The Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) is an interdisciplinary institute for research and public engagement housed at the Obermann Center at the University of Iowa. Its mission is to explore how scholarship and professional discourses are conducted through argument, how paradigms of knowledge are sensitive to social-political contexts, and how the presentation of scholarly and professional findings involves the recognition and negotiation of audiences.
Since its founding in 1980, POROI has provided resources for strengthening academic inquiry, creativity, and communication in the arts, humanities, sciences and professions. It is especially interested in communicative opportunities and problems that arise at the intersections between disciplines as well as between academia and diverse publics. In these respects, POROI applies the art of rhetoric to the conduct of inquiry. Its concerns range from the invention and construction of arguments to a marked interest in how discourse is interpreted, received, and disseminated in both technical and public spheres of argumentation. POROI is a constituent participant in Iowa’s Writing University Initiative.
The POROI Journal examines the rhetoric of knowledge production in and across venues, sites and disciplines; the ways knowledge flows between technical, public and personal spheres; and inquiry's argumentation, dissemination, reception and lived practices.
Naomi Greyser
Rhetoric; English
Kembrew McLeod
Communication Studies
Deborah Whaley
American Studies, Program in African American Studies
David Cunning
Philosophy
Frank Durham
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Gigi Durham
Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies; School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Deirdre Egan
Department of Rhetoric, Writing Center
Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz
Communication Studies
David Hingstman
Communication Studies
Jiyeon Kang
Communication Studies
John Nelson
Political Science
Thomas Oates
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Iulian Vamanu
School of Library and Information Science
Travis Vogan
American Studies
Emily Wentzell
Anthropology
Deirdre McCloskey
Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communications, University of Illinois at Chicago
Allan Megill
Professor of History, University of Virginia
John Nelson
Political Science
James Elmborg
School of Information and Library Science
James Throgmorton, Emeritus
School of Urban and Regional Planning
David Depew, Emeritus
Communication Studies
John Nelson
Political Science
The editors of the POROI online journal are excited to announce the publication of a special issue! POROI 16.1 is a deep dive into the world of big data. These five articles explore diverse topics including big data and rhetorical-humanism, Cambridge Analytica, COVID-19 contact tracing, the U.S. Congress, biometric big data, and more.
Every semester POROI hosts two rhetoric seminars that workshops the projects-in-progress of researchers, activists, artists, film-makers and other culture workers, including UI and visiting scholars. Each seminar takes place with an audience from diverse backgrounds that come to the seminar having engaged the work-in-progress.
Interested in workshopping your work-in-progress at a Rhetoric Seminar? Contact naomi-greyser@uiowa.edu and kembrew-mcleod@uiowa.edu
The journal invites your submissions through the portal on its homepage at http://ir.uiowa.edu/poroi/. POROI focuses on rhetorical aspects of knowledge production and on the role of various media, old and new, in this process.