Here is the next ' 2 DAY Event ' co sponsored by ACPJ

Talks are open to the public and will be in the CMA Building at UT Austin, on April 9th and 10th.

"Prisoners of Conscience and the Thick Moral Vernacular of Human Rights"

Dr. Gerard A. Hauser, Professor of Communication Studies - University of Colorado, Boulder

April 9, 2010, 4PM at UT Austin

The presence of political prisoners on every continent signals the suppression of dissent and opposition in many parts of the world, often with violence. Without arms to defend themselves, political prisoners mount resistance through rhetorical means to express convictions that transcend their own well-being and that conscience will not allow them to betray. They are prisoners of conscience both in the material sense of being
imprisoned for dissent born of conviction and the moral sense of being prisoners to their own commitments of conscience. They invite audiences and publics to respond by speaking of their condition with a different language than found in human rights covenants. Instead they continue their struggle through a moral vernacular rhetoric that seeks to diminish the power of the oppressor while issuing by calls for personal identity and group solidarity. This presentation explores the salient features of their thick moral vernacular rhetoric as a locus of resistance.

Read more...