Return to Previous Press Release
Enter your name and a friend's email address in the fields below and click "Submit" to email this Press Release to a friend.
Your message will look like this:
[YOUR NAME HERE] thought you might be interested in this story from the University of Rochester.
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Alhart valerie.alhart@rochester.edu
585.276.3256
March 30, 2010
Pollster John Zogby Delivers Keynote Address at Inaugural Symposium
In today\'s media-saturated environment, where disagreements are fought out in the mass media and settled in the court of public opinion, it comes as no surprise that American politics has become less about the issues and more about the private lives of politicians. This is apparent not only in media coverage of the private lives of political figures, but also in many politicians\' decisions to tell their own stories by writing their political memoirs.
In an effort to understand the influence many of these best-selling books had on the American people in the 2008 presidential election, experts in political science, history, linguistics, and other disciplines will participate in an inaugural symposium by the Group for the Interdisciplinary Study of Political Rhetoric, Media, and Public Opinion, on April 1 to 2 at the University of Rochester.
John Zogby, political pollster and president and CEO of Zogby International, will open the conference with a keynote address titled, \"Words Do Matter and Why.\" The event takes place in the Hawkins-Carlson Room of Rush Rhees Library on the University\'s River Campus and is free and open to the public.
According to Stephanie Li, assistant professor of English at the University of Rochester and co-organizer of the group, its goal is to bring together a diverse set of literary and media analysts, linguistics, political scientists, cultural historians, and political professionals to investigate the relationships between democracy and public opinion. \"The relationship between political rhetoric and public opinion is a critically important topic,\" said Li, \"but no one academic discipline can seem to adequately capture the complexities of these relationships. Our group aims to change all of that.\"
Other featured speakers include Curt Smith, senior lecturer at the University of Rochester and former speechwriter for president George H.W. Bush; Amit Ray, associate professor of literary and cultural studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Julie Sedivy, associate professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences at Brown University; Sidone Smith, Martha Guernsey Colby Collegiate Professor of English and Women\'s Studies at the University of Michigan.
Sponsored by the University of Rochester\'s Humanities Project, the group also partners with Gordon Hutner, professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and founding editor of the journal American Literary History. Proceedings from the event will be featured in a special issue of the journal in winter 2011. For details and the most up-to-date schedule of events, visit the Humanities Project Web site: www.rochester.edu/College/humanities.
Schedule of Events:
THURSDAY, APRIL 1
10:30 a.m. Welcome: Tom DiPiero, University of Rochester
10:45 a.m. Introduction: Curt Smith, University of Rochester
11a.m. Keynote Address: John Zogby, president & CEO of Zogby International,
\"Words Do Matter and Why\"
2 p.m. Craig Fehrman: \"Presidents and Their Books: A Brief History of American Political Memoir\"
3 p.m. Panel 1: \"Personal Narrative and Political Fictions\"
Moderated by Gordon Hutner
5 p.m. Reception
FRIDAY, APRIL 2
10:30 a.m. Panel 2: \"The Identity Politics of Storytelling\": Moderated by Sharon Willis
2 p.m. \"The Language of Identity in Political Discourse\": Julie Sedivy, Brown University
3:30 p.m. \"Presidential Speechwriting and Speechgiving\": Curt Smith, University of Rochester
4:30 p.m. Closing Remarks: John Michael, University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (www.rochester.edu) is one of the nation's leading private universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives students exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering is complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, and the Memorial Art Gallery.
PR 3578, MS 2054