African American Rhetoric(s) Interdisciplinary References Edited by Elaine B. Richardson and Ronald L. Jackson II Foreword by Jacqueline Jones Royster Introduction by Keith Gilyard   July 2004 cloth, 0-8093-2565-9, $55.00 288 pages, 6 x 9 Rhetoric and Composition / African American Studies   “African American Rhetoric(s) will go quite far in helping us to chart new pathways to understanding. This collection encourages us to notice the inventions and refinements in rhetorical practices that have emerged from the cultural fusions of this particular group, but more generally it encourages us to be informed by what human beings, in all our variety, have the capacity to do in the interest of rhetorical exigency.”  —Jacqueline Jones Royster, from the Foreword   “While much attention has been paid to particulars of African American rhetorics, little has been paid to African American rhetorics, broadly understood. This is an important project, given the role, diachronically and synchronically, of African American rhetorics in the American experiment. The volume's tripartite division is appropriate and illuminating.” —Bradford T. Stull, author of Amid the Fall, Dreaming of Eden: Du Bois, King, Malcolm X, and Emancipatory Composition   African American Rhetoric(s): Interdisciplinary Perspectives is an introduction to fundamental concepts and a systematic integration of historical and contemporary lines of inquiry in the study of African American rhetorics. Edited by Elaine B. Richardson and Ronald L. Jackson II, the volume explores culturally and discursively developed forms of knowledge, communicative practices, and persuasive strategies rooted in freedom struggles by people of African ancestry in America.   Outlining African American rhetorics found in literature, historical documents, and popular culture, the collection provides scholars, students, and teachers with innovative approaches for discussing the epistemologies and realities that foster the inclusion of rhetorical discourse in African American studies. In addition to analyzing  African American rhetoric, the contributors project visions for pedagogy in the field and address new areas and renewed avenues of research. The result is an exploration of what parameters can be used to begin a more thorough and useful consideration of African Americans in rhetorical space.   African American Rhetoric(s) presents Reconstructionist, Black/African American, Nubian/Ancient Egyptian, and Afrocentric rhetorics. The scope of the volume is vast, yet the contributors are unified in finding connections between African American cultural understandings and current persuasive and negotiation strategies. The essays collectively work to reclaim topics that have shifted to other disciplines, and they also delineate debates about African American studies within rhetoric and composition and communications studies.   The volume includes a foreword by Jacqueline Jones Royster and an introduction by Keith Gilyard. Contributors are Shirley Wilson Logan, Kalí Tal, Gwendolyn D. Pough, Jacqueline K. Bryant, Kimmika L.H. Williams, Clinton Crawford, Lena Ampadu, Elaine B. Richardson, Victoria Cliett, Adam J. Banks, Kermit E. Campbell, Vorris L. Nunley, Joyce Irene Middleton, and William W. Cook.   Elaine B. Richardson, an associate professor of English at Penn State University, is the author of African American Literacies.    Ronald L. Jackson II, an associate professor in the Department of Communications Arts and Sciences at Penn State University, is the author of The Negotiation of Cultural Identity: Perceptions of European Americans and African Americans.