Arguing Across Genres: Scientific Controversies in the Public Eye

Seminar with Professor Jeanne Fahnestock, University of Maryland.

Scientists, their sponsoring institutions, and science journalists routinely promote novel claims not only in expert forums but also in press releases, interviews, blogs, news items, articles and books.

How do the verbal and visual conventions of these different genres, with their different audiences and purposes, inflect the arguments for a particular claim? And what happens when the view argued for across genres is controversial among experts or eventually overthrown?

Case studies tracing controversies across genres (in genetics, molecular biology, anthropology, and ecology) can help rhetoricians assess how the scope, modality, and agency in an argument can be altered and how multi-genre arguing can affect the resolution of a controversy.

These cases also raise methodological questions about how to sample a fading view, as well as ethical questions about how affected publics can deliberate responsibly on scientific issues when the expert consensus on a claim is difficult to assess.

All faculty and students are welcome. Readings recommended for participants will be available beforehand. If you wish to participate, please contact Professor Christian Kock (kock@hum.ku.dk).