Minor in Rhetoric and Public Advocacy 

Rhetoric and Public Advocacy 

Co-Directors:

            Stephen J. Parks, Associate Professor, Writing Program
            John S. Burdick, Professor, Anthropology Department

The undergraduate minor in rhetoric and public advocacy is an interdisciplinary program supported by the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies as well as the Writing Program in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

The 18-credit minor explores the connections between advocacy, as a pragmatic practice for social change, and rhetoric, as a historical tradition of public argument, within national and local contexts. Students understand advocacy as a practice that includes public argument and reasoning in multiple contexts as well as how each context demands its own set of unique actions. In this way, the minor offers intellectual and practical tools.

The minor is designed to be of interest to those wishing to learn about the emergence of key public issues; the larger political, social, and economic framework out of which they emerge; and how different constituencies respond. You learn to assess competing interests within a public issue as well as engage in local, regional, and national advocacy campaigns. By the completion of the minor, you come to understand advocacy as a necessary part of citizenship. 

For more information, please contact Elizabeth Seton Mignacca at:  esmignac@maxwell.syr.edu

Admissions requirements

The minor is open to all undergraduate SU students with a minimum GPA of 3.0.

Curricular requirements

Rhetoric and Public Advocacy Courses (9 credits):
Choose three of the following:


ANT 372 Intercultural Communications and Conflict

ANT 475 Culture and Disputing
ANT 483 Social Movements
CRS 225 Public Advocacy
CRS 553 American Public Address
PAF 101 Introduction to the Analysis of Public Policy
PAF 421 Mediation: Theory and Practice
PAF 422 Negotiation: Theory and Practice
PAF 424 Conflict Resolution in Groups
PSC 328 American Social Movements
WRT 301 Civic Writing
WRT 440 Issues in Language and Politics

Rhetoric and Public Advocacy - Subject Areas (9 Credits)
Three courses in one category, unless prior approval from advisors.
One course of which must have a significant community-based project

LABOR

GEO 273 World Political Economy
GEO 361 Global Economic Geography
GEO 400 Geographies of Migration and Mobility
GEO 463 Geography of Homelessness
GEO 573 Geography of Capital
HST345 Workers, Organized Labor in The United States

ENVIRONMENT

CMN 393 Environmental Discourse
EST 361 History of the American Environmental Movement
GEO 103 America and the Global Environment
GEO 203 Society and the Politics of Nature
GEO 215 Global Environmental Change
GEO 353 Geographies of Environmental Justice
GEO 356 Environmental Ideas and Policies
GEO 374 Environment and Development in the Global South

URBAN COMMUNITIES

ANT 414 Cities, Spaces, and Power
CRS 535 Communication and the Community

GEO 362 - The European City
GEO 400 Community Geography
GEO 563 The Urban Condition: Life and Struggle in the Contested City
GEO 564 Urban Historical Geography
LIN 481 Global Communication through World Englishes
MAX 132 Global Community
PSC 354 Human Rights/Global Affairs
SOC 300 Urban Poverty