A great reason to look forward to Mondays in 2013:

“The Reconstructionists, a collaboration between illustrator Lisa Congdon and writer Maria Popova, is a yearlong celebration of remarkable women — beloved artists, writers, and scientists, as well as notable unsung heroes — who have changed the way we define ourselves as a culture and live our lives as individuals of any gender.

Every Monday in 2013, we’ll be publishing an illustrated portrait of one such trailblazing woman, along with a hand-lettered quote that captures her spirit and a short micro-essay about her life and legacy.

The project borrows its title from Anaïs Nin, one of the 52 female icons, who wrote of “woman’s role in the reconstruction of the world” in a poetic 1944 diary entry — a sentiment that encapsulates the heart of what this undertaking is about: women who have reconstructed, in ways big and small, famous and infamous, timeless and timely, our understanding of ourselves, the world, and our place in it.”

http://thereconstructionists.org/

Brandon Busteed, on The Atlantic’s 2012 Technologies in Education Forum:

“In a room full of technology experts … discussion kept returning to the basics of great classroom teaching. There was widespread agreement among the participants that technology will change everything and nothing. Essentially, what we do with technology has to have fundamental underpinnings in what the best teachers in the world have done for decades.”

Videos and the agenda from the 2012 Technologies in Education Forum are available here.

[HuffPo article via Behzod Sirjani]

Please join in Ford Hall Room 102 at 4 pm on February 16 us for this special event featuring Dr. David Zarefsky. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Zarefsky is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University. He teaches courses in the history and criticism of U.S. public discourse, argumentation, and in presidential rhetoric. He is past president of the Rhetoric Society of America, the National Communication Association, and the Central States Communication Association.

This public presentation is part of the Willamette University Conversation Series on Constructing Freedom and Responsibility in Public Life, which is sponsored by the Department of Rhetoric & Media Studies and directed by Cindy Koenig Richards.

The Newseum offers a look at today’s front pages: See how 760 newspapers from 76 countries covered the bin Laden story.

I’m thrilled to announce that Dr. Jennifer Mercieca will be the fifth presenter in the Conversation Series on Freedom and Responsibility in Public Life at Willamette University.

Dr. Mercieca will deliver her public presentation, “Founding Fictions: Citizens as Romantic Heroes, Tragic Victims & Ironic Partisans in American Political Discourse” at 11:30 am on April 21 in Ford 301. All are invited and refreshments will be served. See more details and share this event with your friends via our Facebook event page.

Jennifer Mercieca is author of Founding Fictions (University of Alabama Press, 2010) and an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A & M University. Her scholarly work combines American history and rhetorical and political theory, and her current projects focus on the contradictions in American citizenship by examining the evolution of the rhetoric of American republicanism. Dr. Mercieca regularly teaches courses such as The Rhetoric of Social Movements, History of American Public Address, Citizenship and the Public Sphere, and Argumentation and Debate. Learn more about Dr. Mercieca on her web page.

The 2011 Conversation Series on Freedom and Responsibility in Public Life is directed by Dr. Cindy Koenig Richards, and sponsored by the Department of Rhetoric and Media Studies and the President’s Hewlett Fund at Willamette University.

Presentation Abstract:

Part political history, part rhetorical criticism, Founding Fictions is an extended analysis of how Americans reimagined themselves as citizens between 1764 and 1845. It critically re-interrogates our fundamental assumptions about a government based on the will of the people, with profound implications for our ability to assess democracy today. Founding Fictions develops the concept of a “political fiction,” or a narrative that people tell about their own political theories, and analyzes how republican and democratic fictions positioned American citizens either as romantic heroes, tragic victims, or ironic partisans. By re-telling stories that Americans have told themselves about citizenship, I highlight an important contradiction in American political theory and practice: that national stability and active citizen participation are perceived as fundamentally at odds.

Communication scholar Kathleen Hall Jamieson discusses the power of words, media culture, and the state of political rhetoric with Mark Shields, David Brooks and Beverly Gage on PBS NewsHour.

TED talk by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg looks at why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions, and offers three messages that can help cultivate equity and success.