In Birmingham, this became the turning point. Rhetoric is the study of argument, of talk. You can imagine a world different from Birmingham. You can imagine a different world and advocate for change. Even bleak and violent situations can be changed through talk.
Talk is action.
In Alabama, they talked through a problem. Last summer, he and Whitman senior Jeremy Engdahl-Johnson, who received a Perry Research Scholar Award, went to Jackson, Mississippi, to look for documents and information. They are producing several scholarly articles based on their investigation. The story that unfolds illustrates what happens when communication is laid on a foundation of falsehood. The story also gives us an idea of how important one aspect of the study of rhetoric is - that part involving the ability to analyze critically the messages we come into contact with everyday.