WBH Presents Alumni Award to Elizabeth Weiser

This week, TCU's WBH presented Elizabeth Weiser, professor of rhetoric at The Ohio State University and an alumna of the rhetoric and composition program at TCU, with the 2019 Alumni Award. At OSU, Dr. Weiser teaches courses in rhetoric and professional writing and researches rhetorical identification and museum studies.

On Monday, 3/25, Dr. Weiser delivered a lecture titled "Glue or Goad? Bridging the Rhetorical Divide in the Rhetorical Museum," wherein she demonstrated how museums can serve as spaces for understanding and critiquing national identity formations, a topic she expounds upon in her book Museum Rhetoric: Building Civic Identity in National Spaces. She used this useful New York Times video to clarify concepts of national identity. After the lecture, rhetoric professor Ann George hosted a reception for TCU students and faculty.

Here is a link to the informative and engaging video from the New York Times in her lecture to explain the concept of national identity:

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On Tuesday, 3/26, WBH invited Dr. Weiser to lead a workshop for current TCU rhetoric faculty and students. Participants enjoyed a meal together and had a chance to inquire further about Dr. Weiser's process of conducting her study of national museums, which proved illuminating for any who are curious about the theoretical and practical aspects involved in conducting transnational research.

WBH was honored to host Dr. Weiser, and we are amazed at the wonderful work our alumni do in our field. 

Additional suggestions from Dr. Weiser for beginning interdisciplinary scholarly  work:

• Consider taking an online MOOC, like the one Dr. Weiser took on Museum Studies from FutureLearn
• Get to know other scholars at summer institutes, such as the RSA Summer Institute and the ECA Summer School on Argumentation (the latter located in Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands!)
  
• Learn some narrative theory; as Dr. Weiser says, "so many, many fields are looking at their work from a new narrative perspective (including even mathematics, I’m told by math friends!), and it is an easy “in” for approaching their fields from ours—like an initial common thread"
  
• Look over this advice compiled by Dr. Weiser about publishing in the rhetoric/comp field