Erik Doxtader

Professor

Office: 415 Humanities Office Building
(803) 777-6595
doxtader@rhetoricaltheory.com

Education

Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1996
B.A., University of Kansas, 1988

Website

• RhetoricalTheory.com....a work in progress

Recent Courses

See Course Descriptions for detailed information.

• Classical Rhetoric
• Contemporary Rhetorical Theory
• Modern Rhetorical Theory
• Violence and the Ethics of Recognition
• Rhetorical History of Reconciliation in South Africa
• Discourses of Sexuality
• Introduction to Rhetorical Theory and Criticism
• Philosophy of Rhetoric

Current Research Project(s)

My research constellates the areas of rhetorical theory, critical social theory and political discourse.  In the last years, I have spent a great deal of time living in South Africa and investigating the rhetorical history of reconciliation. I just finished a book that examines how reconciliation shaped the struggle against apartheid and underwrote the constitutional negotiations that brought South Africa to the threshold of a non-racial democracy. Building on this work, I am currently examining the rhetorical and discursive operations of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Against the common presumption that reconciliation entails injustice, the project wagers that the Commission’s work sheds important light on the ways in which reconciliation functions as a form or mode of politics.

As a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, I have an ongoing concern for how deeply divided and transitional societies can create and sustain public deliberation about matters of political and economic equality. This work feeds a larger theoretical and practical interest in the relationship between speech, reason and action. Set at the nexus of rhetoric, philosophy and political theory, much of my work is addressed to the potential of rhetoric – the ways in which individuals and groups work to invent platforms of dissent, constitute the grounds for collective (dis)agreement, compose forms of identity and identification, and undertake to open times and spaces for “history-making.” In all of this, I am most concerned with the question of “how,” the ways in which speech inaugurates and confounds subjectivity, understanding, and agency. Of late, this work has led me toward the concept of play and its implications for how we might better map the linkages between hermeneutics and psychoanalysis.

Fellowships and Awards

• International Research Fellowship, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Cape Town, South Africa, 2001.


• NCA Golden Monograph Award, 2002, 2004.


• Research Fellowship, Program on Peace and Security in a Changing World, Social Science Research Council - MacArthur Foundation, 1999-2000.

Selected Publications

Books
Faith in the Works of Words: The Beginnings of Reconciliation in South Africa. (Cape Town: David Philip, forthcoming February 2008).

Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa – The Fundamental Documents, Co-edited with Philippe Salazar (Cape Town: David Philip, September 2007).

The pursuit of national unity, the well-being of all South African citizens and peace require reconciliation between the people of South Africa and the reconstruction of society. The adoption of this Constitution lays the secure foundation for the people of South Africa to transcend the divisions and strife of the past, which generated gross violations of human rights, the transgression of humanitarian principles in violent conflicts and a legacy of hatred, fear, guilt and revenge. These can now be addressed on the basis that there is a need for understanding but not for vengeance, a need for reparation but not for retaliation, a need for ubuntu but not for victimisation.

Epilogue, 1993 Interim Constitution

What are the political roots of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)? By what means did the Commission endeavor to understand South Africa’s violent past and promote a spirit of national unity? Did the Commission’s acclaimed and controversial efforts help South Africans to walk the bridge from apartheid to nonracial democracy?
This volume provides an explicit and often startling view of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In the name of understanding the Commission’s development, work, and findings, it features a rich variety of materials, including selections from the TRC’s archive of testimony and its Final Report that have yet to receive significant public scrutiny. Together, these fundamental documents challenge conventional accounts of the TRC’s creation and shed important light on how the Commission undertook a public process of history-making, endeavored to give voice to experiences long silenced, exposed the violence of a crime against humanity and the excesses of struggle, and demonstrated the political necessity of repairing a grave injustice.
For both citizen and student, this volume affords an opportunity to grapple with the difficult concepts of truth and reconciliation in South Africa and a chance to reflect on why these two simple words have challenged international preconceptions about the power and potential of African politics.

To Repair the Irreparable: Reparation and Reconstruction in South Africa, Co-edited with Charles Villa-Vicencio (Cape Town: David Philip, 2004).

The question of reparation remains. As South Africa prepares to enter its second decade of democracy, there are no easy answers about how to best repair the damage inflicted by the past. If left unresolved, apartheid’s legacy of inequality may come to thwart ongoing efforts to build a culture of human rights, nurture democratic politics, and move forward with the project of reconciliation. In South Africa, reparation will require a difficult balance of resources, will power, and committed dialogue.

To Repair the Irreparable features over twenty essays from leading commentators about the past, present, and future of reparation in South Africa. What are the benefits and limits of current reparations policy? How can South Africa best fulfill the demands of reparation, democracy-building and justice? How does the South African experience contribute to international debates over reparation? Addressed to these questions, the essays in this volume make an important case for why reparation matters and offer timely discussion of how South Africa might best continue the work of reconstruction.

Contributors include: Mary Burton, Neville Dubow, Revel Fox, Ilan Lax, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Lungisile Ntsebeza, Fiona Ross, Philippe-Joseph Salazar, Jeremy Sarkin, and Ann Skelton

The Provocations of Amnesty: Memory, Justice and Impunity,  
Co-edited with Charles Villa-Vicencio (Cape Town: David Philip, 2003).

Through Fire with Water: Violence, Transition, and the Potential for Reconciliation in Africa - Fifteen Case Studies, Co-edited with Charles Villa-Vicencio(Cape Town: David Philip, 2003).

Essays

“The Faith and Struggle of Beginning (with) Words: On the Turn between Reconciliation and Recognition,” Philosophy and Rhetoric 40:1 (2007). 
 “Reconciliation – A Rhetorical Conception," Quarterly Journal of Speech 89 (2003): 267-292.
 “Making History in a Time of Transition: The Rhetorical Occasion, Constitution, and Representation of South African Reconciliation," Rhetoric and Public Affairs 4 (2001): 223-260.

"Characters in the Middle of Public Life: Consensus, Dissent and Ethos," Philosophy and Rhetoric 33:4 (2000): 336-369.