Kevin Macy-Ayotte | California State University, Fresno (original) (raw)
Papers by Kevin Macy-Ayotte
NWSA journal, 2005
In the wake of the "war on terrorism," feminist analyses of international relations must broaden ... more In the wake of the "war on terrorism," feminist analyses of international relations must broaden the concept of security to consider forms of violence beyond the statist security framework of realpolitik. This article argues that U.S. representations of the burqa rhetorically construct the women of Afghanistan as gendered slaves in need of "saving" by the West, increasing women's insecurity by promoting various forms of neocolonial violence. In negotiating a middle ground between poststructuralist and materialist methods, this essay also argues for a feminist postcolonial criticism that will provide a more nuanced understanding of the nature of gender insecurity in the post-cold war world.
This volume offers the best available thinking and analysis on the topic of the rhetoric and comm... more This volume offers the best available thinking and analysis on the topic of the rhetoric and communication of terrorism. Each of the chapters isolates a particular issue or concern and exposes the difficult choices and subsequent processes facing participants in the management of terrorism. By wrapping the analysis in a web of communication and rhetorical processes and theories, the authors develop unique perspectives from which to characterize these contexts. This volume is intended for multiple audiences, including those interested not only in the specific topic but in risk communication, crisis management, policy management and political science
Argumentation and advocacy, Jun 1, 2011
This article examines the manner in which post-Cold War U.S. public discourse about biological te... more This article examines the manner in which post-Cold War U.S. public discourse about biological terrorism has been inflected by the intertextuality of U.S. encounters with viruses such as Ebola. In particular, the rhetorical legacy of Richard Preston's book, The Hot Zone, carries several powerful yet often unacknowledged premises regarding the magnitude and likelihood ofbioterrorism into public debates about biological threats. The article explores this intertextuality in public argumentation about biodeftnse preparations and public health advocacy related to the 2007 anthrax attacks by analyzing the persuasive functions of the public vocabulary and cultural maps relied upon in making sense out of biological threats.
This volume offers the best available thinking and analysis on the topic of the rhetoric and comm... more This volume offers the best available thinking and analysis on the topic of the rhetoric and communication of terrorism. Each of the chapters isolates a particular issue or concern and exposes the difficult choices and subsequent processes facing participants in the management of terrorism. By wrapping the analysis in a web of communication and rhetorical processes and theories, the authors develop unique perspectives from which to characterize these contexts. This volume is intended for multiple audiences, including those interested not only in the specific topic but in risk communication, crisis management, policy management and political science.
Argumentation and Advocacy
Certainty leads us to attack evil; being less sure we would but resist it. The difference between... more Certainty leads us to attack evil; being less sure we would but resist it. The difference between attack and resistance is the difference between violence and argument, the thread on which our lives dangle.-Alien Wheelis, cited in Brummett, 1976, pp. 39-40. In the wake of September 11, 200 1, and the ensuing global "war on terrorism," we might expect students of public argument to return to the study of American foreign policy rhetoric with the fervor witnessed during the Cold War. As Gordon Mitchell (2002) recently observed, scholars from within and without communication departments have already begun the vital task of exploring security studies and international relations through the lens of argumentation. At the same time, scholars, myself included, drawn to the intellectual questions echoing in the cadence of war drums, would be mistaken to suppose that the only brutalities worth our attention are those so obviously framed by the flames of a terrorist bomb or the flash of a military rifle. In the hope of encouraging rhetorical inquiry relevant to the broad range of human aggression in the contemporary world, this essay considers four recent books concerned with diverse expressions of violence from equally varied theoretical perspectives. The texts reviewed herein address discursive violence in the form of hate speech, literary representations of rape, modem geopolitical violence, and the metaphysical underpinnings of violence as an abstract phenomenon. The decision to examine such eclectic treatments of violence
Handbook of Risk and Crisis Communication, 2020
, then-President of Iran Mohammed Khatami called on the General Assembly of the United Nations to... more , then-President of Iran Mohammed Khatami called on the General Assembly of the United Nations to pursue a "dialogue among civilizations." 1 Khatami's proposal was a response to Samuel Huntington's notion of an inevitable "clash of civilizations" that would supposedly characterize international relations after the end of the clash of superpowers that was the Cold War. 2 In a later affirmation of his argument, Khatami called on scholars to protect the concept of dialogue among civilizations from "the onslaught of dogmatic enmity to any possibility of reaching truth" that he associated with postmodern critique. 3 While the unity of something called postmodernism might well be debated, the more significant aspect of his latter statement is the correlation Khatami envisions between truth and a dialogue among civilizations. Such dialogue offers a viable, and vital, alternative to the clash of civilizations hypothesis, but the vitality of this global conversation may be located precisely in its renunciation of truth. 2 Even before the articulation of a renewed "war on terrorism" following the attacks on September 11, 2001, American scholars and government officials had speculated about the possibility of a "clash of civilizations" between Western nations (primarily the United States and Europe) and the various manifestations of Islamic fundamentalism found in parts of the Middle East. 4 Scholars such as Huntington characterized this potential conflict as a manifestation of foundational cultural differences between Western secular democracy and Middle Eastern Islamic theocracy; the "clash of civilizations" was thus often seen as a "clash of cultures." Significantly, this theory of cultural clash assumes that cultural difference is necessarily navigated through competition, and, more specifically, violent competition. In part, this paper argues that expectations of modern civilizational clash are rooted in a particular philosophy of culture that understands the United States and the Middle East in terms of diametrically opposed cultural "truths." Consequently, while considering the prospect of an alternative in the dialogue among civilizations, this paper also concludes that the sophistical rejection of objective truth, against Plato's transcendental epistemology, offers a philosophy of culture more amenable to Khatami's dialogue. The culture of competition in classical Greece, and the ways in which Plato and the sophists differently addressed the function of truth within that competitive framework, offer useful approaches to rethinking the philosophical underpinnings of modern cultural clash. Classical Greece offers a useful resource for thinking about the relationship between culture and competition. As John Poulakos has observed, a variety of cultural practices in Athens created the conditions out of which the sophistic "movement" emerged. 5 He notes in particular the centrality of competition in classical Athenian culture; perhaps most visible in the Olympic Games, a valorization of competition extended to virtually all areas of life. And as Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, the Athenian culture of competition privileged the possibility of the
Risk and Health Communication in an Evolving Media Environment, 2018
Turning the Century, 2018
Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2014
The death of philosopher and public intellectual Jacques Derrida drew international attention and... more The death of philosopher and public intellectual Jacques Derrida drew international attention and generated public acts of mourning in the media. Several of the published obituaries for Derrida are notable for their overtly hostile and dismissive tone. This essay explores the genre of epideictic rhetoric and is grounded in Derrida’s work on mourning, analyzing several instances of “uncivil” epideictic rhetoric including three hostile obituaries and several responses to them written by friends and colleagues of Derrida for the insight that they yield regarding ethical public remembrance. We argue that a sincere engagement with the ideas of the dead, while always incomplete, is at the heart of an ethical, civil mourning.
Quarterly Journal of Speech, 2002
Quarterly Journal of Speech Vol. 88, No. 1, February 2002, pp. 121-127 ... Mistaking Nietzsche: R... more Quarterly Journal of Speech Vol. 88, No. 1, February 2002, pp. 121-127 ... Mistaking Nietzsche: Rhetoric and the Epistemic Pest ... Kevin Ayotte, John Poulakos, and Steve Whitson ... "Hear me! For I am such and such a person. Above all, do not mistake me for someone ...
NWSA Journal, 2005
In the wake of the "war on terrorism," feminist analyses of international relations must broaden ... more In the wake of the "war on terrorism," feminist analyses of international relations must broaden the concept of security to consider forms of violence beyond the statist security framework of realpolitik. This article argues that U.S. representations of the burqa rhetorically construct the women of Afghanistan as gendered slaves in need of "saving" by the West, increasing women's insecurity by promoting various forms of neocolonial violence. In negotiating a middle ground between poststructuralist and materialist methods, this essay also argues for a feminist postcolonial criticism that will provide a more nuanced understanding of the nature of gender insecurity in the post-cold war world.
Argumentation and Advocacy, 2011
This article examines the manner in which post-Cold War U.S. public discourse about biological te... more This article examines the manner in which post-Cold War U.S. public discourse about biological terrorism has been inflected by the intertextuality of U.S. encounters with viruses such as Ebola. In particular, the rhetorical legacy of Richard Preston's book, The Hot Zone, carries several powerful yet often unacknowledged premises regarding the magnitude and likelihood ofbioterrorism into public debates about biological threats. The article explores this intertextuality in public argumentation about biodeftnse preparations and public health advocacy related to the 2007 anthrax attacks by analyzing the persuasive functions of the public vocabulary and cultural maps relied upon in making sense out of biological threats.
The Handbook of Communication and Security, 2019
NWSA journal, 2005
In the wake of the "war on terrorism," feminist analyses of international relations must broaden ... more In the wake of the "war on terrorism," feminist analyses of international relations must broaden the concept of security to consider forms of violence beyond the statist security framework of realpolitik. This article argues that U.S. representations of the burqa rhetorically construct the women of Afghanistan as gendered slaves in need of "saving" by the West, increasing women's insecurity by promoting various forms of neocolonial violence. In negotiating a middle ground between poststructuralist and materialist methods, this essay also argues for a feminist postcolonial criticism that will provide a more nuanced understanding of the nature of gender insecurity in the post-cold war world.
This volume offers the best available thinking and analysis on the topic of the rhetoric and comm... more This volume offers the best available thinking and analysis on the topic of the rhetoric and communication of terrorism. Each of the chapters isolates a particular issue or concern and exposes the difficult choices and subsequent processes facing participants in the management of terrorism. By wrapping the analysis in a web of communication and rhetorical processes and theories, the authors develop unique perspectives from which to characterize these contexts. This volume is intended for multiple audiences, including those interested not only in the specific topic but in risk communication, crisis management, policy management and political science
Argumentation and advocacy, Jun 1, 2011
This article examines the manner in which post-Cold War U.S. public discourse about biological te... more This article examines the manner in which post-Cold War U.S. public discourse about biological terrorism has been inflected by the intertextuality of U.S. encounters with viruses such as Ebola. In particular, the rhetorical legacy of Richard Preston's book, The Hot Zone, carries several powerful yet often unacknowledged premises regarding the magnitude and likelihood ofbioterrorism into public debates about biological threats. The article explores this intertextuality in public argumentation about biodeftnse preparations and public health advocacy related to the 2007 anthrax attacks by analyzing the persuasive functions of the public vocabulary and cultural maps relied upon in making sense out of biological threats.
This volume offers the best available thinking and analysis on the topic of the rhetoric and comm... more This volume offers the best available thinking and analysis on the topic of the rhetoric and communication of terrorism. Each of the chapters isolates a particular issue or concern and exposes the difficult choices and subsequent processes facing participants in the management of terrorism. By wrapping the analysis in a web of communication and rhetorical processes and theories, the authors develop unique perspectives from which to characterize these contexts. This volume is intended for multiple audiences, including those interested not only in the specific topic but in risk communication, crisis management, policy management and political science.
Argumentation and Advocacy
Certainty leads us to attack evil; being less sure we would but resist it. The difference between... more Certainty leads us to attack evil; being less sure we would but resist it. The difference between attack and resistance is the difference between violence and argument, the thread on which our lives dangle.-Alien Wheelis, cited in Brummett, 1976, pp. 39-40. In the wake of September 11, 200 1, and the ensuing global "war on terrorism," we might expect students of public argument to return to the study of American foreign policy rhetoric with the fervor witnessed during the Cold War. As Gordon Mitchell (2002) recently observed, scholars from within and without communication departments have already begun the vital task of exploring security studies and international relations through the lens of argumentation. At the same time, scholars, myself included, drawn to the intellectual questions echoing in the cadence of war drums, would be mistaken to suppose that the only brutalities worth our attention are those so obviously framed by the flames of a terrorist bomb or the flash of a military rifle. In the hope of encouraging rhetorical inquiry relevant to the broad range of human aggression in the contemporary world, this essay considers four recent books concerned with diverse expressions of violence from equally varied theoretical perspectives. The texts reviewed herein address discursive violence in the form of hate speech, literary representations of rape, modem geopolitical violence, and the metaphysical underpinnings of violence as an abstract phenomenon. The decision to examine such eclectic treatments of violence
Handbook of Risk and Crisis Communication, 2020
, then-President of Iran Mohammed Khatami called on the General Assembly of the United Nations to... more , then-President of Iran Mohammed Khatami called on the General Assembly of the United Nations to pursue a "dialogue among civilizations." 1 Khatami's proposal was a response to Samuel Huntington's notion of an inevitable "clash of civilizations" that would supposedly characterize international relations after the end of the clash of superpowers that was the Cold War. 2 In a later affirmation of his argument, Khatami called on scholars to protect the concept of dialogue among civilizations from "the onslaught of dogmatic enmity to any possibility of reaching truth" that he associated with postmodern critique. 3 While the unity of something called postmodernism might well be debated, the more significant aspect of his latter statement is the correlation Khatami envisions between truth and a dialogue among civilizations. Such dialogue offers a viable, and vital, alternative to the clash of civilizations hypothesis, but the vitality of this global conversation may be located precisely in its renunciation of truth. 2 Even before the articulation of a renewed "war on terrorism" following the attacks on September 11, 2001, American scholars and government officials had speculated about the possibility of a "clash of civilizations" between Western nations (primarily the United States and Europe) and the various manifestations of Islamic fundamentalism found in parts of the Middle East. 4 Scholars such as Huntington characterized this potential conflict as a manifestation of foundational cultural differences between Western secular democracy and Middle Eastern Islamic theocracy; the "clash of civilizations" was thus often seen as a "clash of cultures." Significantly, this theory of cultural clash assumes that cultural difference is necessarily navigated through competition, and, more specifically, violent competition. In part, this paper argues that expectations of modern civilizational clash are rooted in a particular philosophy of culture that understands the United States and the Middle East in terms of diametrically opposed cultural "truths." Consequently, while considering the prospect of an alternative in the dialogue among civilizations, this paper also concludes that the sophistical rejection of objective truth, against Plato's transcendental epistemology, offers a philosophy of culture more amenable to Khatami's dialogue. The culture of competition in classical Greece, and the ways in which Plato and the sophists differently addressed the function of truth within that competitive framework, offer useful approaches to rethinking the philosophical underpinnings of modern cultural clash. Classical Greece offers a useful resource for thinking about the relationship between culture and competition. As John Poulakos has observed, a variety of cultural practices in Athens created the conditions out of which the sophistic "movement" emerged. 5 He notes in particular the centrality of competition in classical Athenian culture; perhaps most visible in the Olympic Games, a valorization of competition extended to virtually all areas of life. And as Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, the Athenian culture of competition privileged the possibility of the
Risk and Health Communication in an Evolving Media Environment, 2018
Turning the Century, 2018
Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2014
The death of philosopher and public intellectual Jacques Derrida drew international attention and... more The death of philosopher and public intellectual Jacques Derrida drew international attention and generated public acts of mourning in the media. Several of the published obituaries for Derrida are notable for their overtly hostile and dismissive tone. This essay explores the genre of epideictic rhetoric and is grounded in Derrida’s work on mourning, analyzing several instances of “uncivil” epideictic rhetoric including three hostile obituaries and several responses to them written by friends and colleagues of Derrida for the insight that they yield regarding ethical public remembrance. We argue that a sincere engagement with the ideas of the dead, while always incomplete, is at the heart of an ethical, civil mourning.
Quarterly Journal of Speech, 2002
Quarterly Journal of Speech Vol. 88, No. 1, February 2002, pp. 121-127 ... Mistaking Nietzsche: R... more Quarterly Journal of Speech Vol. 88, No. 1, February 2002, pp. 121-127 ... Mistaking Nietzsche: Rhetoric and the Epistemic Pest ... Kevin Ayotte, John Poulakos, and Steve Whitson ... "Hear me! For I am such and such a person. Above all, do not mistake me for someone ...
NWSA Journal, 2005
In the wake of the "war on terrorism," feminist analyses of international relations must broaden ... more In the wake of the "war on terrorism," feminist analyses of international relations must broaden the concept of security to consider forms of violence beyond the statist security framework of realpolitik. This article argues that U.S. representations of the burqa rhetorically construct the women of Afghanistan as gendered slaves in need of "saving" by the West, increasing women's insecurity by promoting various forms of neocolonial violence. In negotiating a middle ground between poststructuralist and materialist methods, this essay also argues for a feminist postcolonial criticism that will provide a more nuanced understanding of the nature of gender insecurity in the post-cold war world.
Argumentation and Advocacy, 2011
This article examines the manner in which post-Cold War U.S. public discourse about biological te... more This article examines the manner in which post-Cold War U.S. public discourse about biological terrorism has been inflected by the intertextuality of U.S. encounters with viruses such as Ebola. In particular, the rhetorical legacy of Richard Preston's book, The Hot Zone, carries several powerful yet often unacknowledged premises regarding the magnitude and likelihood ofbioterrorism into public debates about biological threats. The article explores this intertextuality in public argumentation about biodeftnse preparations and public health advocacy related to the 2007 anthrax attacks by analyzing the persuasive functions of the public vocabulary and cultural maps relied upon in making sense out of biological threats.
The Handbook of Communication and Security, 2019