Dr. Pamela VanHaitsma presents from her new book, The Erotic as Rhetorical Power. Extending perspectives from ancient rhetoric to nineteenth-century progressivism, VanHaitsma conceives of the erotic as an interanimation of desires imbued with the power to forge connection and foment change. Engaging more than twenty archives of romantic friendships between women teachers—including Sallie Holley and Caroline Putnam, Irene Leache and Anna Wood, and Rebecca Primus and Addie Brown—she considers how the erotic fueled the women’s rhetorical activities toward transformational ends (abolition of slavery, educational access, voting rights) and both reinforced and challenged troubling power dynamics.

This event is co-sponsored by the graduate programs in Composition, GSWS, and Communication at Pitt and the CMU English department.