Robert Sullivan, professor of speech communication, will deliver the culture and communications program's distinguished faculty lecture on Tuesday, October 4, at 7:00 p.m. in Klingenstein Lounge. The title of his talk is "Humanism and Propaganda." It is free and open to the public.
According to Sullivan, intellectuals have always adopted new communicative media and genres in order to effect political and cultural change. His lecture will probe how one intellectual milieu (16th century English humanists) employed revolutionary media (printed books) and genres (translations of classical literature) as modalities of propaganda.
"William Faulkner famously said 'The past is not dead. It is not even the past.' My talk is in dialogue with that spirit, " explained Sullivan.
Robert Sullivan is an associate professor in the speech communication department with affiliations to the culture and communication program, the legal studies program, the history department, and the honors program. He serves on the culture and communication faculty steering committee. He is director of the classical studies minor program.
Sullivan teaches courses in classical rhetorical theory, legal argumentation, propaganda, and communication ethics. Professor Sullivan's central research area is the Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition. He is currently working on two single-authored books: a reconstruction of the Isocratean rhetorical techne, and second being a reception history of the Attic orators during the English Renaissance. He is widely published in the areas of classical rhetoric, propaganda and communications ethics and philosophy.
The culture and communication distinguished faculty lecture is an on-going initiative to showcase the scholarly work of faculty from across all of the schools on campus whose research contributes to the field of culture and communication. The lectures also provide opportunities for students and faculty to explore this interdisciplinary area outside of classroom instruction in a collegial environment.
