Reflections Public Rhetoric, Civic Writing and Service Learning Volume 13, Issue 2, Spring 2014 Editor: Cristina Kirklighter, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi Associate Editor: Willma Harvey, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi Assistant Editor: Jessica Pauszek, Syracuse University Book Review Editor: Tobi Jacobi, Colorado State University Editorial Board: Hannah Ashley, West Chester University Nora Bacon, University of Nebraska-Omaha Adam Banks, University of Kentucky Melody Bowdon, University of Central Florida Jan Cohen-Cruz, Imagining America/Syracuse University Ellen Cushman, Michigan State University Linda Flower, Carnegie Mellon University Eli Goldblatt, Temple University H. Brooke Hessler, Oklahoma City University David Jolliffe, University of Arkansas Linda Adler-Kassner, University of California, Santa Barbara Joyce Magnotto Neff, Old Dominion University Kristina Montero, Syracuse University Patricia O’Connor, Georgetown University Nick Pollard, Sheffield Hallam University Luisa Connal Rodriguez, South Mountain Community College Barbara Roswell, Goucher College Lori Shorr, Office of the Mayor, Philadelphia Amy Rupiper Taggart, North Dakota State Unviersity Adrian Wurr, University of North Carolina at Greensboro Copyright © 2014 New City Community Press No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Member CELJ Council of Editors of Learned Journals http://reflectionsjournal.net ISSN: 1541-2075 Cover Photograph by Richmond Times-Dispatch Design by Elizabeth Parks, http://www.elizabethparks.com Reflections, a peer reviewed journal, provides a forum for scholarship on public rhetoric, civic writing, service learning, and community literacy. Originally founded as a venue for teachers, researchers, students, and community partners to share research and discuss the theoretical, political and ethical implications of community-based writing and writing instruction, Reflections publishes a lively collection of scholarship on public rhetoric and civic writing, occasional essays and stories both from and about community writing and literacy projects, interviews with leading workers in the field, and reviews of current scholarship touching on these issues and topics. We welcome materials that emerge from research; showcase community- based and/or student writing; investigate and represent literacy practices in diverse community settings; discuss theoretical, political and ethical implications of community-based rhetorical practices; or explore connections among public rhetoric, civic engagement, service learning, and current scholarship in composition studies and related fields. Submissions: Electronic submissions are preferred. Manuscripts (10–25 double-spaced pages) should conform to current MLA or APA guidelines for format and documentation and should include an abstract (about 100 words). Attach the manuscript as a Word or Word-compatible file to an email message addressed to Cristina Kirklighter at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi ([email protected]). Your email message will serve as a cover letter and should include your name(s) and contact information, the title of the manuscript, and a brief biographical statement. Your name or other identifying information should not appear in the manuscript itself or in accompanying materials. All submissions deemed appropriate for Reflections are sent to external reviewers for blind review. You should receive prompt acknowledgement of receipt followed, within six to eight weeks, by a report on its status. Contributors interested in submitting a book review (about 1000 words) or recommending a book for review are encouraged to contact Tobi Jacobi at Colorado State University ([email protected]). Articles published in Reflections are indexed in ERIC and in the MLA Bibliography. Contents Reflections: Public Rhetoric, Civic Writing and Service Learning Volume 13, Issue 2, Spring 2014 1 Editor’s Introduction Cristina Kirklighter, Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi 8 “Where is the Finish Line in the Race Race?” An Interview with Dr. Edward Peeples Candace Epps-Robertson, Michigan State University 28 Plowing Fertile Ground in Farmville: Acknowledging a Rhetoric of Conversation Heather Lettner-Rust, Longwood University 47 Recognizing One Another in Public: Reconsidering the Role and Resources of an Enclave Veronica Oliver, Arizona State University 71 Helping to Build Better Networks: Service-Learning Partnerships as Distributed Knowledge Work Guiseppe Getto, East Carolina University Kendall Leon, Portland State University Jessica Getto-Rivait, Northcare Health Services 96 Review: Democracies to Come: Rhetorical Action, Neoliberalism, and Communities of Resistance Moira Ozias, University of Oklahoma 101 Review: PHD to Ph.D.: How Education Saved My Life Mariana Grohowski, Bowling Green State University 106 Review: Gravyland: Writing Beyond the Curriculum in the City of Brotherly Love. Kelly Langan, West Chester University of Pennsylvania Editor’s Introduction Cristina Kirklighter, Texas A & M University – A white double consciousness would not involve Corpus Christi the move between white and black subjectivities or black and American perspectives, as DuBois and Fanon developed the notion. Instead, for whites, double consciousness requires an ever present acknowledgment of the historical legacy of white identity constructions in the persistent structures of inequality and exploitation, as well as a newly awakened memory of the many white traitors to white privilege who have struggled to contribute to the building of an inclusive human community. —Linda Martín Alcoff, The Whiteness Question recently attended the Rhetorical Society of America (RSA) conference I in San Antonio and had the pleasure of listening to Linda Alcoff ’s key note address. The above quote I found on her website and speaks, in part, to this issue. If I could give this issue a name, it would be the Serendipity Issue (by the way, serendipity is one of the most difficult words to translate in the English language). Perhaps, a good 1 Reflections | Volume 13.2, Spring 2014 translation would be this is the issue of fortunate coincidences, discoveries, and collaborations. Candace Epps-Robertson e-mailed me a few months ago to say that she wanted to interview a Civil Rights Activist, Dr. Edward H. Peeples, from Virginia, as part of her many years of research with Prince Edward County, Virginia’s school segregation and Civil Rights activism. Candace grew up in Farmville located in Prince Edward County, went to graduate school in the Northeast as did Peeples, and both did extensive research on Prince Edward communities focusing on Civil Rights. Although they are decades apart in age, Candace is African American and Dr. Edward Peeples is Southern white, they are dedicated researchers and activists in studying this rural Virginia community. Also, this Editor grew up in Northern Virginia during the 60’s and 70’s. As a child in the late 1960’s, I attended Stonewall Jackson Elementary school in Alexandria, Virginia. Every school day, I passed a portrait of Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate General. I recall one day when the principal singled me out as I entered the school, pointed to the Stonewall Jackson portrait, and asked me who that man was on the wall. I remember those stern blue eyes waiting for me to give her the answer this eight year old did not have. With tears in my eyes, she proceeded to tell me in an angry voice why the school was named after General Jackson and admonished me for my ignorance. Years later, I wondered if she had met my brown skinned Honduran mother and my Southern white father from Tennessee. Perhaps, she proceeded to make sure I knew the Southern white history she deemed important for me to learn. Years later, I would read this quote from Candace’s interview with Dr. Edward Peeples that spoke to my Elementary school principal, “the preponderance of my whiteness education took place in Richmond, and the basic message was the same. I can recall sensing as early as about age five how much race mattered to adults.” At the RSA Reflections booth, Shirley Wilson Logan from the University of Maryland stopped by, and we talked about the title of this interview, “Where is the Finish Line in the Race Race?” This is an important question for Southerners like Epps-Robertson, Peeples, Logan, and this Editor. It is an important question for our Associate Editor, Willma Harvey, who grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi during 2 Editor’s Introduction | Cristina Kirklighter the 60’s and 70’s, as well as someone who went through Hurricane Katrina. And, I anticipate it is an important question for many of our reader activists who will find hope in one of the last lines of the interview, “So when prospects seem dim and thoughts of despair and foreboding creep into our head, it is comforting to know from history that the struggles for human equality and dignity are a multi-century movement, and we are really never alone.” At Farmville’s Robert Russa Moton Museum’s website http://www. motonmuseum.org/, it reads “The Student Birthplace of America’s Civil Rights Movement.” When we often think of student activism and community building, urban communities usually come to mind. The research on rural student activism and how it develops and thrives is not in many journals or books, and it should be. Farmville