Ah…some good panels I’ll tell ya.  I ended up going to that new media panel and it was worth it.  One panelist looked at “populist rhetoric” and technology…especially in relationship to the current presidential election.  She was interested in the ways in which the “Internet candidate” seems to coincide with “the populist candidate” in the press and the rhetorical framing of the campaigns.  The second guy was interested in opening up scholarly publishing to collaborative Web 2.0 kind of texts–especially when it comes to considering those texts “legitimate” as academic and scholarly work.  And, the third panelist, an anthropologist, was looking at “the vernacular web” and some of the ways in which the new Web 2.0 is opening up more vernacular uses of the Internet.

The second panel, Rachel’s “transnational rhetorics” panel was fab.  Rachel talked about Zapatista’s rhetorical work in constructing openings and news spaces in civil society.  Katherine Mack looked as South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and how the NGO, IJR was moving it’s work in supporting transitional justice across the African continent as part of an “African Renaissance.”  Scott Wible discussed Bush’s “National Security Language Initiative and MLA’s response to it.  And, finally, Rasha Diab looked at Anwar Al-Sadat’s role in constructing the possibility of peace between Egypt and Israel in the 1970s.  Both panels were well attended and the discussion afterwards was great.  I even got to see Lu-Ming Mao at the Transnational Rhetorics panel…always great to run into folks from Miami.

Anyway, I’ll keep it brief…I’m going to meet Seth, Ann, and Rachel for dinner for some great Seattle food and continuing awesome conversation.

Still sunny, 64 degrees.  Beautiful!

Tags: conference, new media, rachel riedner, rsa, seattle, seth khan, transnational rhetoric