- 1 University Station A1105
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712 - 512-471-6561
Scott R. Stroud
The University of Texas at Austin, Communication Studies, Faculty Member
- Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Department MemberThe University of Texas at Austin, Media Ethics Initiative, Department MemberThe University of Texas at Austin, Rhetoric & Writing, Department Memberadd
- Pragmatism, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Communication, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Kant, Comparative Philosophy, and 142 moreSchopenhauer, Public Address, Aesthetics, Rhetoric, Rhetorical Theory, Rhetorical Criticism, Humanities, Meliorism, Philosophy, Ethics, Pragmatist Aesthetics, JAIN PHILOSOPHY, Jainism, Meaning and argumentation, Indian Philosophy, Communication Studies, Film Studies, Mythology, Film Analysis, Narrative, Narrative Theory, John Dewey, Public Speaking, Vision, Percpetion, Somaesthetics, Neuroarthistory, Neuroscience, Synaesthesia, Blind Vision, Phenomenology, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Luce Irigary, Embodiment, Multisensoriality, Reader Response, Joseph Campbell, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dogen, Comparative Rhetoric, Narrative Paradigm, Art of Communication, Kant Rhetoric, Rhetorical Perspectivism, Rhetorical Force, Ontological Orientation, Natural Selection and Meliorism, Constructive Meliorism, Dewey Mindfulness, Dewey on Communication, John Dewey and Communication, Jaina Studies, Jain and Sramana Studies, Rhetorical Theory and Criticism, History of Philosophy, Phyrronism and Ancient Skepticism, American Philosophy, Philosophy Of Language, Pragmatism (Philosophy), Everyday Aesthetics, Aesthetic Experience, Immanuel Kant, Ambedkar, Swami Vivekananda, Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda, Vivekananda, Skepticism, Richard Shusterman, Dalit studies, Caste, Gandhi, Gandhian Studies, Cultural appropriation, Jonathan Haidt, Engaged Buddhism, Asian Religions, Hinduism and Christianity in India, Religious Violence, Religious Conversion, South Asian Studies, Gail Omvedt, Composition and Rhetoric, Democracy, Education, History of Rhetoric, News Media Ethics, Journalism Ethics, Media Ethics, Shame Theory, Computer Ethics, Blogging, Shame, Comparative Religious Ethics, Mass Communication and New Media, Online Media, New Media, Computer Networks, Computer-Mediated Communication, Mass-Media Ethics, Bullying, Hacktivism, Twitter, Anonymous, Cyber Bullying, Naming and Shaming, Social Media Ethics, Doxing, Twitter Ethics, Religion, Sociology of Religion, Political Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Social Justice, Dewey, Justice, Social Justice in Education, Aesthetics and Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics, Caste and Untouchability, Indian Politics, John Dewey's Aesthetics, Religious Studies, American Pragmatism, Mahatma Gandhi, Caste and Gender Issues in Indian Culture and Literature, Dalit studies, Scheduled caste issues, Ambedkar Studies, Ambedkarism, Classical American Pragmatism, Gandhian Thought, Relevance of caste in contemporary indian society, Religious Rhetoric, Abhedananda, Critical Theory, Mindfulness, indian pragmatism, Dalit Feminism, John Durham Peters, Technology, Political Science, History, and Media Studiesedit
- Dr. Scott R. Stroud (Ph.D., Temple University, 2006) is a Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Tex... moreDr. Scott R. Stroud (Ph.D., Temple University, 2006) is a Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and Director of the Media Ethics Initiative (www.mediaethicsinitiative.org). He specializes in the intersection between communication and culture. Working at the juncture of rhetoric and philosophy, much of his research extends the thought of the American pragmatists into the realms of rhetorical experience and political activity. He is particularly interested in the connections between artful communication, individual flourishing, religion, and democracy. His book, John Dewey and the Artful Life (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011), engages these themes in detail. His most recent book, Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2014), provides a first-of-its-kind reappraisal of Kant and his relation to the rhetorical tradition. Currently he is completing a book manuscript that tells the story of Bhimrao Ambedkar’s brush with Deweyan pragmatism at Columbia University during 1913-1916 and how it shaped his innovative pursuit of social justice in India. Stroud’s other work also engages topics in comparative/non-western rhetoric, religious rhetoric, narrative theory, and communication ethics. His research has been published in venues such as Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Philosophy & Rhetoric, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, the Journal of Communication and Religion, the Western Journal of Communication, Advances in the History of Rhetoric, and the Journal of Speculative Philosophy. In 2014-2015, he was a visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University. ARTICLES AND RESOURCES PROVIDED ON THIS ACADEMIA.EDU PAGE ARE FOR EDUCATIONAL AND RESEARCH USES ONLY.edit
The untold story of Bhimrao Ambedkar, John Dewey, and the evolution of pragmatism in India. Order US/Europe or South Asia editions here: https://linktr.ee/scottrstroud Book preview here:... more
The untold story of Bhimrao Ambedkar, John Dewey, and the evolution of pragmatism in India.
Order US/Europe or South Asia editions here: https://linktr.ee/scottrstroud
Book preview here: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Evolution_of_Pragmatism_in_India/-YmsEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
Order US/Europe or South Asia editions here: https://linktr.ee/scottrstroud
Book preview here: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Evolution_of_Pragmatism_in_India/-YmsEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
Research Interests:
Immanuel Kant is rarely connected to rhetoric by those who study philosophy or the rhetorical tradition. If anything, Kant is said to see rhetoric as mere manipulation and as not worthy of attention. In Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric,... more
Immanuel Kant is rarely connected to rhetoric by those who study philosophy or the rhetorical tradition. If anything, Kant is said to see rhetoric as mere manipulation and as not worthy of attention. In Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric, Scott Stroud presents a first-of-its-kind reappraisal of Kant and the role he gives rhetorical practices in his philosophy. By examining the range of terms that Kant employs to discuss various forms of communication, Stroud argues that the general thesis that Kant disparaged rhetoric is untenable. Instead, he offers a more nuanced view of Kant on rhetoric and its relation to moral cultivation.
For Kant, certain rhetorical practices in education, religious settings, and public argument become vital tools to move humans toward moral improvement without infringing on their individual autonomy. Through the use of rhetorical means such as examples, religious narratives, symbols, group prayer, and fallibilistic public argument, individuals can persuade other agents to move toward more cultivated states of inner and outer autonomy. For the Kant recovered in this book, rhetoric becomes another part of human activity that can be animated by the value of humanity, and it can serve as a powerful tool to convince agents to embark on the arduous task of moral self-cultivation.
http://www.amazon.com/Kant-Promise-Rhetoric-Scott-Stroud/dp/027106420X/
For Kant, certain rhetorical practices in education, religious settings, and public argument become vital tools to move humans toward moral improvement without infringing on their individual autonomy. Through the use of rhetorical means such as examples, religious narratives, symbols, group prayer, and fallibilistic public argument, individuals can persuade other agents to move toward more cultivated states of inner and outer autonomy. For the Kant recovered in this book, rhetoric becomes another part of human activity that can be animated by the value of humanity, and it can serve as a powerful tool to convince agents to embark on the arduous task of moral self-cultivation.
http://www.amazon.com/Kant-Promise-Rhetoric-Scott-Stroud/dp/027106420X/
Research Interests: Aesthetics, Kant, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Literary Criticism, and 16 moreEnlightenment, Literary Theory, Kant's Practical Philosophy, Rhetorical Criticism, Intellectual History of Enlightenment, Aesthetics and Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics, Art Criticism, Immanuel Kant, Kant's Political Philosophy, History of Rhetoric, Kant & neo-Kantianism, Rhetorical Theory and Criticism, Kantian ethics, History of Argumentation and Rhetoric, and Continental Philosophy and Aesthetics
Aesthetic experience has had a long and contentious history in the Western intellectual tradition. Following Kant and Hegel, a human’s interaction with nature or art frequently has been conceptualized as separate from issues of practical... more
Aesthetic experience has had a long and contentious history in the Western intellectual tradition. Following Kant and Hegel, a human’s interaction with nature or art frequently has been conceptualized as separate from issues of practical activity or moral value. This book examines how art can be seen as a way of moral cultivation. Scott Stroud uses the thought of the American pragmatist John Dewey to argue that art and the aesthetic have a close connection to morality. Dewey gives us a way to reconceptualize our ideas of ends, means, and experience so as to locate the moral value of aesthetic experience in the experience of absorption itself, as well as in the experience of reflective attention evoked by an art object.
“John Dewey and the Artful Life carefully reconstructs John Dewey’s account of aesthetic experience, links it to forms of moral cultivation, and extends pragmatism’s meliorist project. Joining philosophy and practice, Scott Stroud both advances our understanding of pragmatist aesthetics and points us toward ways of everyday living that would adjust us better to our circumstances and work, call us to greater mindfulness about the moral possibilities of our situated presents, and help us communicate in a fuller manner aesthetically and ethically.” —Peter Simonson, University of Colorado at Boulder
“Scott Stroud’s John Dewey and the Artful Life is an attempt to respond to our contemporary lives of Thoreauvian quiet desperation. Though he trades heavily on the aesthetics of John Dewey, Stroud does more than present a historical analysis. He engages Dewey’s ideas in the work of bringing artfulness to the full range of our everyday experiences as a mode of self-cultivation. The upshot is that, for Stroud, philosophy can direct us to the sorts of aesthetic experiences that can help ameliorate our social inertia and cynicism. Through argument and example, Stroud builds a strong case for his pragmatic uses of Dewey’s thought.” —Douglas Anderson, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
“Scott Stroud’s innovative investigations of the intimacies of aesthetic and moral experience invite his readers to engage a type of artful mindfulness that is at once integrative and melioristic.” —Larry Hickman, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
“Scott Stroud's fine volume is the most complete and wide-ranging treatment of Dewey's aesthetics ever to appear. In the best pragmatist spirit, it uses its comprehensive scholarship to help us reconstruct not only art but many dimensions of our shared human experience.” —Crispin Sartwell, Dickinson College"
“John Dewey and the Artful Life carefully reconstructs John Dewey’s account of aesthetic experience, links it to forms of moral cultivation, and extends pragmatism’s meliorist project. Joining philosophy and practice, Scott Stroud both advances our understanding of pragmatist aesthetics and points us toward ways of everyday living that would adjust us better to our circumstances and work, call us to greater mindfulness about the moral possibilities of our situated presents, and help us communicate in a fuller manner aesthetically and ethically.” —Peter Simonson, University of Colorado at Boulder
“Scott Stroud’s John Dewey and the Artful Life is an attempt to respond to our contemporary lives of Thoreauvian quiet desperation. Though he trades heavily on the aesthetics of John Dewey, Stroud does more than present a historical analysis. He engages Dewey’s ideas in the work of bringing artfulness to the full range of our everyday experiences as a mode of self-cultivation. The upshot is that, for Stroud, philosophy can direct us to the sorts of aesthetic experiences that can help ameliorate our social inertia and cynicism. Through argument and example, Stroud builds a strong case for his pragmatic uses of Dewey’s thought.” —Douglas Anderson, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
“Scott Stroud’s innovative investigations of the intimacies of aesthetic and moral experience invite his readers to engage a type of artful mindfulness that is at once integrative and melioristic.” —Larry Hickman, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
“Scott Stroud's fine volume is the most complete and wide-ranging treatment of Dewey's aesthetics ever to appear. In the best pragmatist spirit, it uses its comprehensive scholarship to help us reconstruct not only art but many dimensions of our shared human experience.” —Crispin Sartwell, Dickinson College"
Research Interests: Communication, Pragmatism, Performing Arts, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, and 12 moreArt, American Philosophy, Literary Criticism, Mindfulness, Textual Criticism, Performance Art, John Dewey, Art Criticism, Moral Philosophy, Pragmatism (Philosophy), John Dewey's Aesthetics, and Art Theory and Criticism
This essential new text is designed for courses in contemporary moral issues, applied ethics, and leadership. Emphasizing personal choice in the study of ethics, the authors take the reader on a journey of self-discovery rather than a... more
This essential new text is designed for courses in contemporary moral issues, applied ethics, and leadership. Emphasizing personal choice in the study of ethics, the authors take the reader on a journey of self-discovery rather than a mere academic survey of the field of ethics.
A Practical Guide to Ethics: Living and Leading with Integrity helps students develop their skills in ethical decision-making and put those decisions into effective practice. Its unique focus on leadership, especially the moral dimensions of understanding one’s own values, teaches students to understand and, through dialog and negotiation, communicate their own beliefs as a step to building coalitions with those who may hold different views. It is also distinctive in combining ethical theory with both multicultural ethics (Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, feminism) and a practical orientation to moral decision-making and leadership.
A Practical Guide to Ethics: Living and Leading with Integrity helps students develop their skills in ethical decision-making and put those decisions into effective practice. Its unique focus on leadership, especially the moral dimensions of understanding one’s own values, teaches students to understand and, through dialog and negotiation, communicate their own beliefs as a step to building coalitions with those who may hold different views. It is also distinctive in combining ethical theory with both multicultural ethics (Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, feminism) and a practical orientation to moral decision-making and leadership.
Research Interests:
Democracy proposes the impossible: that each citizen makes community with those they consider opponents or foes. In the increasingly embittered partisan environment animating so many democracies, this paradoxical demand justifies more... more
Democracy proposes the impossible: that each citizen makes community
with those they consider opponents or foes. In the increasingly embittered partisan environment animating so many democracies, this paradoxical demand justifies more attention. This article explores the challenges of democracy among polarized and divided groups by engaging the political theory of Bhimrao Ambedkar’s Navayana pragmatism. Ambedkar, an Indian political figure and thinker who felt the crushing oppression of
caste discrimination, reshapes the pragmatism of John Dewey to better encapsulate the importance of overcoming divisions and injustices while forging a community of shared interests. Using Ambedkar’s merging of the values of liberty, equality, and fraternity into a pragmatist vision of democracy as a habit or way of life, this article demonstrates that justice can be usefully taken as a balancing of values among agreeing and disagreeing citizens. This also leads to a recognition of the tragedy of democracy, or the fact that attending to the end and means of fraternity places limits on what one group can do to their opponents in the pursuit of freedom or equality.
with those they consider opponents or foes. In the increasingly embittered partisan environment animating so many democracies, this paradoxical demand justifies more attention. This article explores the challenges of democracy among polarized and divided groups by engaging the political theory of Bhimrao Ambedkar’s Navayana pragmatism. Ambedkar, an Indian political figure and thinker who felt the crushing oppression of
caste discrimination, reshapes the pragmatism of John Dewey to better encapsulate the importance of overcoming divisions and injustices while forging a community of shared interests. Using Ambedkar’s merging of the values of liberty, equality, and fraternity into a pragmatist vision of democracy as a habit or way of life, this article demonstrates that justice can be usefully taken as a balancing of values among agreeing and disagreeing citizens. This also leads to a recognition of the tragedy of democracy, or the fact that attending to the end and means of fraternity places limits on what one group can do to their opponents in the pursuit of freedom or equality.
Research Interests:
Democracy seems torn between the ideal search for harmony and unity and the reality of polarizing differences and injustices. Harsh criticism both seems a useful response to societal problems and appears to undermine the search for this... more
Democracy seems torn between the ideal search for harmony and unity
and the reality of polarizing differences and injustices. Harsh criticism both seems a useful response to societal problems and appears to undermine the search for this ideal of unity. This article engages Bhimrao Ambedkar, the Indian statesman and anti-caste philosopher, to explore this tension in democratic rhetoric. By placing his harsh critique of Hinduism in Riddles in Hinduism in conversation with his crafting of fraternity and love as ideals in The Buddha and His Dhamma, we can perceive the tense dialectic between the democratic injunction to seek community
with opponents and the very human impulse to harshly criticize those perpetuating injustice. Analyzing archival drafts of his work that capture his processes of revision and invention, I extract a sense of tentative critique as an entailed form of Ambedkar’s reconstructive rhetoric. Such a tentative rhetorical style reduces the tensions between loving one’s enemies and harshly criticizing one’s opponents by introducing ways to lessen the impact of excessive critique, showing Ambedkar’s potential as an innovative thinker in the global history of rhetoric.
and the reality of polarizing differences and injustices. Harsh criticism both seems a useful response to societal problems and appears to undermine the search for this ideal of unity. This article engages Bhimrao Ambedkar, the Indian statesman and anti-caste philosopher, to explore this tension in democratic rhetoric. By placing his harsh critique of Hinduism in Riddles in Hinduism in conversation with his crafting of fraternity and love as ideals in The Buddha and His Dhamma, we can perceive the tense dialectic between the democratic injunction to seek community
with opponents and the very human impulse to harshly criticize those perpetuating injustice. Analyzing archival drafts of his work that capture his processes of revision and invention, I extract a sense of tentative critique as an entailed form of Ambedkar’s reconstructive rhetoric. Such a tentative rhetorical style reduces the tensions between loving one’s enemies and harshly criticizing one’s opponents by introducing ways to lessen the impact of excessive critique, showing Ambedkar’s potential as an innovative thinker in the global history of rhetoric.
Research Interests:
Democracy seems torn between the ideal search for harmony and unity and the reality of polarizing differences and injustices. Harsh criticism both seems a useful response to societal problems and appears to undermine the search for this... more
Democracy seems torn between the ideal search for harmony and unity and the reality of polarizing differences and injustices. Harsh criticism both seems a useful response to societal problems and appears to undermine the search for this ideal of unity. This article engages Bhimrao Ambedkar, the Indian statesman and anti-caste philosopher, to explore this tension in democratic rhetoric. By placing his harsh critique of Hinduism in Riddles in Hinduism in conversation with his crafting of fraternity and love as ideals in The Buddha and His Dhamma, we can perceive the tense dialectic between the democratic injunction to seek community with opponents and the very human impulse to harshly criticize those perpetuating injustice. Analyzing archival drafts of his work that capture his processes of revision and invention, I extract a sense of tentative critique as an entailed form of Ambedkar’s reconstructive rhetoric. Such a tentative rhetorical style reduces the tensions between loving one’s enemies and harshly criticizing one’s opponents by introducing ways to lessen the impact of excessive critique, showing Ambedkar’s potential as an innovative thinker in the global history of rhetoric.
Full article here (open access):
https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/jhr/article/25/1/2/300926/Excessively-Harsh-Critique-and-Democratic-Rhetoric
Full article here (open access):
https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/jhr/article/25/1/2/300926/Excessively-Harsh-Critique-and-Democratic-Rhetoric
Research Interests:
While many have explored the international reception of Dewey's thought-for instance, by Hu Shih in the Chinese context-little has been said about the fate of pragmatism in India. Yet there is a line of discernable influence to Indian... more
While many have explored the international reception of Dewey's thought-for instance, by Hu Shih in the Chinese context-little has been said about the fate of pragmatism in India. Yet there is a line of discernable influence to Indian politics and civil rights movements in the person of Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891-1956). Ambedkar was highly educated in the West, earning degrees from universities in America and England. Importantly for the fate of pragmatism in India, one of the academic mentors that made a significant impact on Ambedkar during his education at Columbia University (1913-1916) was John Dewey. The story of the specifics of this influence, however, has yet to be told. How has Dewey mattered for Ambedkar’s complex and creative thought? What has Ambedkar done to the tradition of pragmatism in his Indian context to change it, and to show its potentialities in dealing with caste oppression and other sources of injustice?
https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/pluralist/article/17/1/15/294093/Recovering-the-Story-of-Pragmatism-in-India
https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/pluralist/article/17/1/15/294093/Recovering-the-Story-of-Pragmatism-in-India
Research Interests:
This study explores the importance of pragmatist philosophical theory for rhetorical inquiry. In particular, it engages the ethical thought of John Dewey to highlight certain practical and metaphysical consonances with longstanding... more
This study explores the importance of pragmatist philosophical theory for rhetorical inquiry. In particular, it engages the ethical thought of John Dewey to highlight certain practical and metaphysical consonances with longstanding thematics in rhetorical education such as the notion of dissoi logoi. By explicating the connections between the metaphysical flexibility posited by Dewey's ethics and the practical rhetorical pedagogy connected to two-sided argument (dissoi logoi), one can see pragmatism as a vivid ground of expansion for rhetorical pedagogy that troubles the oftenseparated arenas of rhetorical theory and rhetorical praxis. Alternatively, the importance of rhetorical pedagogy in expanded accounts of pragmatist ethics becomes important, since the situatedness of moral inquiry proffered by thinkers such as Dewey entail educative methods of teaching moral reasoning sensitive to pluralistic settings and democratic communities. Thus, moral education and rhetorical training form a close-knit unit in a rhetorically-sensitive reconstruction of Dewey's philosophy. <http://www.johndeweysociety.org/dewey-studies/>
Research Interests:
What are the hopes and ideals for democracy in a time of division and partisanship? This article explores John Dewey's famous address, "Creative Democracy--The Task Before Us" as a repository of materials for theorizing a new approach to... more
What are the hopes and ideals for democracy in a time of division and partisanship? This article explores John Dewey's famous address, "Creative Democracy--The Task Before Us" as a repository of materials for theorizing a new approach to democracy in a polarized state. Focusing on the quality and variety of connections--actual, mediated, or possible--connective democracy denotes a new approach to thinking about what we want out of democracy, and what has gone wrong in many of today's fractured states.
<https://mediaethicsmagazine.com/index.php/browse-back-issues/216-spring-2021-vol-32-no-2/3999348-connective-democracy-the-task-before-us>
<https://mediaethicsmagazine.com/index.php/browse-back-issues/216-spring-2021-vol-32-no-2/3999348-connective-democracy-the-task-before-us>
Research Interests:
Global concerns about misinformation have shed light on another escalating, and connected, international issue: political polarisation. After describing polarisation, its consequences, and its connection to misinformation, this chapter... more
Global concerns about misinformation have shed light on another escalating, and connected, international issue: political polarisation. After describing polarisation, its consequences, and its connection to misinformation, this chapter reviews research from across the social sciences, information sciences, and humanities in order to map out empirically sound and theoretically rigorous solutions to the harmful aspects of polarisation. These solutions are integral to building a new "connective democracy" in a world now defined by digital communication and the promises and perils of networked life.
*Citation:
Bruun Overgaard, C. S., Dudo, A., Lease, M. Masullo, G. M., Stroud, N. J., Stroud, S. R., & Woolley, S. (2021). “Building Connective Democracy: Interdisciplinary Solutions to the Problem of Polarisation,” The Routledge Companion to Media Misrepresentation and Populism, Howard Tumber & Silvio Waisbord (eds.), Routledge, pp. 569-578.
*Citation:
Bruun Overgaard, C. S., Dudo, A., Lease, M. Masullo, G. M., Stroud, N. J., Stroud, S. R., & Woolley, S. (2021). “Building Connective Democracy: Interdisciplinary Solutions to the Problem of Polarisation,” The Routledge Companion to Media Misrepresentation and Populism, Howard Tumber & Silvio Waisbord (eds.), Routledge, pp. 569-578.
Research Interests:
An exploration of the influence of John Dewey on Bhimrao Ambedkar's thought, as well as the novel directions that Ambedkar takes the pragmatist tradition in India. Published in: B.R. Ambedkar: The Quest for Justice, Volume 1, Aakash Singh... more
An exploration of the influence of John Dewey on Bhimrao Ambedkar's thought, as well as the novel directions that Ambedkar takes the pragmatist tradition in India. Published in: B.R. Ambedkar: The Quest for Justice, Volume 1, Aakash Singh Rathore (ed.), Oxford University Press, 2020.
Research Interests:
What are the obstacles to believing that narratives can argue? How can we be assured that narratives argue well? This article will explore major objections to accounts of narrative argument and literary truth, and explore a theory of... more
What are the obstacles to believing that narratives can argue? How can we be assured that narratives argue well? This article will explore major objections to accounts of narrative argument and literary truth, and explore a theory of narrative reasoning that emphasizes identification as a vital part of argument. In exploring the account of narrative offered by Walter Fisher in light of concerns with narrative in rhetorical studies and philosophy, I explicate a renewed sense of identification and narrative reasoning that can meet many of these objections to giving narrative a role in human communication and argument. Of particular interest are the resources available in narratives for active identification by an auditor or reader as good reasons for action or belief in their own extratextual activities.
Research Interests:
An exploration of John Dewey's reception of Immanuel Kant's aesthetic theory. Forthcoming in “Aesthetic Experience and Its Values: John Dewey's Pragmatist Challenge to Kantian Aesthetics,” Kant’s Critique of Aesthetic Judgment in the... more
An exploration of John Dewey's reception of Immanuel Kant's aesthetic theory. Forthcoming in “Aesthetic Experience and Its Values: John Dewey's Pragmatist Challenge to Kantian Aesthetics,” Kant’s Critique of Aesthetic Judgment in the Twentieth Century, Stefano Marino & Pietro Terzi (eds.), Walter de Gruyter.
Research Interests:
Increasing attention is being directed at the impact of fake news on democratic societies across the globe. Scholars in a range of fields are attempting to determine who is behind fake news propaganda efforts, what its effects are, and... more
Increasing attention is being directed at the impact of fake news on democratic societies across the globe. Scholars in a range of fields are attempting to determine who is behind fake news propaganda efforts, what its effects are, and how to combat it using technological means. This study looks at the ethical issues raised in the fight against fake news. By developing an outline of a pragmatist media ethics, this article examines the complex ethical terrain of the normative challenges of fake news. The pragmatist approach to fake news emphasizes the conflicting values and outcomes at stake in attempts to conceptualize and eradicate fake news. Such an imaginative engagement with the phenomenon of disinformation on its own terms is an essential first step in diagnosing its ethical challenges and potential solutions.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23736992.2019.1672554
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23736992.2019.1672554
Research Interests:
This article examines the ethical choices that are implicit in acts of memorialization. By engaging literature on the rhetoric of memorials and pragmatist aesthetics, we argue that memorialization involves a range of important ethical... more
This article examines the ethical choices that are implicit in acts of memorialization. By engaging literature on the rhetoric of memorials and pragmatist aesthetics, we argue that memorialization involves a range of important ethical choices in who is remembered, how they are remembered, and the experience the act of memorialization evokes in viewers. By using John Dewey’s nascent account of memorial aesthetics, we construct an exploratory typology of the ways that memorials can use and evoke the experience of viewers. The means of experiential reconstruction are also found to involve important ethical decisions. We explore the usefulness of this typology in reference to two different memorials: Ambedkar Memorial Park in Lucknow, India, and the Memorial for the Unknown War Deserters and for the Victims of the National Socialist Military Justice System in Erfurt, Germany.
Research Interests:
Rhetoric often serves as a way to bridge important differences in the act of persuasion. As a field, rhetoric has worked to include more and more diverse voices. Much more is left to be written, however, on how this admittedly important... more
Rhetoric often serves as a way to bridge important differences in the act of persuasion. As a field, rhetoric has worked to include more and more diverse voices. Much more is left to be written, however, on how this admittedly important concept of diversity affects the study and practice of rhetoric. This volume of Advances in the History of Rhetoric serves as a material trace of the American Society for the History of Rhetoric’s recent attempts to highlight diversity in and among rhetorical traditions. It collects essays from those presented at the 2018 symposium on the theme of “Diversity and Rhetorical Traditions.” All of these essays were subjected to additional review to fine-tune their arguments for this special journal issue. Each displays the perils and promises of engaging diversity as a topic within – and among – rhetorical traditions. Part of the challenge of coming to terms with difference is the confrontation with something, be it a tradition, a thinker, or a text, that challenges one’s own way of understanding the world, possible accounts of it, and our structures of reasoning and justification. Marking something as “different” is better than marking that person, text, or tradition as “wrong” or “misguided.” Coming to terms with – and even simply recognizing – difference is an accomplishment, especially when it’s not followed by dismissal or rejection. We too often default to the familiar – familiar texts and standards of judgment.
Research Interests:
By uncovering the answer to a riddle that has left published versions of Ambedkar’s ‘Riddles in Hinduism’ incomplete, I shed further light on the long-term impact of John Dewey on Ambedkar’s philosophy.
Research Interests:
How did Ambedkar’s engagement with the 1908 "Ethics" by American philosophers John Dewey and James Hayden Tufts inform and shape his quest for social justice in India?
Research Interests:
This study explores the pragmatist thought of the Indian politician and “untouchable” rights activity, Bhimrao Ambedkar. Ambedkar’s connection to the pragmatist tradition through John Dewey is discussed, as well as the various lines of... more
This study explores the pragmatist thought of the Indian politician and “untouchable” rights activity, Bhimrao Ambedkar. Ambedkar’s connection to the pragmatist tradition through John Dewey is discussed, as well as the various lines of influence that Dewey had upon his work once back in India. Beyond this general appraisal, this chapter exhaustively charts the echoes of Dewey’s words, phrases, and ideas in Ambedkar’s vital "Annihilation of Caste” text, showing that pragmatism influenced his as both a source of ideas as well as a method of rhetorical practice. Ambedkar’s pragmatist appropriations lead to his grafting of Deweyan ideas of democracy onto his battle against Indian caste oppression, as well as general reconstructive rhetorical method.
From: "Recovering Overlooked Pragmatists in Communication: Extending the Living Conversation about Pragmatism and Rhetoric," Robert Danisch, (Ed.), Palgrave.
From: "Recovering Overlooked Pragmatists in Communication: Extending the Living Conversation about Pragmatism and Rhetoric," Robert Danisch, (Ed.), Palgrave.
Research Interests: Buddhism, Hinduism, Comparative Religion, Communication, Rhetoric, and 15 moreComposition and Rhetoric, Comparative Philosophy, Political Theory, Public Address, Political Science, Rhetorical Criticism, Democracy, Rhetorical Theory, India, Dalit studies, Ambedkar Studies, Caste, Gandhian Studies, Adaptation and Appropriation Theory, and Bhimrao Ambedkar
Drawing upon the thought of John Dewey, this article elucidates a notion of criticism that does justice to both the concern of critical theory for emancipation from structures of power in social settings, and the contingent individual’s... more
Drawing upon the thought of John Dewey, this article elucidates a notion of criticism that does justice to both the concern of critical theory for emancipation from structures of power in social settings, and the contingent individual’s freedom in making sense of and with the world around them. It argues that the task of reasoned reflection on artistic and societal habits is not simply to unearth and extirpate a determinate set of oppressive ideologies, but also to engage in pragmatic and pluralistic acts of reconstruction; that is, agents critique objects and practices in a range of ways to recreate their own selves and the selves around them.
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This article argues that we should take the philosophical thought of Bhimrao Ambedkar, the Indian politician and advocate for " untouchable" rights, seriously as part of the pragmatist tradition. Doing so will reveal the international... more
This article argues that we should take the philosophical thought of Bhimrao Ambedkar, the Indian politician and advocate for " untouchable" rights, seriously as part of the pragmatist tradition. Doing so will reveal the international impact of pragmatist thought and will contribute to current concerns over how citizens should communicate and pursue advocacy in pluralistic societies. As a student of Dewey's, Ambedkar took pragmatist ideas of democracy and integrated them into his reading of Buddhism. His reconstruction of nonviolence (ahimsa) as love of one's friends and enemies leaves him open to criticisms from those favoring revolutionary means to achieve social justice. The final section considers criticisms stemming from insurrectionist ethics and argues that Ambedkar operates as an important emancipatory counter to this position. Ambedkar's pragmatism holds back from violent means, as they tend to destroy too many people and valued ends that one needs for an ideal democratic community.
Research Interests: Hinduism, Comparative Religion, Communication, Pragmatism, Comparative Philosophy, and 18 morePeace and Conflict Studies, Indian Philosophy, American Philosophy, Social Justice, Nonviolence, Religion and Violence/Nonviolence, John Dewey, Caste and Untouchability, Dalit studies, Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhian Thought, Caste, Gandhian Studies, Indian Philosophy and Religion, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Dalitology and Ambedkarism, and indian pragmatism
*Winner of: (1) Top Journal Article of the Year Award from the Communication Ethics Division of the National Communication Association (2014). (2) the Ellen A. Wartella Distinguished Research Award from the Moody College of... more
*Winner of:
(1) Top Journal Article of the Year Award from the Communication Ethics Division of the National Communication Association (2014).
(2) the Ellen A. Wartella Distinguished Research Award from the Moody College of Communication, University of Texas at Austin (2014)*
This study seeks to understand and critique the growing online trend of “revenge porn,” or the intentional embarrassment of identifiable individuals through the posting of nude images online.
This posting of intimate pictures, often done out of motives of revenge for perceived relational scorn, is enhanced by the varying levels of online anonymity. Using the theoretical framework of John Dewey’s pragmatism, this study both analyzes this understudied but complex new problem precipitated by the conditions of the online self and establishes the groundwork for the use of pragmatist ethics in other areas of communication ethics.
(1) Top Journal Article of the Year Award from the Communication Ethics Division of the National Communication Association (2014).
(2) the Ellen A. Wartella Distinguished Research Award from the Moody College of Communication, University of Texas at Austin (2014)*
This study seeks to understand and critique the growing online trend of “revenge porn,” or the intentional embarrassment of identifiable individuals through the posting of nude images online.
This posting of intimate pictures, often done out of motives of revenge for perceived relational scorn, is enhanced by the varying levels of online anonymity. Using the theoretical framework of John Dewey’s pragmatism, this study both analyzes this understudied but complex new problem precipitated by the conditions of the online self and establishes the groundwork for the use of pragmatist ethics in other areas of communication ethics.
Research Interests: Philosophy, Ethics, Pragmatism, First Amendment Law (USA), Media Ethics, and 11 moreMass-Media Ethics, Communication Ethics, John Dewey, Moral Philosophy, Pornography, Pornography Studies, American Pragmatism, First Amendment/Freedom of Expression issues, Pragmatist Ethics, Social Media Ethics, and Revenge Pornography
This article explores the contours of the Indian pragmatist Bhimrao Ambedkar and his reconstruction of Buddhism in the 1950s. As a student of John Dewey at Columbia University, young Ambedkar was heavily influenced by the pragmatist ideas... more
This article explores the contours of the Indian pragmatist Bhimrao Ambedkar and his reconstruction of Buddhism in the 1950s. As a student of John Dewey at Columbia University, young Ambedkar was heavily influenced by the pragmatist ideas of democracy and reconstruction. Throughout his life he would continue to evoke Dewey’s words and ideas in his fight against caste injustice in India. This article explores the possibility that Ambedkar could have been influenced by Dewey’s work, “Creative Democracy—The Task Before Us.” In exploring the intriguing evidence that points toward such an influence, Ambedkar’s "The Buddha and His Dhamma" emerges as a site of pragmatist reconstruction of Buddhism and as a personal democratic guide to action.
From: Stroud, Scott R. (2018) "Creative Democracy, Communication, and the Uncharted Sources of Bhimrao Ambedkar’s Deweyan Pragmatism," Education and Culture, Vol. 34 (1).
From: Stroud, Scott R. (2018) "Creative Democracy, Communication, and the Uncharted Sources of Bhimrao Ambedkar’s Deweyan Pragmatism," Education and Culture, Vol. 34 (1).
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Intercultural contexts introduce unique sources of complexity into our theories of rhetoric and persuasion. This study examines one of the most successful cases of intercultural rhetoric concerning religion: the case of Swami Vivekananda,... more
Intercultural contexts introduce unique sources of complexity into our theories of rhetoric and persuasion. This study examines one of the most successful cases of intercultural rhetoric concerning religion: the case of Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu monk from India who came to the United States in 1893 for the World's Parliament of Religions. He arrived as an unknown monk, but he left America years later as the nationally known face of Hinduism. Facing a tense scene in 1893 that featured a plurality of religions and American organizers and audiences who judged Hinduism as inferior to Christianity, Vivekananda enacted a unique rhetoric of pluralism to assert the value of his form of Hinduism while simultaneously respecting other religions. This study extracts from Vivekananda's popular performance at the parliament a pluralistic style of rhetorical advocacy, one that builds upon his unique reading of Hindu religious-philosophical traditions. This pluralistic style can be used to unravel some of the theoretical issues created by invitational rhetoric's reading of persuasion as inherently violent to disagreeing others.
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This article engages the understudied Indian reformer, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956), in order to explicate pragmatism’s influence in non-western rhetorical situations. By charting the influence of John Dewey on Ambedkar as a... more
This article engages the understudied Indian reformer, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956), in order to explicate pragmatism’s influence in non-western rhetorical situations. By charting the influence of John Dewey on Ambedkar as a student at Columbia University, this study explores Ambedkar’s translation of pragmatism into an Indian context filled with religiously-underwritten injustice. His form of pragmatist rhetoric focuses on conversion as a solution to the problems of untouchables in India, and represents a version of pragmatist rhetoric that is revolutionary in form and effect. Expanding our knowledge of how persuasion relates to religious conversion, I argue that Ambedkar constructs and employs a pragmatist rhetoric of reorientation. Honed by Ambedkar in the pluralistic context of India, this process is comprised of three distinct steps: evaluation of existing religious commitments, renunciation of harmful worldviews, and conversion to beneficial alternative religious orientations.
Research Interests: Religion, Sociology of Religion, Aesthetics, Political Philosophy, Ethics, and 43 moreCommunication, Pragmatism, Philosophy Of Religion, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Indian Philosophy, Pragmatist Aesthetics, Political Science, Social Justice, Dewey, Political communication, Religious Conversion, Rhetorical Criticism, Justice, Social Justice in Education, John Dewey, Aesthetics and Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics, Caste and Untouchability, Democracy, Pragmatism (Philosophy), Indian Politics, History of Rhetoric, John Dewey's Aesthetics, Religious Studies, American Pragmatism, Mahatma Gandhi, Caste and Gender Issues in Indian Culture and Literature, Dalit studies, Scheduled caste issues, Ambedkar Studies, Ambedkarism, Classical American Pragmatism, Gandhian Thought, Caste, Gandhian Studies, Relevance of caste in contemporary indian society, Religious Rhetoric, Cultural appropriation, Ambedkar, Anthropology of Religion, Ambedkarait, Ambedkar and After, and Dalitology and Ambedkarism
*Winner of the Top Journal Article of the Year Award from the Communication Ethics Division of the National Communication Association (2017).* This article examines the challenge of partisanship to the free and open communication... more
*Winner of the Top Journal Article of the Year Award from the Communication Ethics Division of the National Communication Association (2017).* This article examines the challenge of partisanship to the free and open communication entailed by rich notions of democracy. Exploring the vexing riddle of how democratic citizens can balance openness and assertiveness in their dialogic interactions, I turn to the American pragmatist tradition for two important starting points. Drawing from William James and John Dewey, I highlight how the pragmatist tradition provides a nuanced reading of charity, both towards individuals and to situations. Charity is a choice of disposition, and it has vital implications for pragmatist rhetoric's drive to instantiate a deep sense of democratic communication.
Research Interests: Ethics, Pragmatism, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Dialogue, and 12 moreWilliam James, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Media Ethics, Communication Ethics, John Dewey, Pragmatism (Philosophy), Argumentation Theory, History of Rhetoric, Argumentation Theory and Critical Thinking, American Pragmatism, Classical American Pragmatism, and Ethics of Communication
This study explores the religious advocacy of the " untouchable " reformer, Bhimrao Ambedkar, during the 1950s to expand what we know about the nexus between religion, force, and the quest for social justice. Unearthing the sources of... more
This study explores the religious advocacy of the " untouchable " reformer, Bhimrao Ambedkar, during the 1950s to expand what we know about the nexus between religion, force, and the quest for social justice. Unearthing the sources of Ambedkar's early references to John Dewey and pragmatism, this study argues that Ambedkar evinced an abiding concern over the role of force and violence in reform efforts. In his final years, Ambedkar addressed international audiences reconstructing Buddhism as an alternative to communism, a move that posited compassionate persuasion as the pragmatist answer to his early concerns over using force in pursuing social justice. [forthcoming in Journal of Religion 97 (2)]
Research Interests: Religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, Comparative Religion, Sociology of Religion, and 30 morePhilosophy, Ethics, Communication, Pragmatism, Philosophy Of Religion, Rhetoric, Comparative Philosophy, Indian Philosophy, Colonialism, Dewey, Communism, Social Activism, John Dewey, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Bertrand Russell, Pragmatism (Philosophy), History of Rhetoric, Comparative Rhetoric, India, Dalit studies, Asian Philosophy, History of Communism, Ambedkar Studies, Gandhian Thought, Caste, Gandhian Studies, Untouchable, Ambedkar, Comparative Philosophy and Religion, and Dalitology and Ambedkarism
It is well known that Bhimrao Ambedkar took classes from the American pragmatist John Dewey at Columbia University 1913-1916. It is also known that Ambedkar’s later activism and writings in the push for “untouchable” rights drew upon... more
It is well known that Bhimrao Ambedkar took classes from the American pragmatist John Dewey at Columbia University 1913-1916. It is also known that Ambedkar’s later activism and writings in the push for “untouchable” rights drew upon Deweyan texts and ideas, including many from Dewey’s 1916 book, "Democracy and Education." This present study asks and answers a question that has not been broached before: what exactly did Ambedkar admire in Dewey’s seminal text on education? Using Ambedkar’s own textual annotations in his personal copy of "Democracy and Education," I reconstruct the vision of pragmatism that Ambedkar seemed to identify and appropriate from his pragmatist teacher.
Research Interests: Religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, Philosophy, Ethics, and 21 morePragmatism, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Buddhist Studies, American Philosophy, Textual Criticism, Engaged Buddhism, English, Colonialism, Dewey, John Dewey, Caste and Untouchability, Pragmatism (Philosophy), History of Rhetoric, India, American Pragmatism, Hindu Studies, Caste, Gandhian Studies, Ambedkar, and Dalitology and Ambedkarism
This study explores the rhetoric of conversion developed by Bhimrao Ambedkar in his attempts to convert lower-caste Indians to Buddhism in the 1950s. Ambedkar, famous for being a political ally to the "untouchable " castes and a political... more
This study explores the rhetoric of conversion developed by Bhimrao Ambedkar in his attempts to convert lower-caste Indians to Buddhism in the 1950s. Ambedkar, famous for being a political ally to the "untouchable " castes and a political sparring partner to Gandhi in India's struggle for independence, is also well-known for his public advocacy for Buddhism. Starting in the 1930s, Ambedkar began arguing that he and his fellow untouchables should convert from Hinduism to escape caste oppression. Ambedkar was also influenced by his teacher at Columbia University, John Dewey. Religious conversion transformed in Ambedkar's rhetorical strategy to a meliorative program. His rhetoric of conversion operates in three stages: reflection on one's religious orientation, renunciation of a problematic orientation, and conversion to a more useful orientation. This study explores the final stage of Ambedkar's conversion rhetoric, the stage he only expands upon in his oratorical activity during his last decade of life. His rhetorical appeals to convert to Buddhism are found to be performative in nature and to be imbued with a Deweyan ethos of religious rhetoric as an emancipatory device for individuals and communities.
Research Interests: Religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, Ethics, Communication, and 24 morePragmatism, Philosophy Of Religion, Intercultural Communication, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, American Philosophy, Social Justice, Dewey, Religious Conversion, Religious communication, John Dewey, Caste and Untouchability, History of Rhetoric, Intercultural Communication and Rhetoric, Feminism and Social Justice, Comparative Rhetoric, Religious Studies, Caste and Gender Issues in Indian Culture and Literature, Caste, Religious Rhetoric, Intercultural Rhetoric, Ambedkar, Dalitology and Ambedkarism, and Ambedkarite Buddhism
From: Stroud, S. R. (2018). “Hinduism for the West: Swami Vivekananda’s Pluralism at the World’s Parliament of Religions,” Thinking Together: Lecturing, Learning, and Difference in the Long Nineteenth Century, Angela Ray & Paul Stob... more
From: Stroud, S. R. (2018). “Hinduism for the West: Swami Vivekananda’s Pluralism at the World’s Parliament of Religions,” Thinking Together: Lecturing, Learning, and Difference in the Long Nineteenth Century, Angela Ray & Paul Stob (eds.), Pennsylvania State University Press, 169-186. https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-08087-1.html
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This chapter examines the influence of American pragmatism on Bhimrao Ambedkar's reform activities on behalf of India's "untouchables." Ambedkar was highly influenced by John Dewey while studying at Columbia University in 1913-1916, but... more
This chapter examines the influence of American pragmatism on Bhimrao Ambedkar's reform activities on behalf of India's "untouchables." Ambedkar was highly influenced by John Dewey while studying at Columbia University in 1913-1916, but little is known about how Dewey's pragmatism actually influenced Ambedkar's thinking and activism. The present chapter adds to our understanding of Ambedkar's pragmatism by examining his personal annotated copy of Dewey and Tufts' 1908 book, "Ethics." By examining Ambedkar's textual engagement with this book, we can begin to unravel the mystery of what he saw in Deweyan pragmatism and how it shaped his activities as a reformer upon his return to India.
Research Interests: Religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, Ethics, Pragmatism, and 18 moreIntercultural Communication, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Comparative Philosophy, American Philosophy, Engaged Buddhism, John Dewey, Pragmatism (Philosophy), Socially Engaged Buddhism, History of Rhetoric, Intercultural Philosophy, India, Dalit studies, American Pragmatism, Caste, Ambedkar, Comparative Philosophy and Religion, and Dalitology and Ambedkarism
This article engages the work of John Dewey to outline a pragmatist philosophy of communication that is adaptive to the undemocratic effects of extreme partisanship in belief and argument. Using his aesthetic theory, I sketch out an... more
This article engages the work of John Dewey to outline a pragmatist philosophy of communication that is adaptive to the undemocratic effects of extreme partisanship in belief and argument. Using his aesthetic theory, I sketch out an account of the phenomenological motions of communicative experience of self among others. I then examine the ways that partisan habits of thinking can warp our communicative activities. Drawing upon Dewey’s writings on logic and ethics, I examine his account of the habits of intelligent communication. Building on this ideal, I propose “sympathy” as both a feeling and a cognitive method to decrease the pull of distorting partisan habits of reasoning in communicative situations. Linking mindful receptivity to conversational others and an explicit method of charity becomes a viable way to instill true communicative respect in democratic communicators.
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This article addresses the on-going debate between pluralistic and monistic approaches to dealing with critical disagreement. I return to the theory of world hypotheses advanced by Stephen C. Pepper, an understudied figure in aesthetics... more
This article addresses the on-going debate between pluralistic and monistic approaches to dealing with critical disagreement. I return to the theory of world hypotheses advanced by Stephen C. Pepper, an understudied figure in aesthetics and pragmatism, to enunciate a version of pluralism that centers on the nature of critical evidence and its functioning in social settings of argument. I argue that Pepper’s expansive philosophy holds interesting implications for what can be called the metaphysics of criticism, a point missed by partisans of standard views of pluralism and monism. Building on his analysis of equally autonomous (but non-commensurable) world hypotheses, this study enunciates an explicit notion of rhetorical pluralism that goes beyond simple relativism. This account can be labeled as an evidentiary pluralism, since it internalizes standards for evaluation to world views and recognizes their changeable nature among critics.
Research Interests: Philosophy, Aesthetics, Ethics, Pragmatism, Art History, and 25 moreRhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Art, Art Theory, American Philosophy, Literary Criticism, Pragmatist Aesthetics, Religious Pluralism, Legal Pluralism, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Rhetorical Criticism, John Dewey, Aesthetics and Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics, Art Criticism, Pragmatism (Philosophy), Rhetorical Theory, Monism, Pluralism, John Dewey's Aesthetics, American Pragmatism, Art Theory and Criticism, Classical American philosophy, Ancient Rhetoric and Poetics, and Stephen Pepper
What exactly did Bhimrao Ambedkar learn from John Dewey? How did he gain these influences? This chapter will examine the debt Ambedkar owes to Dewey's pragmatism, as well as what Ambedkar did to change that pragmatism to meet the demands... more
What exactly did Bhimrao Ambedkar learn from John Dewey? How did he gain these influences? This chapter will examine the debt Ambedkar owes to Dewey's pragmatism, as well as what Ambedkar did to change that pragmatism to meet the demands of the south Asian context.
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How exactly did the British philosopher, Bertrand Russell, influence Bhimrao Ambedkar? This study examines possible interpersonal connections that they may have shared, as well as lines of textual influence from Russell to Ambedkar. While... more
How exactly did the British philosopher, Bertrand Russell, influence Bhimrao Ambedkar? This study examines possible interpersonal connections that they may have shared, as well as lines of textual influence from Russell to Ambedkar. While we find it doubtful that Russell and Ambedkar ever met or corresponded, we do find evidence of Ambedkar's pragmatism being shaped by Russell's writings.
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This chapter examines the putatively simple concepts of "revenge porn" and "nonconsensual pornography" to argue that these are really complex online phenomena. While partisan narratives tend to see them as simple and unified occurrences,... more
This chapter examines the putatively simple concepts of "revenge porn" and "nonconsensual pornography" to argue that these are really complex online phenomena. While partisan narratives tend to see them as simple and unified occurrences, we demonstrate the variations of revenge porn posting behaviors. Using this novel analysis as a foundation, we discuss a series of revenge porn posting cases to demonstrate the complex nature of consent in the world of online content sharing.
Research Interests: Philosophy, Ethics, Communication, Applied Ethics, Rhetoric, and 13 moreMedia Ethics, Mass-Media Ethics, Communication Ethics, Social Media, Journalism Ethics, News Media Ethics, Internet Research Ethics, Pornography, Pornography Studies, Social Media Ethics, Revenge Pornography, Online Social Networks Ethics, and Revenge Porn
To combat the rising tide of online harassment many women are turning to counterspeech as a way of fighting digital misogyny. We explore the range of feminist counterspeech by engaging two representative case studies from the current... more
To combat the rising tide of online harassment many women are turning to counterspeech as a way of fighting digital misogyny. We explore the range of feminist counterspeech by engaging two representative case studies from the current online environment. The first example analyzed is Anna Gensler, a feminist who uses her artistic talents and social media as a way to shame harassers and misogynistic men. The second case study explored is TrollBusters, an organization dedicated to fighting the online bullying of females. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the various normative values involved in choosing a strategy of counterspeech, as well as the various ethical concerns that circulate around each strategy represented by the two case studies analyzed in this chapter.
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Twitter is a common tool in the hacktivism of Anonymous operatives seeking to reduce the amount of evil in the world. This chapter examines two Anonymous operations to elucidate the uncertain terrain of Twitter ethics: "OpAntiBully," a... more
Twitter is a common tool in the hacktivism of Anonymous operatives seeking to reduce the amount of evil in the world. This chapter examines two Anonymous operations to elucidate the uncertain terrain of Twitter ethics: "OpAntiBully," a concerted effort to harass and shame alleged online bullies, and "OpPedoFear," an operation to identify (through civilian online sting operations) and publicly shame putative pedophiles. These two cases are interesting for those studying communication ethics because they take advantage of Twitter’s incredibly responsive and interconnected forms of communication. Furthermore, both cases employ “ doxing ” (d0xing), the revealing of private identifying information of online selves that are accused of nefarious online and offline conduct, as a means for pursuing offline revenge.
Research Interests: Philosophy, Ethics, New Media, Computer Networks, Computer Ethics, and 19 moreShame Theory, Computer-Mediated Communication, Media Ethics, Mass-Media Ethics, Kant's Practical Philosophy, Bullying, Hacktivism, Twitter, Utilitarianism, News Media Ethics, Anonymous, Cyber Bullying, New media, Social Network Sites and Youth Practices, Youth Online sociability and Identity, Media and Digital Literacies, Participation and Civic Engagement, and Tensions between Public and Private, Cyber Security, Twitter as a News Source, Twitter as Medium and Message, Naming and Shaming, Social Media Ethics, Doxing, and Twitter Ethics
This article explores the vexing issue of rhetoric in Kant's system by looking at his early, and understudied, work "Dreams of a Spirit-Seer." This work engages with the mystic, Swedenborg, and reveals that the early Kant anticipated his... more
This article explores the vexing issue of rhetoric in Kant's system by looking at his early, and understudied, work "Dreams of a Spirit-Seer." This work engages with the mystic, Swedenborg, and reveals that the early Kant anticipated his critical system in his ruminations on why he disagreed with Swedenborg. More than simply doctrinal issues were at stake--instead, Kant fundamentally disagreed with the rhetorical style that Swedenborg assumed when addressing his readers, a style very similar to the metaphysics discourse common to Kant's philosophical circles.
Research Interests: Religion, Philosophy, Ethics, Communication, Philosophy Of Religion, and 15 moreRhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Christian Mysticism, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), Mysticism, Kant's Practical Philosophy, Emanuel Swedenborg, Rhetorical Criticism, Spirituality & Mysticism, Immanuel Kant, Biblical Interpretation, Kantian ethics, Kant's Aesthetics, Rhetorical style, and Swedenborgianism
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The Media Ethics Initiative (www.mediaethicsinitiative.org) aims to publicize and promote cutting-edge research on the ethical and moral dimensions of media use in democratic society. By bringing together experts on a variety of... more
The Media Ethics Initiative (www.mediaethicsinitiative.org) aims to publicize and promote cutting-edge research on the ethical and moral dimensions of media use in democratic society. By bringing together experts on a variety of communication arenas and from a range of Moody College departments, the Initiative will create a community of scholars dedicated to rigorous and creative approaches to tough decisions and ethical issues in communication and media. The Initiative also aims to promote respectful and reflective discussion over these difficult issues in media ethics in our graduate and undergraduate student communities. By uniting academic researchers whose work engages normative issues in communication, the Initiative will serve as a sustained presentation of expertise on media and communication ethics to the University of Texas community and beyond.
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Excerpt from Scott R. Stroud & Jonathan Henson, “Social Media, Online Sharing, and the Ethical Complexity of Consent in Revenge Porn,” Online Consumer Behavior: The Dark Side of Social Media, Angeline Close Scheinbaum (ed.), Routledge,... more
Excerpt from Scott R. Stroud & Jonathan Henson, “Social Media, Online Sharing, and the Ethical Complexity of Consent in Revenge Porn,” Online Consumer Behavior: The Dark Side of Social Media, Angeline Close Scheinbaum (ed.), Routledge, forthcoming.
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This chapter explores the ethics of online shaming or crowd-sourced condemnation. Instead of relying upon standard accounts of ethics from western sources, I engage the Indian religious-philosophical system of Jainism in an effort to... more
This chapter explores the ethics of online shaming or crowd-sourced condemnation. Instead of relying upon standard accounts of ethics from western sources, I engage the Indian religious-philosophical system of Jainism in an effort to highlight what might be problematic about the practice of rallying others to shame offending or offensive individuals. Exploring the practice of shaming as it is practiced on the popular blog "Racists Getting Fired," one can see that Jainism gives us a radically new way to diagnose what is wrong with so much of the revenge-seeking online discourse we find ourselves either hating or loving.
Research Interests: Jainism, Philosophy, Ethics, Applied Ethics, Rhetoric, and 18 moreComposition and Rhetoric, Indian Philosophy, Computer Ethics, Shame Theory, Media Ethics, Journalism Ethics, News Media Ethics, History of Rhetoric, Blogging, Shame, Comparative Rhetoric, Comparative Religious Ethics, Mass Communication and New Media, Online Media, JAIN PHILOSOPHY, Karma, Religous Studies, and Online Shaming
This article explores what the contours of a pragmatist theory of rhetoric would be like in its democratic instantiation. The threat of partisan thought and dogmatism in argument is examined as a threat to the sort of democratic community... more
This article explores what the contours of a pragmatist theory of rhetoric would be like in its democratic instantiation. The threat of partisan thought and dogmatism in argument is examined as a threat to the sort of democratic community pragmatists such as John Dewey desired to create. Partisans fail to realize not only their own limitations in pursuing the true and the good but also the fact that solving problems
through overly partisan forms of reasoning or argument only creates future obstacles to community life. This provides an extended reading of what Dewey meant by free communication: communication not only free from legal constraints and censorship but also free from the binding habits of thought and interaction that can be identified as
“partisan perfect reasoning.”
through overly partisan forms of reasoning or argument only creates future obstacles to community life. This provides an extended reading of what Dewey meant by free communication: communication not only free from legal constraints and censorship but also free from the binding habits of thought and interaction that can be identified as
“partisan perfect reasoning.”
Research Interests: Communication, Pragmatism, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, American Philosophy, and 17 moreCritical Thinking, Democratization, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Dewey, Argumentation, Rhetorical Criticism, John Dewey, Democracy, Pragmatism (Philosophy), Rhetorical Theory, Argumentation Theory, History of Rhetoric, Argumentation Theory and Critical Thinking, John Dewey's Aesthetics, Partisanship, Public Philosophy, and Continental and American Philosophy
This study argues that accounts of rhetoric in Immanuel Kant’s philosophy must take his religious thought seriously. Using his anthropology lectures and religious writings, I diagnose the role of inclination and self-focus in the... more
This study argues that accounts of rhetoric in Immanuel Kant’s philosophy must take his religious thought seriously. Using his anthropology lectures and religious writings, I diagnose the role of inclination and self-focus in the egoistical orientations that Kant sees as plaguing human interaction, as well as the social vices that appear once humans are in community with others. This article explores how religious community represents a social solution to these social problems inherent in human interaction, and how religious activity serves as rhetorical means for reorienting humans away from the motives of self-focus. Kant’s advocacy of activities such as sermons employing religious narratives and symbols, as well as ritual behaviors such as prayer and church-going, illuminates the specific role of rhetorical activity in moral cultivation.
For the
For the
Research Interests: Rhetoric (Languages and Linguistics), Religion, Sociology of Religion, Philosophy, Ethics, and 27 morePhilosophy Of Religion, Normative Ethics, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, History of Religion, Religion and Politics, Ritual, Rhetoric and Social Theory, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Classical rhetoric, Kant's Practical Philosophy, Rhetorical Criticism, Political Rhetoric, Rhetoric of religion, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Immanuel Kant, Rhetorical Theory, Ritual Theory, Rhetorical Theory and Criticism, Kantian ethics, Religious Studies, Kant, Moral, Religion, Religious Rhetoric, Kant and Religion, Kant's philosophy of religion, History of Philosophy, and Ancient Rhetoric and Poetics
Kant clearly valued freedom in his moral philosophy, but he also seemed to distance the moral realm from the activities of rhetoric. This article challenges the long-standing concept of Kant as anti-rhetoric, complicating the view that... more
Kant clearly valued freedom in his moral philosophy, but he
also seemed to distance the moral realm from the activities of rhetoric. This article challenges the long-standing concept of Kant as anti-rhetoric, complicating the view that rhetoric had no place in Kant’s philosophy. After examining the centrality of freedom as autonomy in Kant’s moral and political philosophy, this article carefully dissects Kant’s pronouncements on rhetoric in his various works. The conclusion reached is that Kant advances a bifurcated notion of rhetoric, with some uses of communicative means being characterized by freedom-restricting features and other employments foregrounding autonomy-enhancing aspects. This latter sense of communication is what can be identified as Kant’s educative rhetoric given its focus on preserving and promoting the freedom of both rhetor and audience.
also seemed to distance the moral realm from the activities of rhetoric. This article challenges the long-standing concept of Kant as anti-rhetoric, complicating the view that rhetoric had no place in Kant’s philosophy. After examining the centrality of freedom as autonomy in Kant’s moral and political philosophy, this article carefully dissects Kant’s pronouncements on rhetoric in his various works. The conclusion reached is that Kant advances a bifurcated notion of rhetoric, with some uses of communicative means being characterized by freedom-restricting features and other employments foregrounding autonomy-enhancing aspects. This latter sense of communication is what can be identified as Kant’s educative rhetoric given its focus on preserving and promoting the freedom of both rhetor and audience.
Research Interests: Philosophy, Aesthetics, Ethics, Kant, Communication, and 11 moreRhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Continental Philosophy, Kant's Practical Philosophy, Aesthetics and Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics, Immanuel Kant, Persuasion, History of Rhetoric, Kantian ethics, and Continental Philosophy and Aesthetics
How we interact with others is a vital part of the rhetorical practices of the sort of democracy the pragmatists hoped to create. This article examines growing evidence of the threat posed by partisanship to our attempts to critically... more
How we interact with others is a vital part of the rhetorical practices of the sort of democracy the pragmatists hoped to create. This article examines growing evidence of the threat posed by partisanship to our attempts to critically analyze the claims of others, represented by “partisan perfect reasoning”—the habit of analyzing the claims of others in a fashion that preserves the presupposed reasonableness of our original positions. One path for dealing with the risk of such truncated habits of reasoning is the path of skepticism, represented by the “ironism” of Richard Rorty. This article constructs another possible path, the path of affirming all claims as a starting point for respectful dialogue and argument. Using the concepts of anekāntavāda and syādvāda from the Jaina tradition, this article argues that we can mitigate partisan perfect reasoning and foster respect for our conversational others through a novel orientation to rhetorical activity.
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This study represents a detailed inquiry into the rhetoric of Jainism, an understudied religious-philosophical tradition that arose among Hinduism and Buddhism on the Indian subcontinent. Exploring the unique use of pluralism in Jaina... more
This study represents a detailed inquiry into the rhetoric of Jainism, an understudied religious-philosophical tradition that arose among Hinduism and Buddhism on the Indian subcontinent. Exploring the unique use of pluralism in Jaina authors such as Mahavıra and Haribhadra, I advance the concept of engaged rhetorical pluralism to account for the argumentative use of pluralism to promote Jaina views. This concept is linked to Jainism’s theory of multiperspectivism (anekantavada) as an orientation toward one’s rhetorical activities in contexts of disagreement. Highlighting the controversies surrounding the relationship between Jaina tolerance and intellectual nonviolence, this study uses the concept of anekantavada to ground a pluralism of often contradictory critical claims made by those studying rhetorical phenomena from other cultures. Thus, anekantavada both describes the engaged pluralism evident in important Jaina rhetors and serves
as a source of methodological guidance for scholars involved in
comparative rhetoric and its inevitable situations of interpretative
disagreement.
as a source of methodological guidance for scholars involved in
comparative rhetoric and its inevitable situations of interpretative
disagreement.
Research Interests: Jainism, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Indian Philosophy, and 12 moreIndian studies, Religious Pluralism, History of Rhetoric, Monism, Pluralism, Intercultural Communication and Rhetoric, Comparative Rhetoric, India, JAIN PHILOSOPHY, Intercultural Rhetoric, Ancient Rhetoric and Poetics, and Jaina Studies
This study examines the case of the American philosopher John Dewey as rhetor and public intellectual in China in 1919-1921 to elucidate the lived rhetoric of pragmatism. In China, Dewey gave over 200 lectures to large academic and... more
This study examines the case of the American philosopher John Dewey as rhetor and public intellectual in China in 1919-1921 to elucidate the lived rhetoric of pragmatism. In China, Dewey gave over 200 lectures to large academic and general audiences on topics such as education, philosophy, and science. This lecturing activity represents a remarkable and complex rhetorical situation as it involves Dewey addressing an audience not familiar with his ideas and potentially open to persuasion. Using recently discovered lecture notes written by Dewey and translations from the Chinese interpretations of his lectures, this study argues that his lectures evinced a pragmatist rhetorical style that attempted to reconstruct dominant habits of thought and communication among his Chinese audiences. In so doing, this study advances our understanding of Dewey as rhetor and the theoretical grounds of the pragmatist rhetoric of experience and synthetic conflict.
Research Interests: Pragmatism, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Chinese Philosophy, Public Address, and 12 moreAmerican Philosophy, Literary Criticism, Textual Criticism, Rhetorical Criticism, Charles S. Peirce, John Dewey, Richard Rorty, Pragmatism (Philosophy), Rhetorical Theory, Chinese history (History), NeoPragmatism, and Media and Technology
One hallmark to Dewey's form of pragmatism was the rejection of reified dualisms. The problem with such division was not their possible usefulness, but instead lay within our tendency to take these efforts as categorization as reflection... more
One hallmark to Dewey's form of pragmatism was the rejection of reified dualisms. The problem with such division was not their possible usefulness, but instead lay within our tendency to take these efforts as categorization as reflection some real, eternal, and unchangeable division in the nature of reality. In his discussion of the division between labor and leisure, we see a similar concern surface: are we limiting the effectiveness and imagination of our educative efforts by assuming an outmoded (and changeable) division between labor activities and the activities of leisure? This distinction builds on Dewey's engagement in the previous chapter with the separation of the useful and fine arts. There the world of work emerged as separate from that of focused contemplation or direct appreciation. In the present chapter, Dewey wants to do a variety of things to build upon this basis for critique. First, he wants to diagnose a problematic way of looking at leisure and labor. Second, he wants to tie this way of dividing our activities to social causes, thus showing how this divisions is contingent and impermanent. Such social causes not only produce this way of thinking about labor and leisure, but they also affect how we educate our youth for each type of activity. Finally, Dewey wants to argue that even though our social circumstances have changed, we still ground our educative endeavors on this outmoded division. Thus, this chapter aims to be a persuasive appeal to the modern educator,
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This study engages the Anugītā, an understudied retelling of the famous Bhagavad Gītā in the Mahābhārata. The Anugītā is unique in its reliance on embedded narrative frames. This article engages the use of stories within stories as a... more
This study engages the Anugītā, an understudied retelling of the famous Bhagavad Gītā in the Mahābhārata. The Anugītā is unique in its reliance on embedded narrative frames. This article engages the use of stories within stories as a rhetorical technique of persuasion and argues that the Anugītā provides an opportunity to expand what we know about narratives and their effects on auditor conceptions of freedom and agency. Extending the concept of narrative sideshadowing grounded in western structural narrative theory, this study argues that the Anugītā employs a new concept of selfshadowing in its confusion of selves in and outside of the narrative experience, all with the rhetorical purpose of enlarging an auditor’s sense of self.
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This chapter discusses the moral theory of Immanuel Kant and its application to communication ethics.
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Stroud, S. R. (2009). “Indian Rasa Theory.” Encyclopedia of Communication Theory, ed. Stephen W. Littlejohn & Karen A. Foss, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
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Stroud, S. R. (2009). “Communicative Action Theory.” Encyclopedia of Communication Theory, ed. Stephen W. Littlejohn & Karen A. Foss, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
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An encyclopedia entry concerning Walter Fisher's concept of narrative and narrative rationality.
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Stroud, S. R. (2009). “Hindu Communication Theory.” Encyclopedia of Communication Theory, ed. Stephen W. Littlejohn & Karen A. Foss, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
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This course is a theoretical-historical review of writings about rhetoric in the Western tradition up through the Enlightenment. It is based upon the assumption that there is no single, stable entity in that tradition called " rhetoric. "... more
This course is a theoretical-historical review of writings about rhetoric in the Western tradition up through the Enlightenment. It is based upon the assumption that there is no single, stable entity in that tradition called " rhetoric. " Instead, different writers organize that term in relationship to terms referencing other discourses and practices. Each way of situating rhetoric in a world of texts and action is also a way of understanding human experience in general. This course will cover various important figures in the history of rhetoric. We start our investigation with the thinkers from ancient Greece-Plato, Protagoras, Gorgias, Isocrates, and Aristotle. We will examine what they believe rhetoric is, what its value is, and what role it should play in ethics and politics. Important thinkers from the Roman world will also be examined. We'll talk about how Cicero, Quintilian, Christine de Pizan, Immanuel Kant, the American pragmatists and various stoics conceptualized and practiced rhetoric. Attention will be given to the promises and challenges of diversifying the rhetorical canon with female and international voices. We will emphasize primary sources for most of these figures, although I will expose you to selected secondary sources when it seems beneficial. My goals in the class are twofold: (1) I want you to gain a mastery and appreciation for the thought of ancient and classical thinkers " on their own terms. " (2) I want you to become proficient at making and evaluating arguments, both in writing and in speech.
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This course explores the ethical issues inherent in our use of digital and online media. We will engage a range of current issues and topics through the application of important moral theories, attending to how new technologies often... more
This course explores the ethical issues inherent in our use of digital and online media. We will engage a range of current issues and topics through the application of important moral theories, attending to how new technologies often challenge what we know about morality, virtue, and the good life. We will use the analysis of case studies to encourage reflection and discussion over contemporary issues in digital ethics. Topics to be covered include the ethics of hacking, Anonymous operations, online privacy, blogging ethics, online shaming and activism, revenge pornography, online free speech, trolling, social media and virtue, WikiLeaks and issues in online journalism, as well as other contemporary topics dealing with digital media.
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Art surrounds us throughout our life. What makes something art? What makes art valuable? How should we interpret or criticize art? These are just some of the many questions we will explore in looking at what art means to society. We will... more
Art surrounds us throughout our life. What makes something art? What makes art valuable? How should we interpret or criticize art? These are just some of the many questions we will explore in looking at what art means to society. We will read many classical and contemporary authors on what makes art valuable or unique. We will also discuss a variety of case studies in the arts to illustrate our theoretical readings. This course represents an interdisciplinary examination of what art is and what its value to society could be. Students will read a variety of authors writing about art from a range of disciplines—art history, rhetoric, English, philosophy, and communication studies. We will work diligently on charitably understanding the arguments of others while honing our own views and argumentative skills. The course will also allow students to think about the role of art in their own lives and the values it brings to their experience. The course culminates with each student leading a presentation and writing a sustained argumentative paper on a topic of their choice relating to art and society.
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This course will examine what American pragmatism—both as a tradition of thought and as a method of inquiry—has to offer those engaged in the study of rhetoric. We will examine the thought of classical and modern pragmatists in an attempt... more
This course will examine what American pragmatism—both as a tradition of thought and as a method of inquiry—has to offer those engaged in the study of rhetoric. We will examine the thought of classical and modern pragmatists in an attempt to figure out what pragmatism means for theories of rhetoric and communication, ideal senses of community, the art of rhetoric, leadership, as well as method in the study of communication. Attention will be paid to the advantages pragmatism might offer as a guiding theory compared to standard approaches to the study of rhetoric. The thought of Charles S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and Richard Rorty will assume particular prominence in this course. We will also look at contemporary pragmatists in rhetoric, communication studies, philosophy, and beyond to see how they engage the ideas of rhetoric and communication. Students will be expected to emerge from this course with a grasp of the basic problematics driving classical and modern pragmatism, as well as how these relate to issues in rhetoric and in communication studies. Students are encouraged to link pragmatism to their particular research interests, practices or artifacts, or methods of study in the course's culminating research paper assignment.
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This course examines the ethical issues involved in communication. How ought we to play our part in all of the interactions we are party to? How should the media cover issues of a sensitive or potentially harmful nature? How do new... more
This course examines the ethical issues involved in communication. How ought we to play our part in all of the interactions we are party to? How should the media cover issues of a sensitive or potentially harmful nature? How do new technologies and practices impact the ethical situations in communication? How do our interactions with others reflect and shape who we truly are? We will build our examination of communication ethics from two fundamental premises: (1) we create the sort of person that we are through our actions and inactions, and (2) an ethical communicator is one who acts with integrity. We will examine the ethical theories of a variety of thinkers and consider what they have to say about the selves we are creating through how we communicate with others. We will also see what light they shed on the topic of living and communicating with integrity. Lively discussion will be encouraged by our frequent analysis of case studies. Additionally, students will be able to write a term paper on a topic of their choice in communication ethics. This course will begin with an examination of some major theorists in normative ethics. We will read selections of important works from Aristotle, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls, and Jürgen Habermas. Additionally, we will read contemporary sources in feminist and pragmatist ethics. We will then take our knowledge of moral decision-making and begin exploring contemporary topics in media and communication ethics. These shall include the topics of free speech, interpersonal communication, political communication, advertising, public relations, blogging, journalism, photo manipulation, documentary film, fake/comedy news, and online speech. Through our examination of these ethical issues, we will continue to explore the uses and limits of the normative theories analyzed at the beginning of this course. Students are encouraged to determine for themselves which ethical system best captures what we think ought to be included in our concept of the person who lives and communicates with integrity.
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Course Description: Art surrounds us throughout our life. What makes something art? What makes art valuable? How should we interpret or criticize art? These are just some of the many questions we will explore in looking at what art means... more
Course Description: Art surrounds us throughout our life. What makes something art? What makes art valuable? How should we interpret or criticize art? These are just some of the many questions we will explore in looking at what art means to society. We will read many classical and contemporary authors on what makes art valuable or unique. We will also discuss a variety of case studies in the arts to illustrate our theoretical readings. This course represents an interdisciplinary examination of what art is and what its value to society could be. Students will read a variety of authors writing about art from a range of disciplines—art history, rhetoric, English, philosophy, and communication studies.
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Course Description: This course is a theoretical-historical review of writings about rhetoric in the Western tradition up through the Enlightenment. It is based upon the assumption that there is no single, stable entity in that tradition... more
Course Description: This course is a theoretical-historical review of writings about rhetoric in the Western tradition up through the Enlightenment. It is based upon the assumption that there is no single, stable entity in that tradition called " rhetoric. " Instead, different writers organize that term in relationship to terms referencing other discourses and practices. Each way of situating rhetoric in a world of texts and action is also a way of understanding human experience in general. This course will cover various important figures in the history of rhetoric. We start our investigation with the thinkers from ancient Greece-Plato, Protagoras, Gorgias, Isocrates, and Aristotle. We will examine what they believe rhetoric is, what its value is, and what role it should play in ethics and politics. Important thinkers from the Roman world will also be examined. We'll talk about how Cicero, Quintilian, and various stoics conceptualized and practiced rhetoric. Augustine, Christine de Pizan, and Immanuel Kant will also be examined with at the conclusion of the class. We will emphasize primary sources for all of these figures, although I will expose you to selected secondary sources when it seems beneficial.
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Episode 10: Philosophy Bakes Bread https://www.philosophersinamerica.com/2017/03/23/013-ep10-media-ethics/ Dr. Stroud is the director of the Media Ethics Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of John Dewey... more
Episode 10: Philosophy Bakes Bread
https://www.philosophersinamerica.com/2017/03/23/013-ep10-media-ethics/
Dr. Stroud is the director of the Media Ethics Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of John Dewey and the Artful Life (2011) and Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric (2014), among many other works. Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.
https://www.philosophersinamerica.com/2017/03/23/013-ep10-media-ethics/
Dr. Stroud is the director of the Media Ethics Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of John Dewey and the Artful Life (2011) and Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric (2014), among many other works. Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npno-fpNznw&list=UUXeNKi1dClD0D36IXRcTNpg
Talk given at the Acarya Tulsi Anuvrat Conference, Sept 2014
Talk given at the Acarya Tulsi Anuvrat Conference, Sept 2014
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The Hinckley Institute Radio Hour (Air date: November 12, 2014) – Prof. Scott Stroud and Prof. Natalie Jomini Stroud are two scholars from the University of Texas at Austin who research how extreme partisanship hurts democracy. Scott... more
The Hinckley Institute Radio Hour (Air date: November 12, 2014) – Prof. Scott Stroud and Prof. Natalie Jomini Stroud are two scholars from the University of Texas at Austin who research how extreme partisanship hurts democracy. Scott Stroud researches and lectures on the intersection between rhetoric, philosophy, and the connections linking artful communication and democracy as explicated by the American pragmatists. Natalie Stroud wrote "Niche News: The Politics of News Choice" (2011). Her book explores the causes, consequences, and prevalence of partisan selective exposure, and the preference for like-minded political information. She continues to research the idea that people tend to favor information which reinforces preexisting views and avoid contradictory information.
http://kcpw.org/blog/hinckley-institute-radio-hour/2014-11-12/hinckley-institute-radio-hour-partisan-perfect-reasoning/
http://kcpw.org/blog/hinckley-institute-radio-hour/2014-11-12/hinckley-institute-radio-hour-partisan-perfect-reasoning/
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What does objectivity mean in covering the Black Lives Matter protests? A case study by Claire Coburn, Kat Williams, & Scott R. Stroud, Ph.D. More cases at www.mediaengagement.org.
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Did Bob Woodward do something wrong in delaying the release of his investigative research on Trump and COVID-19? A case study authored by Claire Coburn, Kat Williams, and Scott R. Stroud, Ph.D. More case studies at... more
Did Bob Woodward do something wrong in delaying the release of his investigative research on Trump and COVID-19? A case study authored by Claire Coburn, Kat Williams, and Scott R. Stroud, Ph.D. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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Are controversial and offensive opinion pieces--like that authored by Tom Cotton--ethical or indefensible? A case study by Claire Coburn and Scott R. Stroud, Ph.D. More cases at www.mediaengagement.org
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How should journalists in India report on caste-based crimes? By Dakota Park-Ozee and Scott R. Stroud
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Is it ethical to dox and shame violators of pandemic guidelines on social media? By Michaela Urban and Scott R. Stroud
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Was Tumblr purging fake news or merely dissent? By Kat Williams and Scott R. Stroud
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Should Twitter add factcheck labels to disputed presidential tweets?
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What are the ethics of covering a celebrity's untimely demise? By Kat Williams and Scott R. Stroud
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What are the ethics of Facebook allowing potentially misleading political ads?
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What are the ethics of using counterspeech to fight online harassment?
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What ethical concerns accompany the use of internet shaming in the age of COVID-19?
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What ethical choices lie behind the use of images for advocacy campaigns?
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How much skepticism of experts is ethical for powerful leaders during a pandemic?
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Is Netflix's "Elite" a case of creative filmmaking or Muslim stereotyping?
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Jason Rucker & Scott R. Stroud, Ph.D.
Project on Ethics in Political Communication / Center for Media Engagement
George Washington University / University of Texas at Austin
Project on Ethics in Political Communication / Center for Media Engagement
George Washington University / University of Texas at Austin
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What are the ethical challenges when journalism and cancel culture merge? A case study authored by Grace Leake, Alicia Armijo, & Scott R. Stroud, Ph.D. More case studies at www.mediaengagement.org
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How far can films about journalists push the truth for dramatic effects? A case study on the recent film "Richard Jewell" authored by Page Trotter, Justin Pehoski, & Scott R. Stroud, Ph.D. More case studies available at:... more
How far can films about journalists push the truth for dramatic effects? A case study on the recent film "Richard Jewell" authored by Page Trotter, Justin Pehoski, & Scott R. Stroud, Ph.D. More case studies available at: www.mediaengagement.org
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What are the ethical concerns surrounding journalists publishing or covering anonymous critics of President Trump? A case study in the ethics of political journalism and anonymous sources authored by Allyson Waller and Scott Stroud. More... more
What are the ethical concerns surrounding journalists publishing or covering anonymous critics of President Trump? A case study in the ethics of political journalism and anonymous sources authored by Allyson Waller and Scott Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What are the challenges to reporting the news in Pakistan? A case study in journalism ethics and south Asia authored by Dakota Park-Ozee and Scott Stroud. Supported by the South Asia Institute of UT Austin and the Center for Media... more
What are the challenges to reporting the news in Pakistan? A case study in journalism ethics and south Asia authored by Dakota Park-Ozee and Scott Stroud. Supported by the South Asia Institute of UT Austin and the Center for Media Engagement. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What are the challenges to privacy and community safety in reporting on sexual assault in India? A case study in journalism ethics in south Asian media authored by Dakota Park-Ozee and Scott Stroud. Supported by the South Asia Institute... more
What are the challenges to privacy and community safety in reporting on sexual assault in India? A case study in journalism ethics in south Asian media authored by Dakota Park-Ozee and Scott Stroud. Supported by the South Asia Institute of UT Austin and the Center for Media Engagement. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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Throughout the rising tensions in the recent clash between India and Pakistan, there was a new element: fake news. A case study in the ethics of fake news and south Asia media authored by Dakota Park-Ozee and Scott Stroud. Supported by... more
Throughout the rising tensions in the recent clash between India and Pakistan, there was a new element: fake news. A case study in the ethics of fake news and south Asia media authored by Dakota Park-Ozee and Scott Stroud. Supported by the South Asia Institute of UT Austin and the Center for Media Engagement. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What are the ethics of private or secret Facebook groups in an increasingly polarized democracy? A case study in the ethics of democracy and social media authored by Allyson Waller and Scott Stroud. More case studies at... more
What are the ethics of private or secret Facebook groups in an increasingly polarized democracy? A case study in the ethics of democracy and social media authored by Allyson Waller and Scott Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What are the ethics of "greenwashing" your product to appear more environmentally friendly than it really is? A case study in the ethics of advertising authored by Sharmeen Somani and Scott Stroud. More case studies at... more
What are the ethics of "greenwashing" your product to appear more environmentally friendly than it really is? A case study in the ethics of advertising authored by Sharmeen Somani and Scott Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What are the ethical trade-offs of social media platforms trying to eliminate anti-vaccination content? A case study on anti-vax censorship by Page Trotter and Scott Stroud. More case studies available at: www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What ethical decisions await those dressing up for Halloween--and those reacting to racially insensitive costumes? A case study on Halloween and internet shaming. Authored by Sophia Park & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at... more
What ethical decisions await those dressing up for Halloween--and those reacting to racially insensitive costumes? A case study on Halloween and internet shaming. Authored by Sophia Park & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org.
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What ethical challenges arise when you make a dramatized film with popular actors and actresses about a serial killer? A case study on Netflix's recent foray into films about Ted Bundy. Authored by Irie Crenshaw & Scott R. Stroud. More... more
What ethical challenges arise when you make a dramatized film with popular actors and actresses about a serial killer? A case study on Netflix's recent foray into films about Ted Bundy. Authored by Irie Crenshaw & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org.
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Did Gillette go too far in connecting the fight against toxic masculinity to its shaving products? A case study on the ethical challenges that occur when corporations engage social issues in their advertising campaigns. Authored by Grace... more
Did Gillette go too far in connecting the fight against toxic masculinity to its shaving products? A case study on the ethical challenges that occur when corporations engage social issues in their advertising campaigns. Authored by Grace Holland & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org.
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What are the crucial choices made involving accuracy and pro-social effects made by reporters covering the conflict in Congo? A case study on the journalistic ethics of the coverage of atrocities in Luvungi by Emma Mattus & Scott R.... more
What are the crucial choices made involving accuracy and pro-social effects made by reporters covering the conflict in Congo? A case study on the journalistic ethics of the coverage of atrocities in Luvungi by Emma Mattus & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org.
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Was the Kony 2012 campaign a case of real activism or mere slacktivism? A case study on the use of internet attention in activist campaigns by Michaela Urban & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org.
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What ethical issues arise when deceased actors are inserted into films through technological means? A case study on the use of CGI actors in films by William Cuellar & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org.
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When does a photographic artist's use of her own children as subjects in her art cross ethical boundaries? A case study on the work of Sally Mann authored by Oluwasemilor Adeoluwa & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at... more
When does a photographic artist's use of her own children as subjects in her art cross ethical boundaries? A case study on the work of Sally Mann authored by Oluwasemilor Adeoluwa & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org.
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What are the ethical challenges presented by meme creation and sharing? A case study on digital ethics, creativity, and unwanted publicity by Alex Purcell & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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Some companies are hoping to use AI--and the treasure trove of our social media postings--to create convincing chatbot simulations of us after we die. What are the ethical worries surrounding these "legacy chatbots" that promise to keep... more
Some companies are hoping to use AI--and the treasure trove of our social media postings--to create convincing chatbot simulations of us after we die. What are the ethical worries surrounding these "legacy chatbots" that promise to keep us close to our departed loved ones? A case study authored by Colin Frick & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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Nike rebooted its "Just Do It" campaign, this time with athletes such as Colin Kaepernick who are involved in protest movements against social inequality. Is this a laudable instance of corporations seeing the light of social justice, or... more
Nike rebooted its "Just Do It" campaign, this time with athletes such as Colin Kaepernick who are involved in protest movements against social inequality. Is this a laudable instance of corporations seeing the light of social justice, or just a sophisticated money grab? A case study on the ethics of advertising campaigns that make a social stand. Authored by Holland J. Smith & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What are the ethical issues with playing and enjoying violent video games? A case study on the ethics of violent first-person shooter games. Authored by Alex Purcell & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What are the ethical concerns with naming and shaming racists on sites like Racists Getting Fired? A case study on the ethics of crowd-sourced anti-racist activism online. Authored by Alex Purcell & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at... more
What are the ethical concerns with naming and shaming racists on sites like Racists Getting Fired? A case study on the ethics of crowd-sourced anti-racist activism online. Authored by Alex Purcell & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What are the ethical concerns with advertising pharmaceutical products directly to consumers? A case study on the ethics of direct-to-consumer drug advertisements. Authored by Sabrina Stoffels & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at... more
What are the ethical concerns with advertising pharmaceutical products directly to consumers? A case study on the ethics of direct-to-consumer drug advertisements. Authored by Sabrina Stoffels & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What ethical issues are raised by sharing too much about your children online? A case study on the ethics of "sharenting." Authored by Kaitlyn Pena & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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Why do some teens create fake social media accounts just to bully themselves? A case study on the ethical issues raised by digital self-harm. Authored by Kaitlyn Pena & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What are the ethical issues raised by fans creating works involving their favorite public figures and celebrities? A case study on the ethics of real-person fan fiction. Authored by Oluwasemilore Adeoluwa & Scott R. Stroud. More case... more
What are the ethical issues raised by fans creating works involving their favorite public figures and celebrities? A case study on the ethics of real-person fan fiction. Authored by Oluwasemilore Adeoluwa & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What are the ethical issues presented by Instagram's use of filters to eliminate cyberbullying in posted comments and images? A case study on the ethics of social media, free speech, and bullying. Authored by Colin Frick & Scott R.... more
What are the ethical issues presented by Instagram's use of filters to eliminate cyberbullying in posted comments and images? A case study on the ethics of social media, free speech, and bullying. Authored by Colin Frick & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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What are the ethical problems that "catfishing" presents? A case study on the ethics of online deception. Authored by Alex Purcell & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org
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Stroud, S. R. (2015). Review of Philip Kitcher, Preludes to Pragmatism: Toward a Reconstruction of Philosophy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). Quarterly Journal of Speech, 101 (1), 314-317.
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Stroud, S. R. (2015). Review of Paul Stob, William James and the Art of Popular Statement Michigan State University Press, 2013). Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 45 (1), 87-90.
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Stroud, S. R. (2014). Review of Dorota Koczanowicz & Wojciech Malecki (eds.), Shusterman’s Pragmatism: Between Literature and Somaesthetics (Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2012). Journal of Aesthetic Education, 48 (2), 123-127.
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Stroud, S. R. (2014). Review of George E. Hein, Progressive Museum Practice: John Dewey and Democracy (Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, 2012). Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 72 (1), 99-101.
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Stroud, S. R. (2013). Review of John McGowan, Pragmatist Politics: Making the Case for Liberal Democracy (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012). Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 43 (5), 497-500.
Research Interests: Pragmatism and Rhetoric
Stroud, S. R. (2011). Review of Nathan Crick, Democracy and Rhetoric: John Dewey on the Arts of Becoming (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2010). Rhetoric Review, 30 (1), 93-96.
Research Interests: Pragmatism and Rhetoric
Stroud, S. R. (2009). Review of Robert Danisch, Pragmatism, Democracy, and the Necessity of Rhetoric (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2007). Philosophy and Rhetoric, 42 (1), 96-101.
Research Interests: Pragmatism and Rhetoric
Stroud, S. R. (2008). Review of Cheryl Misak (ed.). New Pragmatists (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007). Contemporary Pragmatism, 5 (1), 163-168.
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Stroud, S. R. (2007). Review of James Scott Johnston, Inquiry and Education: John Dewey and the Quest for Democracy (Albany: SUNY Press, 2006). Newsletter for the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, 106, 55-57.
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This is the transcript for Episode 10 of Philosophy Bakes Bread, in which Dr. Eric Thomas Weber and Dr. Anthony Cashio interview Dr. Scott Stroud about the subject of Media Ethics. The show aired on WRFL Lexington, 88.1 FM, and is... more
This is the transcript for Episode 10 of Philosophy Bakes Bread, in which Dr. Eric Thomas Weber and Dr. Anthony Cashio interview Dr. Scott Stroud about the subject of Media Ethics. The show aired on WRFL Lexington, 88.1 FM, and is distributed as a podcast by The Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA).
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Research Interests:
Research Interests: Religion, History, Cultural Studies, Mythology, Philosophy, and 15 moreEthics, Philosophy Of Religion, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Indian Philosophy, Narrative, Enlightenment, Eastern Philosophy, Narrative Theory, Religious Studies, Literary studies, Ambiguity, Bhagavad Gita, Philosophy of Religion, and Framed Narratives
This chapter examines the putatively simple concepts of &quot;revenge porn&quot; and &quot;nonconsensual pornography&quot; to argue that these are really complex online phenomena. While partisan narratives tend to see them... more
This chapter examines the putatively simple concepts of &quot;revenge porn&quot; and &quot;nonconsensual pornography&quot; to argue that these are really complex online phenomena. While partisan narratives tend to see them as simple and unified occurrences, we demonstrate the variations of revenge porn posting behaviors. Using this novel analysis as a foundation, we discuss a series of revenge porn posting cases to demonstrate the complex nature of consent in the world of online content sharing.
Research Interests: Philosophy, Ethics, Communication, Applied Ethics, New Media, and 15 moreRhetoric, Narrative, Media Ethics, Communication Ethics, Social Media, Journalism Ethics, News Media Ethics, Internet Research Ethics, Pornography, Pornography Studies, Internet privacy, Social Media Ethics, Revenge Pornography, Online Social Networks Ethics, and Revenge Porn
The article examines the ethical choices that are implicit in acts of memorialization. By engaging literature on the rhetoric of memorials and pragmatist aesthetics, we argue that memorialization involves a range of important ethical... more
The article examines the ethical choices that are implicit in acts of memorialization. By engaging literature on the rhetoric of memorials and pragmatist aesthetics, we argue that memorialization involves a range of important ethical choices in who is remembered, how they are remembered, and the experience the act of memorialization evokes in viewers. By using John Dewey's nascent account of memorial aesthetics, we construct an exploratory typology of the ways that memorials can use and evoke the experience of viewers. The means of experiential reconstruction are also found to involve important ethical decisions. We explore the usefulness of this typology in reference to two different memorials: Ambedkar Memorial Park in Lucknow, India, and the Memorial for the Unknown War Deserters and for the Victims of the National Socialist Military Justice System in Erfurt, Germany.