Scientists, Politics, and the Rhetoric of Public Controversy

Book launch and bubbles.

Join us for an afternoon discussion of “Scientists, Politics, and the Rhetoric of Public Controversy”. This new volume examines how scientists across the world engage as citizens in public life and how scientific authority is increasingly challenged, appropriated, and reshaped in times of crisis. The essays trace science activism, public resistance, and the shifting rhetorical situations that shape communication between experts and broader publics. The book invites us to imagine a more caring and community-rooted practice of science, opening new possibilities for collaboration and meaningful public engagement.

Featuring a book presentation and discussion with:

  • Leah Ceccarelli – Professor, Department of Communication, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
  • Pamela Pietrucci – Associate Professor, Section of Rhetoric (KOMM), University of Copenhagen, DK

 

This book examines how scientists around the world embrace their responsibility as citizens, and how science is being used and abused by non-scientists in public spaces. As right-wing politicians, conspiracy theorists, and modern robber barons assault science in the current moment, it is time for the rhetoric of science to reconceptualize itself as a crisis/care discipline.

The essays in this volume help us do that by scrutinizing particular cases of science activism, examining the public modalities of resistance that scientists are increasingly taking up as they modify their public engagement to fit evolving rhetorical situations. These essays also reveal how the authority of science is being distorted and exploited by non-experts in ways that are more dangerous than ever in the shadow of climate change and global pandemics. The book ends with a look at new possibilities for collaboration between local communities and scientists and a reflection on how a rhetorical
conception of ethos can help us comprehend the negotiation of asymmetries between experts and laypeople in the current era.

 


The event is open and public and does not require registration.