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‘Rhetoric in public affairs’ is topic of forum
Dr. Michael L. Hecht, professor and head of the Department of Speech Communication at Penn State, welcomes participants to the seventh biennial Public Address Conference on Rhetoric, Identity and Public Culture. Dr. Martin J. Medhurst (at the podium), professor of speech communication at Texas A&M University, gives the keynote presentation on “Public Address — The State of the Art” during the Rhetoric, Identity and Public Culture conference.	Nearly 100 leading scholars from around the nation gathered at Penn State for the seventh biennial Public Address Conference on Rhetoric, Identity and Public Culture. They spent several days discussing the history, function and influence of rhetoric in public affairs.   The conference was designed to encourage dialogue on critical issues related to the politics of identity, the symbolic dimensions of citizenship and the possibilities and limits of public debate. Scholars from the disciplines of rhetoric, composition, history, philosophy and women’s studies attended the forum. Dr. Stephen Browne, associate professor of speech communication at Penn State, chaired the conference. The first Public Address Conference was held in 1988.   Dr. Martin J. Medhurst, professor of speech communication at Texas A&M University, gave the keynote presentation on “Public Address — The State of the Art.” He is a specialist in presidential rhetoric, cold war rhetoric and rhetorical theory and criticism.   The conference included a banquet honoring Dr. Edwin Black, professor emeritus of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin, for his contributions to the history of rhetorical studies. Dr. Thomas W. Benson, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Rhetoric and professor of speech communication at Penn State, was the guest speaker for the event. An outreach program of the College of the Liberal Arts