Rhetoric Society of America - Oral History Initiative

Were you a member of RSA in the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s—even the early 2000s? Will be attending the 2018 conference in Minneapolis? We would love to interview you! As part of the celebration of RSA’s 50^th anniversary, we are putting together an oral history project that will take place at the conference. Our goal is to gather the stories of experienced RSA members, particularly those who were involved in its founding and early days, to help build an archive of the organization’s history. Our goal is to conduct audio-recorded interviews with a wide range of long-time members, then transcribe those interviews and make them available as a publically accessible archive. Interviewers will be available from Thursday, May 31, through Sunday, June 3, with interviews lasting thirty minutes to an hour depending on interviewees’ schedules and availability. While we hope to be available for unscheduled walk-in interviews on Friday and Saturday, we highly encourage those interested in being interviewed to sign up in advance for a designated interview time. 

If you are interested in scheduling an interview, are a graduate student or junior faculty member interested in serving as an interviewer, or just want more information about this project, please contact Dr. Eric Detweiler, the project’s coordinator, at eric.detweiler@mtsu.edu. Referrals of potential interviewees are also welcome.