African American Rhetoric(s): Interdisciplinary Perspectives

African American Rhetoric(s): Interdisciplinary Perspectives is an introduction to fundamental concepts and a systematic integration of historical and contemporary lines of inquiry in the study of African American rhetorics. Edited by Elaine B. Richardson and Ronald L. Jackson II, the volume explores culturally and discursively developed forms of knowledge, communicative practices, and persuasive strategies rooted in freedom struggles by people of African ancestry in America.

Outlining African American rhetorics found in literature, historical documents, and popular culture, the collectionprovides scholars, students, and teachers with innovative approaches for discussing the epistemologies and realities that foster the inclusion of rhetorical discourse in African American studies. In addition to analyzing African American rhetoric, the contributors project visions for pedagogy in the field and address new areas and renewed avenues of research. The result is an exploration of what parameters can be used to begin a more thorough and useful consideration of African Americans in rhetorical space.

African American Rhetoric(s) presents Reconstructionist, Black/African American, Nubian/Ancient Egyptian, and Afrocentric rhetorics. The scope of the volume is vast, yet the contributors are unified in finding connections between African American cultural understandings and current persuasive and negotiation strategies. The essays collectively work to reclaim topics that have shifted to other disciplines, and they also delineate debates about African American studies within rhetoric and composition and communications studies.

The volume includes a foreword by Jacqueline Jones Royster and an introduction by Keith Gilyard. Contributors are Shirley Wilson Logan, Kalí Tal, Gwendolyn D. Pough, Jacqueline K. Bryant, Kimmika L.H. Williams, Clinton Crawford, Lena Ampadu, Elaine B. Richardson, Victoria Cliett, Adam J. Banks, Kermit E. Campbell, Vorris L. Nunley, Joyce Irene Middleton, and William W. Cook.

Elaine B. Richardson, an associate professor of English at Penn State University, is the author of African American Literacies. 

Ronald L. Jackson II, an associate professor in the Department of Communications Arts and Sciences at Penn State University, is the author of The Negotiation of Cultural Identity: Perceptions of European Americans and African Americans.