[ecrea] Call for Papers: The Rhetoric and Discourse of Oil (multimodal)

    *Call for Papers for an edited collection: /The Rhetoric and
    Discourse of Oil/*
    */
    /*
    Recent years have seen the rise of the “Energy Humanities,” which
    consider cultures in terms of the energy sources that make them
    possible, energy sources that tend to be invisible to those
    inhabiting a given culture. In /Oil Culture/, for example, Ross
    Barrett and Daniel Worden argue that in contemporary North America
    oil is largely secreted out of sight but, at the same time, “the oil
    industry is as ubiquitous and necessary to contemporary life as
    money” (xix). Or, as Ruth Salvaggio puts it in her essay in that
    collection, “Even as we can smell the gas that we put into our cars,
    or sometimes see the black substance that gets poured into car
    engines or heating furnaces, oil itself remains a spectral
    substance—until something ruptures and it all comes pouring out”
    (386). This simultaneous invisibility and necessity is effected
    through rhetoric. For instance, in the recent “Life Takes Energy”
    campaign, Enbridge presents various events—baking cupcakes,
    colouring on a rainy day, swimming, swaddling a new baby—before
    stating that the corporation provides the energy that makes these
    moments possible. We don’t see oil, or pipelines, or windmills in
    these ads, but energy’s necessity is asserted and the energy
    corporation’s necessity is implied.

    Despite the rise of the Energy Humanities, eco-rhetoric, and
    Petroculture, no study of oil rhetoric currently exists. Therefore,
    /The Rhetoric and Discourse of Oil /seeks papers that examine how
    discourse and rhetoric create/enable the spectrality of oil (how
    rhetoric persuades individuals/the public that oil is an invisible
    magic elixir fuelling progress) and how it also disrupts or counters
    that view. Contributions to this collection will engage with our
    understanding of petroleum in its fundamental ambiguity, not only as
    a key sustaining source of modern culture but also as a toxic and
    destructive commodity. As such, /The Rhetoric and Discourse of
    Oil/ seeks interventions in the discourses and rhetorics of oil and
    its related industries. Possible areas of focus include, but are not
    limited to, rhetoric and/or discourse and one or more of the following:

    bitumen extraction;
    hydraulic fracturing (fracking);
    Off-shore drilling;
    Pipelines and other forms of transportation (oil-by-rail, the Lac
    Mégantic disaster, tankers);
    Spills, Leaks, Ruptures;
    Upgrading and Refining;
    Lawsuits (Aboriginal consultation, Treaty rights);
    Politics;
    Government documents;
    Industry documents;
    Advertising;
    Film;
    Poetry, fiction, drama;
    Visual Rhetoric;
    Photography/Petrography;
    Environment vs. Economy;
    Economic History.

    Please submit proposals of 300-400 words to Jon Gordon
    ((jfg2 /at/ ualberta.ca) <mailto:(jfg2 /at/ ualberta.ca)>) and Heather Graves
    ((hgraves /at/ ualberta.ca) <mailto:(hgraves /at/ ualberta.ca)>) by Jan. 31, 2016.
    Final papers will be due Sept. 1, 2016.

    --
    Dr. Jon Gordon

    Instructor, Writing Studies
    Office of Interdisciplinary Studies
    University of Alberta
    Edmonton, AB T6G 2E6
    CANADA
    E-mail: (jfg2 /at/ ualberta.ca) <mailto:(jfg2 /at/ ualberta.ca)>
    ******************






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