Description

International conference on rhetoric and Kenneth Burke, July 1–3, 2026 at Ghent University (in collaboration with the Kenneth Burke Society). 

July 1-3, 2026     
Belgium, Ghent University, research group Culture & Education     
Conference Organizers:     
Kris Rutten, Ghent University, kris.rutten@ugent.be     
Amanda Adam, Ghent University, amanda.adam@ugent.be     
In collaboration with the Kenneth Burke Society     
 

What does it imply to study rhetoric today? The current moment is characterized by many societal – often binary – divisions, by a lack of identification with others, and an unwillingness to move beyond communicative echo chambers, often restricted within the digital sphere. At the same time, many people are increasingly pushing back against these divisions and are exploring ways to move beyond the moral panic and reappropriate digital and real-world affordances to create (digital) spaces for common ground, to react, to create meaning, and to renegotiate our rhetorical understanding of the world.

In this conference, we aim to explore how the study of rhetoric can respond to and engage with these often contentious dynamics. We aim to do so by moving forward both with and from Kenneth Burke.

We will move forward with Kenneth Burke as his conceptual framework helps us to navigate in the current moment. For example, his claim that ‘all human beings are poets’ helps us consider how  “the poetic orientation asks people to see the world as a work in progress to which they contribute and, hence, see themselves as composers rather than a passive audience” (George, 86). By redefining humans as poets, Burke argues the need to move beyond individual actions or societal structures and to orient ourselves to the complex networks that create meaning and constitute identities. Indeed, Burke’s lifetime in politico-aesthetic thinking taught him (and us) that “‘citizens in a democracy’ [...] are charged with paying attention to the ‘ambiguities of identification’ that are always inherent in ‘that tiny first-person plural pronoun, ‘we’” (Burke 50, qtd. in Weiser 10). As “we” is promoted as both the problem (us vs. them) and the solution (all of us together) to today’s binaries, how do “we” as rhetoricians understand its changing roles?  

We also aim to move forward from Kenneth Burke because – as Richard Lanham famously stated – Kenneth Burke started the rhetorical conversation of our time. We would like to continue extending this conversation to contemporary rhetorical scholars and critics in order to explore what is implicated in being (or becoming) symbol-wise in the current moment; (re)conceptualizing concepts from Burke as well as confronting Burke with insights and theories grounded in our most current rhetorical scholarship.

2026 Registration Rates (Register before May 1, 2026 for the best fee!)

Early-Bird Registration (Deadline: May 1, 2026)

Registration - €300     
Retired Staff Registration – €250     
Graduate Student Member Registration –  €250  

Late Registration (Deadline: June 1, 2026)

Registration - €350     
Retired Staff Registration – €300     
Graduate Student Member Registration –  €300     
 

Questions? Contact movingforwardkb@ugent.be or the organizers (kris.rutten@ugent.be & amanda.adam@ugent.be).