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For over a century, National Geographic has shaped American visual culture, captivating audiences with stunning photography and compelling storytelling. Yet behind its iconic yellow border lies a fraught legacy of gender bias, racial misrepresentation, and colonialist narratives.In this incisive study, Leland G. Spencer examines the brand's recent attempts to reckon with that legacy across its magazine and television platforms. From special issues spotlighting transgender lives, to a public acknowledgment of past racism, to a magazine edition created entirely by women, these efforts signal a move toward inclusivity. But as Spencer reveals through rigorous rhetorical analysis, these gestures often fall short. The texts themselves frequently echo the same systemic inequalities they seek to redress. National Geographic's progressive rebranding, he argues, remains tangled in the very histories it aims to transcend.
 

An examination of the rhetorical linkage of queer theory in the academy with street-level queer activism in the 1980s and early 1990s

The late 1980s and early 1990s were a defining historical moment for both queer activism and queer theory in the United States. LGBTQ communities, confronted with the fatal indifference and homophobia of the AIDS crisis, often responded with angry, militant forms of activism designed not merely to promote acceptance or tolerance, but to forge identity and strength from victimization and assert loudly and forcefully their rights to safety and humanity. The activist reclamation of the word “queer” is one marker of this shift in ideology and practice, and it was mirrored in academic circles by the concurrent emergence of the new field of “queer theory.” That is, as queer activists were mobilizing in the streets, queer theorists were producing a similar foment in the halls and publications of academia, questioning regulatory categories of gender and sexuality, and attempting to illuminate the heteronormative foundations of Western thought. Notably, the narrative of queer theory’s development often describes it as arising from or being inspired by queer activism.

In Reclaiming Queer, Erin J. Rand examines both queer activist and academic practices during this period, taking as her primary object the rhetorical linkage of queer theory in the academy with street-level queer activism. Through this strategic conjuncture of activism and academia, Rand grapples with the specific conditions for and constraints on rhetorical agency in each context. She examines the early texts that inaugurated the field of queer theory, Queer Nation’s infamous “Queers Read This” manifesto, Larry Kramer’s polemic speeches and editorials, the Lesbian Avengers’ humorous and outrageous antics, the history of ACT UP, and the more recent appearance of Gay Shame activism. From these activist and academic discourses, Rand builds a theory of rhetorical agency that posits queerness as the very condition from which agency emerges.

Reclaiming Queer thus offers a critical look at the rhetoric of queer activism, engages the history of queer theory’s institutionalization and the politics of its proliferation, suggests a radically contextual understanding of rhetorical agency and form, and argues for the centrality of queerness to all rhetorical action.

Reconceptualizing Response reframes instructor feedback, one of the most consequential practices in rhetoric and writing studies, as a site of linguistic justice. Instructor response is not merely technical commentary; it is contested terrain where students’ identities, experiences, and language varieties must be named, supported, and celebrated.

Contributors represent a wide range of institutional contexts—including two-year colleges, four-year universities, HBCUs, HSIs, SLACs, and PWIs—and write from diverse positionalities, amplifying current debates and productive tensions in the field. Organized around four key moves—looking back, looking within, looking up, and looking around—the book invites readers to critically examine the ideologies underlying feedback practices; recognize how instructors' positionality, values, and beliefs are communicated through feedback; align feedback with students’ needs; and reconsider the broader classroom ecology required for justice. Bridging linguistic justice and feedback studies, this collection provides concrete tools and frameworks, as well as sample rubrics, course policies, and fresh approaches to assessment.

Ideal for graduate students, writing program administrators, faculty teaching future writing instructors, and anyone seeking to transform classroom practice, Reconceptualizing Response offers guiding questions for reflection and practical strategies for change. This volume reimagines instructor response as a catalyst for equity, consciousness-raising, and transformation, calling instructors not only to comment on writing but also to use feedback to dismantle oppressive logics and foster linguistic justice.

 Reconstructing Argumentative Discourse analyzes argumentation in ordinary disputes. The analysis begins with an ideal model: a theoretical structure of discourse that might be used to resolve a dispute about the merits of two opposing cases. The ideal model does not describe actual argumentative practice. Argumentative discourse does not always seek genuine resolution and, when it does, the participants may not perform as ideal arguers.

As Information Management put it, "On the strength of its currency and coverage alone, Franks' book is poised to take over as the recommended go-to reference for both students and RIM professionals for many years to come.” The new second edition cements this work’s status as an up-to-date classic, its content updated and expanded to address emerging technologies, most notably blockchain, and evolving standards and practices. Inside, Franks presents complete coverage of the records and information lifecycle model, encompassing paper, electronic (databases, office suites, email), and new media records (blogs, chat messages, and software as a service). Informed by an advisory board of experts in the field and with contributions by noted authorities, the text addresses such key topics as

• the origins and development of records and information;
• the discipline of information governance and developing a strategic records management plan;
• creation/capture and classification;
• retention strategies, inactive records management, archives, and long-term preservation;
• access, storage, and retrieval;
• electronic records and electronic records management systems;
• the latest on rapidly evolving technologies such as web records, social media, and mobile devices;
• vital records, disaster preparedness and recovery, and business continuity;
• monitoring, auditing, and risk management; and
• education and training.

This book’s authoritative blend of theory and practice makes it a matchless resource for everyone in the archives and records management field. Instructor/trainer extras include a set of ready-to-go, customizable PowerPoint slides to accompany the text.

Widely acknowledged as the benchmark text for both students and RIM professionals ("extremely comprehensive and accessible," raves Archival Issues) the new third edition updates its authoritative blend of theory and practice to reflect the field’s dynamically evolving environment, including the rapid rise of applications powered by AI/ML. Franks presents complete coverage of the records and information lifecycle model, encompassing paper, electronic (databases, office suites such as Microsoft 365, and email), and new media records (blogs, chat messages, and software as a service), while acknowledging the influence of emerging and developing technologies and encouraging new ways of meeting the resulting challenges. In this book, enhanced with supplemental contributions from a wide range of thought leaders and practitioners, readers will explore such keys topics as

• the latest advances in disruptive technologies, including blockchain, Web3, the metaverse, and evolving digital communication tools such as enterprise social media;
• an overview of the origins and development of records and information management;
• the discipline of information governance and the steps to develop a strategic records and information management plan;
• a completely new chapter that demystifies data governance, automation, and AI;
• strategies for the creation/capture and classification of records and information;
• approaches to retention strategies, inactive records management, archives, and long-term digital preservation;
• methods for access, storage, and retrieval of records and information;
• insight into electronic records and electronic records management systems;
• practices for safeguarding essential records, including disaster preparedness, recovery, and business continuity;
• approaches to monitoring, auditing, privacy, security, and risk management;
• fresh discussion of the leadership and management skills required of RIM professionals; and
• expert guidance on trendspotting, education, and training.

• a basic template for the skills required and expectations demanded of the reference librarian;
• the pandemic’s effect on reference services and how the ingenuity employed by libraries in providing remote and virtual reference is here to stay;
• a new chapter dedicated to health information, with a special focus on health equity and information sources;
• selecting and evaluating reference materials, with strategies for keeping up to date;
• a heightened emphasis on techniques for evaluating sources for misinformation and ways to give library users the tools to discern facts vs. “fake facts”;
• reference as programming, readers’ advisory services, developmentally appropriate material for children and young adults, and information literacy;
• evidence-based guidance on handling microaggressions in reference interactions, featuring discussions of cultural humility and competence alongside recommended resources on implicit bias;
• managing, assessing, and improving reference services; and
• the future of information and reference services, encapsulating existing models, materials, and services to project possible evolutions in the dynamic world of reference

A collection of essays providing insights into new directions in rhetorical history

Kathleen J. Turner’s 1998 multicontributor volume Doing Rhetorical History: Concepts and Cases quickly became a foundational text in the field, and the studies in the book have served as an important roadmap for scholars undertaking such scholarship. In the decades since its publication, developments in rhetorical-historical research, engaged scholarship, and academic interventionism have changed the practice of rhetorical history tremendously.

To address this shift, Turner and Jason Edward Black have edited a much-anticipated follow-up volume: Reframing Rhetorical History: Cases, Theories, and Methodologies, which reassesses both history as rhetoric and rhetorical history as practice. This new book attends to a number of topics that have become not just hot-button issues in rhetorical scholarship but have entrenched themselves as anchors within the field. These include digital rhetoric, public memory, race and ethnicity, gender dynamics and sexualities, health and well-being, transnationalism and globalization, social justice, archival methods and politics, and colonialism and decoloniality.

The sixteen essays are divided into four major parts: “Digital Humanities and Culture” introduces methods and cases using twenty-first century technologies; “Identities, Cultures, and Archives” addresses race and gender within the contexts of critical race theory, gendered health rhetoric, race-based public memory, and class/sectionalism; “Approaches to Nationalism and Transnationalism” explores ideologies related to US and international cultures; and “Metahistories and Pedagogies” explores creative ways to approach the frame of metarhetorical history given what the field has learned since the publication of Doing Rhetorical History.

CONTRIBUTORS
Andrew D. Barnes / Jason Edward Black / Bryan Crable / Adrienne E. Hacker Daniels / Matthew deTar / Margaret Franz / Joe Edward Hatfield / J. Michael Hogan / Andre E. Johnson / Madison A. Krall / Melody Lehn / Lisbeth A. Lipari / Chandra A. Maldonado / Roseann M. Mandziuk / Christina L. Moss / Christopher J. Oldenburg / Sean Patrick O’Rourke / Daniel P. Overton / Shawn J. Parry-Giles / Philip Perdue / Kathleen J. Turner