Join us for a virtual presentation & discussion with Dr. Lisa Flores:

The Im/Mobilities of Rhetorical Race Making

March 3, 2022 @ 6PM EST

Race and gender scholars have long argued that both mobility and containment are critical to the “making” of bodies. In this session, I ask what it means to think at the juncture of mobility and containment, offering im/mobilities as a frame that interrupts a common either/or perspective on mobility and containment. Using recent viral fragments of the U.S./Mexico border, I’ll explore im/mobilities and their implications for rhetorical race making. Along the way, I’ll consider issues of spectacle, magnitude, and excess as I consider gendered/racial rhetorical race making.

Lisa A. Flores is Professor in the Department of Communication and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the College of Media, Communication, and Information at the University of Colorado. Her research and teaching interests lie in rhetoric, critical race studies, and gender/queer studies. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including three book prizes for Deportable and Disposable: Public Rhetoric and the Making of Mexican ‘Illegality,’ (Penn State UP, 2020), the Douglas W. Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award and the inaugural IDEA Award from the National Communication Association (NCA). Her new project, Static Mobilities: Race, Gender, Sexuality and Containment, examines what it means to think race at the intersections of mobility and stoppage. An advocate of service, Lisa is Co-Chair of the CU Boulder IDEA Council and a current member of both the Board of Directors of the Rhetoric Society of America and the Executive Committee of the National Communication Association.