Globalizing Ubuntu in Rhetorical Discourse and Pedagogy
Theory, Methods, and Practice
edited by Olagbenro Oladipo, Francis Issah, and Richard Marback
Paperback
978-1-64336-726-2
Published: Mar 25 2027
Hardcover
978-1-64336-670-8
Published: Mar 25 2027
Ebook
978-1-64336-727-9
Published: Mar 25 2027
OA Ebook
978-1-64336-727-9
Published: Mar 25 2027
The inclusion of this book in the Open Carolina collection is made possible by the generous funding of Wayne State University and University of South Carolina Libraries
Communal understanding as a foundation for rhetoric in a globalized society
What happens when we put the community, rather than the individual, at the center of rhetorical theory and practice? That is the critical question of Globalizing Ubuntu in Rhetorical Discourse and Pedagogy. Loosely translated to English as "I am because we are," ubuntu is a southern African philosophy that puts social interdependence at the root of individual experience, emphasizing interconnectedness and mutual responsibility.
Globalizing Ubuntu engages questions on the relationships between self and other and thematizes the responsibilities that an individual has to a community. The contributors, experts in the intertwined fields of rhetorical and composition studies, use case studies and critical reflection to deepen analysis of ubuntu in scholarship on the rhetoric of reconciliation and restorative justice, building on previous critical attention to appeals to ubuntu in the South African transition from apartheid to democracy. In composition studies, they develop the pedagogical, and ethical, possibilities afforded by ubuntu understood as "humanity toward others": Writers are seen not only as individuals but also as members of communities. Globalizing Ubuntu brings a trailblazing scholarship contribution to African rhetorics, comparative world rhetorics, and transnational composition studies.
Contributors: Lisa Blankenship, Carly Braxton, Abeeb Hammed, Joseph L. Lewis, Walter Lucken IV, Sethunya Mokoko, Diana Sfetlana Stoica
Olagbenro Oladipo is assistant professor of rhetoric in the Department of English at Wayne State University and a Mellon Scholar at the Detroit Center for Black Studies. In his research and teaching, he uses rhetorical tools to study society and the human condition.
Francis Issah is a lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program at Boston University. Francis's research interests include the intersection of ubuntu and the composition classroom, multilingualism, and civil society rhetoric.
Richard Marback is professor of English at Wayne State University. He has published over fifty articles and chapters about rhetoric, as well as multiple edited and authored books, including Managing Vulnerability.
