The Humanist Scholar as Public Expert

Abstract

Although the rhetoric of expertise stemming from the hard and social sciences has been well researched, the scholarship has not tended to focus on acts of public expertise by scholars from the humanities. This article reports a case study in the rhetorical practices of a theologian, acting as a public expert, first attempting to affect decision making in the Waco conflict in 1993 and then attempting to participate in and shape the public debates that followed it. To compare the practices of this humanities scholar to expectations from research on the rhetoric of expertise, a rhetorical analysis was conducted on the context, style, genre, and argument in the scholar's public writings. This article discusses (a) the role of kairos in the policy cycle in determining the scholar's bids for acceptance as an expert, (b) the use of narrative as a generic hybrid of intra-and interdisciplinary practice, and (c) the role of "understanding" as a special topic.

Review Essay: Local Communication Studies

“…The plan gets larger, with sub-plans, centering on the purchase, transformation, and relocation of a bus terminal (in anticipation of phasing in a public transportation project). The author demonstrates how the city architect's anxieties led to further evaluations of the bus terminal's location, which, in turn, only led to additional ''rationalizations of a political decision made in advance'' (19). Power, Flyvbjerg argues, seeks change, not knowledge.…”

“…And they may facilitate more than deliberation; they can aid in judgment. 19 Local rhetorical knowledge may challenge how we think about invention; local rhetorical artistry may challenge how we write about design. But we have to involve ourselves in real communities first.…”

Arguing with God: A rhetorical analysis of ‘The God Debates’

“…Numerous theorists have applied rhetoric to the study of religious discourse and public deliberation (Booth, 1985;Eisenhart, 2006;Gitay, 1983Gitay, , 2001Gitay, , 2005Gitay, , 2009Perelman, 1969Perelman, , 1982Smith, 2008;Williams & Alexander, 1994). Gitay examines the use of rhetoric in Religious Rhetoric and Public Deliberation: Preliminary Thoughts (2001) and makes an important distinction: religion can either serve as a means to support an argument -"means of persuasion," (Gitay, 2001, p. 54) -or can be the issue about which one is arguing.…”