to year.

RHETOR 159A Great Theorists in the Rhetoric of Political and Legal Theory 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
This course explores the development of one or two theorists or an important theme or issue, with close readings of major texts as well as attention to important commentators.

RHETOR 159B Great Themes in the Rhetoric of Contemporary Political and Legal Theory 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Spring 2012, Spring 2011
This course concentrates on aspects of 20th century political, social, and legal theory that are too complex to be treated comprehensively as one section of the courses in modern theory.

RHETOR 160 Introduction to the Rhetoric of Legal Discourse 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
The application of rhetorical methodology to all categories of legal texts.

RHETOR 164 Rhetoric of Legal Theory 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Spring 2012
Rhetorical methodology applied to close analysis of the argumentative framework of important works in modern legal theory.

RHETOR 165 Rhetoric of Legal Philosophy 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
Consideration of basic philosophical issues related to the political and moral foundations of the law.

RHETOR 166 Rhetoric in Law and Politics 4 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Examination of the role of rhetoric in the legal and political thought of a particular era or culture. Course may compare societies or periods. All foreign texts will be studied in English translation.

RHETOR 167 Advanced Themes in Legal Theory, Philosophy, Argumentation 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Thorough consideration of particular rhetorical themes in the field of legal theory, legal philosophy, and legal argumentation.

RHETOR 168 Advanced Topics in Contemporary Law and Legal Discourse 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2012, Spring 2012
Thorough consideration of particular rhetorical themes in the fields of contemporary law and legal discourse. Sample topics include entertainment law, First Amendment law, copyright law.

RHETOR 170 Rhetoric of Social Science 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2012
Analysis of the ways in which political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, economists and psychologists establish the authoritativeness of their claims. Focus is on the presentation of data as fact, the use of quantitative methods, and other "strategies" through which social knowledge is transformed into objective information.

RHETOR 171 The Problem of Mass Culture and the Rhetoric of Social Theory 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
Study of the textual strategies whereby the masses and mass culture emerge as objects of anxiety, hope, and scrutiny for social theorists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

RHETOR 172 Rhetoric of Social Theory 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2010, Fall 2009
Rhetorical analysis of theorists from Durkheim and Weber, as well as Marx, Ricardo and Bentham, to contemporary representatives of social and economic thought.

RHETOR 176 Rhetoric of Material Culture 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Where did the first collections originate? Why did people begin to collect? How did--and do--museums and museum collections contribute to the definition of the cultural values/power of elite groups? How do we define ourselves--as citizens, as members of a discipline or tribe, as nations--with reference to collections? What values/ideologies structure the debates and conflicts over definition, meaning, and ownership of collections? These are questions we will try to answer in the class.

RHETOR 182 Rhetorics of Sexual Exchange and Sexual Difference 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
This course examines the centrality of sexual difference and sexual exchange to the structuring of societies, cultures, and political life. Possible topics include theories of desire and corporeality; the figure of woman as object of exchange in historical and contemporary contexts such as Sati, prostitution, surrogacy and IVF, and the global traffic in female labor; and an examination of how sexual difference functions as a blind-spot in theories of culture, society, and economy.

RHETOR 189 Special Topics 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Group instruction and investigation of topics not accommodated in regular course offerings.

RHETOR H190A Honors Thesis 2 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2017
Independent study under guidance of a faculty director culminating in a written thesis. Required of all rhetoric majors desiring to earn the A.B. degree with honors.

RHETOR H190B Honors Thesis 2 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Spring 2017
Independent study under guidance of a faculty director culminating in a written thesis. Required of all rhetoric majors desiring to earn the A.B. degree with honors.

RHETOR 197 Field Studies 1 - 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session
Supervised field work in an off-campus organization or business. Field work should be relevant to themes or topics covered in the undergraduate curriculum studied in the department. Additional meetings with faculty sponsor required. Weekly journals and a final paper also required.

RHETOR 198 Supervised Group Study 1 - 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Instruction for a small group of students on a topic initiated by those students.

RHETOR 199 Supervised Independent Study 1 - 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2017
For special projects that cannot be otherwise accommodated.

RHETOR 200 Classical Rhetorical Theory and Practice 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
An introduction to the questions around which classical rhetorical theory and practice are organized. Through analysis of materials drawn principally from the Ancient Greek and Roman periods, possibly including later revivals of classical rhetoric, the course will examine the formation of rhetoric in the West as an intellectual stance from which to practice a range of related fields, including but not limited to philosophy, history, literature, politics, religion, law, science, and the arts.

RHETOR 205 Contemporary Rhetorical Theory and Practice 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Fall 2014
An introduction to the questions around which contemporary rhetorical theory and practice are organized. Through an analysis of materials drawn principally from the 18th century to the present, the course will examine rhetorical inquiry in relation to critique as well as the disciplinary construction of knowledge-domains. The course will attend to rhetoric in relation to a range of fields, including but not limited to philosophy, history, literature, politics, religion, law, science, and the arts.

RHETOR C221 Aesthetics as Critique 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2013, Spring 2011
A close reading and discussion of the major texts of modern aesthetics, from the 18th century to the present, with emphasis on the Continental tradition of Kant, Adorno, and Derrida.

RHETOR 230 Rhetoric and History 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
This course investigates both the concept of history and the practice of historiography, using an engagement with the literal and metaphoric archives of the past to consider their empirical and philosophical claims on the present. While the methods, themes, and historical reach may vary, the course requires Rhetoric graduate students to investigate pre-1900 material in some form and to consider both the pragmatics of conducting historical inquiry and the interpretive frameworks that structure them.

RHETOR 240D Rhetorical Theory and Criticism: Nonfictional Prose 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2010, Spring 1999
Advanced investigation of the rhetorical dimensions of various modes of discourse. Specific topics to be announced.

RHETOR 240E Rhetorical Theory and Criticism: Political Discourse 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2007, Spring 2006
Advanced investigation of the rhetorical dimensions of various modes of discourse. Specific topics to be announced.

RHETOR 240F Rhetorical Theory and Criticism: Legal Rhetoric and Philosophy 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2015
Advanced investigation of the rhetorical dimensions of various modes of discourse. Specific topics to be announced.

RHETOR 240G Rhetorical Theory and Criticism: Rhetorical Theory 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2016
Advanced investigation of the rhetorical dimensions of various modes of discourse. Specific topics to be announced.

RHETOR 243 Special Topics in Film 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
A theoretical examination of a film topic which falls outside the purview of traditional categories of film analysis, such as "genre," "history," or "theory." Examples: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, The Essay Film, Feminist Film Practice, Cinema and the Phantasmagoria of History.

RHETOR 244 Special Topics in Rhetoric: Limited study 2 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2014
This course studies various modes of rhetorical discourse. Specific topics to be announced.

RHETOR 250 Rhetoric of the Image 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
A study of the visual image as a mode of discourse, together with an analysis of the terms in which images have been interpreted and criticized. Focus may be on the rhetoric of a particular image or set of images, or on more broadly theoretical writings about image.

RHETOR 295 Special Study 1 - 6 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Spring 2017
Open to qualified graduate students wishing to pursue special topics under the direction of a member of the staff.

RHETOR 299 Directed Research 1 - 12 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session
Open to graduate students who have passed their Ph.D. qualifying examinations.

RHETOR 375 Teaching Rhetoric 2 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Instruction in teaching argumentative writing and rhetorical analysis.

RHETOR 601 Individual Study for Master's Students 1 - 6 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Individual study for degree or language examinations in consultation with staff member.

RHETOR 602 Individual Study for Doctoral Students 1 - 6 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Individual study in consultation with faculty director as preparation for degree examinations.

Faculty and Instructors

Faculty

David William Bates, Professor. Enlightenment, early Modern European intellectual history, 20th century European and American intellectual history, history and theory of media and technology, history of political thought.
Research Profile

Daniel Boyarin, Professor. Talmud, rhetoric, Christianity, genealogy of, invention of Judaism.
Research Profile

Anthony J. Cascardi, Professor. English, comparative literature, literature, Spanish, Portuguese, philosophy, aesthetics, early modern literature, French, Spanish Baroque.
Research Profile

Pheng Cheah, Professor. Nationalism, rhetoric, legal philosophy, feminism, 18th-20th century continental philosophy & contemporary critical theory, postcolonial theory & anglophone postcolonial literatures, cosmopolitanism & globalization, social & political thought.
Research Profile

Marianne Constable, Professor. Law and language, legal rhetoric and philosophy, social and political thought, Anglo-American legal history, Continental philosophy, law and society.
Research Profile

Samera Esmeir, Associate Professor. Critical theory, Middle Eastern Studies, Legal and political thought, law and society, legal histories, colonialism and post-colonialism.
Research Profile

Shannon Jackson, Professor. Rhetoric, performance studies, American studies, 20th century art movements and critical theory, local culture and intercultural citizenship in turn-of-the-century United States, history and theory of theatre and performance art.
Research Profile

Michael James Mascuch, Associate Professor. Rhetoric, photography, autobiography, narrative and culture, media and society, documentation, early modern Britain.
Research Profile

Ramona Naddaff, Associate Professor. Rhetoric, aesthetics, theory of the novel, ancient Greek philosophy and literature, history of philosophy, contemporary French thought.
Research Profile

James Porter, Professor. Classical Studies, philosophy, critical theory, aesthetics, Nietzsche, Auerbach.
Research Profile

Minh-Ha Trinh, Professor. Gender and sexuality, women's studies, rhetoric, feminist postcolonial theory, film theory and production, music composition, ethnomusicology, contemporary critical theory and the arts.
Research Profile

Mario Wimmer, Assistant Adjunct Professor.

Michael Wintroub, Associate Professor. Religion, ritual, social change, rhetoric, history of science, early modern cultural history, travel, identity formation, alterity, cross-cultural contact, popular and court culture, state-building, humanism, vernacular consciousness and literature, mater.
Research Profile

Winnie Won Yin Wong, Assistant Professor.

Nasser Zakariya, Assistant Professor.

Lecturers

Alex Dubilet, Lecturer.

Felipe Gutterriez, Lecturer.

Nancy A. Weston, Lecturer.

Rebecca Wiseman, Lecturer.

Emeritus Faculty

Seymour B. Chatman, Professor Emeritus. Semiotics, rhetoric, narrative structure and style in film and literature, language of film, relation between film and novel.
Research Profile

David J. Cohen, Professor Emeritus. Human rights;war crimes & trials;Indonesia & East Timor; Guantanamo & Abu Grahib;Sierra Leone Special Court;International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda & Former Yugoslavia;Classics;ancient rhetoric & history, classical Greek law;political/legal theory.
Research Profile

Bridget Connelly, Professor Emeritus.

Frederick M. Dolan, Professor Emeritus. Ethics, modernity, aesthetics, political theory, literature and politics, theories of interpretation, Continental philosophy, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Arendt, Foucault, American political discourse, aesthetics and politics.
Research Profile

Daniel Melia, Professor Emeritus. Rhetoric, oral literature, Celtic studies, Celtic languages (Welsh, Irish), folklore, medieval history and literature.
Research Profile

Barbara Shapiro, Professor Emeritus. Rhetoric, political and legal thought 1500-1700, intellectual and cultural history, 1500-1700, early modern legal and political discourse, science and society, Tudor and Stuart England.
Research Profile

Kaja Silverman, Professor Emeritus. Feminist theory, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, queer studies, race, rhetoric, film, cinema, photography, time-based visual art, painting, post-structuralist theory, masculinity.
Research Profile

Thomas O. Sloane, Professor Emeritus. Renaissance literature, history of rhetoric, teaching rhetoric.
Research Profile

Linda Williams, Professor Emeritus. New media, film theory, pornography, melodrama, sex in cinema, popular genres, surrealist cinema, serial television.
Research Profile

Todd G. Willy, Professor Emeritus.

Contact Information

Department of Rhetoric

7408 Dwinelle Hall

Phone: 510-642-1415

Fax: 510-642-8881

Visit Department Website

Department Chair

David Bates

7315 Dwinelle Hall

dwbates@berkeley.edu

Undergraduate Student Affairs Adviser

Lisa Fox

7406 Dwinelle Hall

Phone: 510-642-3522

Graduate Student Affairs Officer

Marcus Norman

7407 Dwinelle Hall

Phone: 510-642-1416

mdn@berkeley.edu

Back to Top