CFP: Applied Rhetoric Symposium deadline extended - Submission site now LIVE!
ten grrl
The proposal deadline for the 2026 Symposium of the Applied Rhetoric Collaborative has been extended to Feb. 15, 2026!
The symposium will be held June 4-5, 2026 in a hybrid format at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and online. The CFP is copied below, and the submission website is now live and ready to accept proposals!
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Jacob Rawlins at jacob_...@byu.edu.
We hope to see you there!
Thanks!
ARC 2026 Planning Committee
Jacob Rawlins, Roxanne Aftanas, Lenny Grant, Kathryn Northcut, Sara Parks, Matt Sharp, and Stephen Carradini.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The Applied Rhetoric Collaborative (ARC) is an interdisciplinary group of scholars who practice, teach, and study applied rhetoric. Applied rhetoric is a rhetorically grounded method for and study of action-oriented research, teaching, and service in live situations that solves problems and achieves positive ends in communities. ARC offers a para-professional space for support, feedback, collaboration, and encouragement to those at any stage of their careers (from students to retirees) who seek to solve problems and achieve positive ends in communities using applied rhetoric.
Our summer symposia allow us to examine how rhetoric is enacted in our professional and public spaces. Symposium presentations have covered the realms of applied rhetoric (AR) in healthcare, academic programming, digital spaces, physical public spaces, the media, and the classroom. Topics have been as varied as public memory projects, rhetorical activism, free speech rules, international censorship, and historical legal testimony.
Since the symposium began in 2018, the world we live in has dramatically changed in many ways—for better and for worse. Accordingly, ARC sees a need to reconsider how we conceptualize how we “do” rhetorical work in our communities and classrooms. ARC’s fifth summer symposium will continue to build on the foundations laid during our previous meetings, as we come together to further develop and define the ideas of applied rhetoric. To do this, we ask symposium participants to emphasize how people (researchers, teachers, practitioners, activists, leaders, community members, and everyone in between) bring rhetoric into the world.
We are interested in diverse works that discuss how we bring rhetoric into the world. Potential topics of interest may include, but are not limited to:
- What does it look like for academics to take their knowledge of rhetoric into public spaces?
- How can we, as both community members and rhetoricians, be a force for good in the world as we put our rhetoric into action?
- How do community members enact rhetoric and rhetorical principles to get things done?
- How do rhetorical principles affect ideas, events, and/or outcomes in nonprofit organizations?
- How do people enact rhetoric in legal spaces for the good or ill of all involved?
- How do academics encourage and enable students to enact rhetoric out in the world, either on their own or as part of an academic enterprise?
- How does one learn to do rhetoric out in the world? How does one teach students to do rhetoric out in the world?
- How do people enact rhetoric online to affect positive or negative change? How can positive change be further amplified or developed? How can negative change be combated or counteracted?
- How do people balance the desire to enact rhetoric out in the world with the other professional and non-professional commitments that they have?
The Applied Rhetoric Symposium was built on foundations of collaboration, coordination, networking, and friendship. In the symposium, we seek to embody these concepts by providing community-building opportunities for those who enact and study applied rhetoric. The symposium itself consists of multiple plenary sessions focused on the presentation of scholarly work to an audience of colleagues. The presentations consist of new “works in progress,” concrete results of established research, and/or what we call “Quick Hits—Rhetoric in Practice” (all described below) with ample time to discuss with the audience after each session.
FORMATS
Works in Progress (30 minutes each)
Not a presentation or a workshop, Works in Progress sessions are a time to get feedback on how to finish a project that seems stuck or how to start working on a promising idea that seems overwhelming.
Traditional (20 minutes each)
You know what we are talking about. Strict time limits, but these presentations will be followed by an extended open discussion after each set of three traditional presentations.
NEW THIS YEAR! The Write-to-Publish Track
The Write-to-Publish track offers a pathway from conference presentation to peer-reviewed publication in POROI. This track integrates conference vetting with the journal's peer review process. Presentations will be scheduled with Traditional presentations (20 minutes each). See Write-to-Publish CFP below for more information.
Quick Hits: Rhetoric in Practice (10 minutes each)
A lightning round of sorts in which participants review or critique applications of rhetoric in their work, communities, or society at large. Quick hits will be followed by open discussion sessions.
HYBRID DELIVERY
We are committed to making the ARC Symposium accessible both in-person and online via hybrid delivery methods. We're still working out the details, but we want to assure all attendees that effective hybrid delivery is a core focus of our planning efforts.
CFP: WRITE TO PUBLISH TRACK
Track Chairs: Stephen Carradini, Kathryn Northcut
Journal Editor: Nathan Johnson
Review Process: Double anonymous peer review
Track Overview
The Write-to-Publish track offers a pathway from conference presentation to peer-reviewed publication in POROI. This track integrates conference vetting with the journal's peer review process.
Scope and Theme
We welcome submissions that adhere to the conference theme and engage with applied rhetoric of inquiry and its applications across fields, as well as digital humanities approaches to rhetorical analysis, public discourse, and civic engagement. Selected submissions will form a coherent thematic collection that advances scholarly conversations at the intersection of rhetorical inquiry and contemporary applied rhetoric issues.
Submission Requirements
For Conference Consideration: Submit a drafted manuscript or manuscript proposal of at least 3000 words or equivalent. Multi-modal submissions are welcome. We consider 1 hour of video/audio equivalent to a completed journal article. This first review for the conference counts as a first round of peer review for the journal.
Publication Timeline
- Conference Submission - Conference acceptance serves as first anonymous peer review
- Revision and review - Conference attendees will offer review and track chairs will work closely with authors for development and revision
- Publication Submission - Direct submission to POROI content management system
- Peer Review Process - Second round of anonymous peer review
- Revision & Publication - Final revisions and publication in a special issue, likely guest edited by an ARC track chair
POROI Publication Details
Copyright: Creative Commons licensing - authors retain copyright while ensuring open access
Archive Policy: Stable, non-mutable version archived in POROI without paywall
Multi-modal Options: Audio/video submissions welcome in POROI with open review process
Questions?
Contact Stephen Carradini and Kathryn Northcut, Track Chairs
Matthew R. Sharp, Ph.D.
(he,
him, his)
Associate Professor of Communication
Dept. of Humanities and Communication
Chair, Campus Curriculum Committee
Daytona Beach Campus
1 Aerospace Boulevard
Daytona Beach, FL 32114
matthe...@erau.edu
Make
an appointment with me.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Florida | Arizona | Worldwide