Book Review of Grassroots Activisms: Public Rhetorics in Localized Contexts

Cover of edited collection, "Grassroots Activisms: Public Rhetorics in Localized Contexts"

This review explores the key themes of the edited collection, Grassroots Activisms: Public Rhetorics in Localized Contexts, edited by Lisa L. Phillips, Sarah Warren-Riley, and Julie Collins Bates and published in January 2024.

In the review, I also share my own impressions of the collection’s strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, having presented my review to the class, the presentation slide deck I created is also included.

course
WRD 550 Topics in Teaching Writing: The Community-Engaged Classroom

instructor
Dr. Monica Reyes

term
Spring 2024

course summary
The course explored what community is, how it’s cultivated, how classrooms engage with a community, and the ethical and pedagogical challenges associated with designing a community-engaged course.

assignment
Book Review Presentation Assignment

prompt
For this assignment, you will select one of the books below and write a 750 word review appropriate for an academic journal in our discipline(s). Please use academic style (MLA or APA). Submit on D2L Discussion Board “Book Review Presentation Assignment”. Sample HERE. In addition, you will share a 10 minute slide presentation in class during Week 9 about the book. This is your opportunity to casually share your book review with your peers and learn about titles you may want to read yourself.

Book Review, Grassroots Activisms: Public Rhetorics in Localized Contexts

"At every chapter’s end, I would go back to the table of contents and choose what resonated with how the previous chapter left me feeling. With this approach, my journey through the collection became its own story, different from what another reader’s might be."

“advocating for systemic change and supporting people who are navigating the current system…are not mutually exclusive” (Reyes et al., 247).

Read the review

View the presentation

Reflection

Working on this review was a fruitful experience of reading an edited collection in order to summarize and synthesize for an audience who might not be familiar with its concepts, but interested enough to read a review of it. I also found it really helpful to familiarize myself with the review genre as it is often found in our field's journals and could be a good practice for pursuing publication in the field. I wonder every so often if my critique of the editors was too strong, but I'm proud of myself for articulating them nonetheless.

I'm really grateful in particular to have written my review on this edited collection, especially, with its heart in the various forms of activism people enact and the rhetorics they choose to invoke, promote, or reject. There's a lot to be said about the limitations of academia's ability to engage in activist work and I think the authors of this chapter demonstrate examples of how it can be done.