SPEECH COMMUNICATION & RHETORIC

At the University of South Carolina, the Speech Communication & Rhetoric program offers rigorous and interdisciplinary training in the classical and contemporary rhetorical traditions. Students in the program have the opportunity to draw from a variety of fields and perspectives in order to critically investigate the invention, performance, interpretation, and ethics of spoken and written discourse.

With a faculty committed to humanistic and critical inquiry and teaching, the program features both an undergraduate minor and an M.A. program.

Rhetoric and Communication- Important Ideas for a Complicated Age What is the power of speaking? Why is some speech productive? Why is some speech dangerous? Why do we live in a culture that places such a high value on the right to speak and yet goes to great lengths to ignore the question of how words work and the ways in which they can make a difference in everyday and political life? Why does the close and critical study of speech tell us something important about who we are and what we might become – as individuals, members of shared cultures, and as citizens? In short, what is the potential of speaking? This is an old and significant rhetorical question. This does not mean that the question defies answer. It means that every generation is called to find its voice, come to terms with language into which we are thrown, and invent ways of speaking that redress violence, enable shared understanding. and energize new forms of collective understanding. Read More.

The Graduate Program in Speech Communication & Rhetoric The University of South Carolina is a leading center for the advanced interdisciplinary study of communication and rhetoric. With a shared commitment to humanistic and critical inquiry, the faculty and graduate students in the Speech Communication & Rhetoric program work in close collaboration to explore the theoretical and practical questions that attend the development, use, and power of the rhetorical and communicative arts. Read More. Current Course Offerings Read More.

The Undergraduate Minor Are you interested in a particular public controversy? Would you like to understand how social movements take shape and how they create social and political change? Are you concerned to understand how individuals, groups, and societies forge agreements in the midst of violence and conflict? Do you want to know more about the relationship between language and culture? Are you fascinated by how words can perform deeds? Would you like to know how to read, interpret, and closely analyze a document or speech, a text that might appear in a legal, political, cultural or institutional context? Would you like to know more about how language shapes everyday activities like sports, law-making, political activism, or technological innovation? If so, you may want to consider the undergraduate minor in Speech Communication-Rhetoric. Click here for more information.

Click here for the USC Rhetoric and Composition Program