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Conference News & Updates

18 June Update

We are just a bit over one month out from dramatically increasing UBC's rhetorician-per-mile density!

Please do us the favor of examining the newest iteration of the program, which includes, in highlights, the final sweep of chair assignments. Check and see whether you are listed to chair. The duty of a chair is to call a session to order, introduce the first panelist, make sure they hold to their 30-minute slot (traditionally, 20 minutes for the paper and 10 for the Q&A, per presenter), and then follow the same sequence for the other panelists. The finalized line-up of speakers on a panel is to be followed scrupulously, since audience members tend to move between panels. If you have been given a chair assignment you cannot fulfill, please alert program chair Michele Kennerly (kennerly@psu.edu) as soon as possible.

ISHR does not increase its registration rates as the conference date draws nears; all the same, you may feel a little memory burden lifted once you check that task off of your list. If you have not booked your accommodation yet, please check out the options ISHR has negotiated.

Looking forward,

Michele Kennerly, ISHR ’24 program chair

David Mirhady, ISHR President and ’24 convention planner

1 May Update

Happy May Day!

We’re now just within three months of seeing each other in Vancouver on the beautiful UBC campus.  Michele Kennerly and her program committee have put together a tremendous program, including five plenary speakers:

• Ruth Amossy is Editor of Argumentation et analyse du discours
• Claude La Charité (FRSC) is Canada Research Chair in Literary History, Creation and Printed Heritage and Director of the Centre Joseph-Charles-Taché
• Lahcen El Yazghi Ezzaher is author of Three Arabic Treatises on Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Averroes’ Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s Rhetoric
• Xiaoye You is Director of the Center for Democratic Deliberation at Penn State
• Hanne Roer is ISHR Vice-President, and our host next year in Copenhagen

If you haven’t yet booked your room at UBC, please do so very soon.  Book here.  The campus is quite some distance from downtown Vancouver, which is in any case quite expensive.  The Canadian dollar seems to be cooperating; it drops in value daily.

Please also register for the meeting here. 

Besides the meeting, there are many things to do at UBC.  The famous Museum of Anthropology will have re-opened in June after a two-year renovation.  The Beaty Biodiversity Museum has a whale skeleton and an extensive and fascinating collection of exhibits.  For those who want to enjoy the outdoors, the Nitobe Garden and the UBC Botanical Gardens are worth a visit.  A short ride in an uber for those who can’t get enough Shakespeare will take them to Bard on the Beach.

Before and after the meeting, a trip to downtown and Stanley Park.  The Sea Bus is part of the transit system and offers an inexpensive harbour tour.  Several Pubs along False Creek offer scenic spots for collegial discussion. 

All best, David 

David Mirhady
President, International Society for the History of Rhetoric

15 January Update

The conference will begin with opening remarks, a plenary, and a reception on the evening of Tuesday, July 23rd. (The Council will meet that afternoon.)

Additional plenaries and paper sessions will take place Wednesday-Friday, July 24-26. The Business Meeting, to which all conference participants are invited, will take place on Friday.

More details will be coming soon!