RHET 199 Topics in Rhetoric (1-4)

A semester-long study of topics in Rhetoric. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.

  • General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
  • Prerequisite: Topic dependent
  • Offering: Occasionally
  • Professor: Staff

RHET 235W Propaganda: WWII & Cold War (2)

Propaganda is a word that people often mistakenly associate with what “the other” does rather than what “we” do. This course will introduce theories relevant to the study of propaganda and examine strategies that propagandists employ in their efforts to direct the beliefs and attitudes of their audience. This course will focus on film and cartoon propaganda of WWII and the Cold War, but will not be limited to that era or those media. Students will be asked to consider the ethical implications of propaganda use. The course is writing centered and discussion based.

  • General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities
  • Offering: Alternating years
  • Instructor: Clark

RHET 240W Propaganda: 21st Century (2)

Propaganda is a word that people often mistakenly associate with what “the other” does rather than what “we” do. This course will introduce theories relevant to the study of propaganda and examine strategies that propagandists employ in their efforts to direct the beliefs and attitudes of their audience. The course will consider some combination of North Korean propaganda, Islamaphobia, “fake news,” Neo-Nazi discourse, political ads, and the anti-Vax campaign. Students will be asked to consider the ethical implications of propaganda use. The course is writing centered and discussion based.

  • General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities
  • Offering: Alternating years
  • Instructor: Clark

RHET 242 Rhetoric and Leadership (4)

This course explores the ways rhetoric can foster effective leadership. Topics include: an examination of the leader's symbolic action through credibility, identifications, persona, values and agency; an exploration of group culture and roles; and a consideration of the leader-group interaction in decision-making and ethics. The course includes a required practical component.

  • General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
  • Offering: Alternating years
  • Instructor: Clark

RHET 271 Telling the Internment Story (4)

The decision to exclude, evacuate and intern Japanese Americans living on the West Coast during WWII is an historical controversy directly engaging citizens in the Pacific Northwest; it remains a controversy through the museum exhibits, memorial sites, and artistic representations of the internment that continue to be generated to tell the story of this dark part of American history. Students identify and analyze ways of telling this story through films, photographs, paintings, memoirs, memorials and museums. There are three units: Fear & Racism Fanned by the Media, Life in the Camps and Reintegration, and Commemoration Through Museums, Memorials, and Films. Readings for this course include primary documents legislating the exclusion and internment of Japanese Americans, testimonials by internees, print media coverage, and visual and verbal commemorative texts. This is a project based course and includes a film screening lab.

  • General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; PDE
  • Offering: Annually
  • Instructor: Staff

RHET 299 Topics in Rhetoric (1-4)

A semester-long study of topics in Rhetoric. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.

  • General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
  • Prerequisite: Topic dependent
  • Offering: Occasionally
  • Professor: Staff

RHET 309W Filming Identity: Israeli & Palestinian Documentary (2)

This course examines how national identity is structured and conflict is portrayed in documentary film depictions of the disputed homeland of Israel/Palestine. Through the lens of documentary theory the course will consider of the filmmakers problems of documentary, stereotyping, nontraditional narrative structure, and docu-animation within the context of the religious, social and political tensions in the region. Subject films will range from archival footage and independent documentaries to major feature films drawn primarily from the work of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers including Ben Dov, Leman, Schoenfeld, Sontag, Gitai, Loushy, Mograbi, Mer Khamis, Yaqubi, Shomali & Cowan, Burnat & Daviidi, Masri and Miller. The precise viewing list may vary.

  • General Education Requirement Fulfillment:  Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; PDE
  • Offering: Alternate Years
  • Instructor: Clark

RHET 310W Conflict & Identity: Israeli & Palestinian Feature Films (2)

This course examines how national identity is structured and conflict is portrayed in feature film depictions of the disputed homeland of Israel/Palestine. Through the lens of documentary theory (including Bal, Chatman, Fisher, and Genette) the course will consider how diverse Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers have portrayed the religious, social and political tensions in the region. War, wedding, and comedy films (including, among others, Waltz with Bashir, Lebanon, Cup Final, Wedding in Galilee, Rana’s Wedding, Fill the Void, Divine Intervention, and the Time that Remains) enable an exploration of trauma and victimage, structural inequality, gender inequity, cultural erasure, and comedic resistance.

  • General Education Requirement Fulfillment:  Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; PDE
  • Offering: Alternate Years
  • Instructor: Clark

RHET 362W Telling News: Framing Reality (4)

This course examines news accounts as they construct the meaning of the events they report. Students explore how reality is shaped when the media privileges a particular frame for the events; sketches familiar plotlines, characters, or ideologies; or gives authority to some voices and silences others. Finally, the course addresses the effect of media conventionalizing, in the symbolic complexes addressed and the formulaic stories they spawn, on both the range of interpretations and the range of topics that are publicly addressed.

  • General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities
  • Offering: Alternate years
  • Instructor: Clark

RHET 399 Topics in Rhetoric (1-4)

A semester-long study of topics in Rhetoric. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.

  • General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
  • Prerequisite: Topic dependent
  • Offering: Occasionally
  • Professor: Staff

RHET 429 Topics in Rhetoric (1-4)

A semester-long study of topics in Rhetoric. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.

  • General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
  • Prerequisite: Topic dependent
  • Offering: Occasionally
  • Professor: Staff
Willamette University

Rhetoric

Address
900 State Street
Salem Oregon 97301 U.S.A.
Phone
503-370-6138 voice
503-370-6720 fax

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