Workshop 8: Updating Our Privacy Settings: Protecting Our Public Places, Bodies, and Classrooms

Leaders: Chen Chen (Utah State University), Emily Gillo (University of Memphis), Noah Wason (University of New York at Cortland), Charles Woods (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Sarah Young (University of Arizona)

In an age of ubiquitous digital surveillance, the issue of privacy is paramount. While rhetorical
scholarship has examined privacy thoroughly, including strong critiques and equally strong
defenses, the rhetorical geographies of privacy have been taken for granted. In this workshop,
which is facilitated by members of the Digital Rhetorical Privacy Collective (DRPC)
(drpcollective.com) and connected to the publication of our edited collection, Privacy Settings,
available in Spring 2027 from the University of Pittsburgh Press, participants will interrogate how
privacy is contextualized under varying terms of engagement across public spaces, bodily
borders, and learning landscapes. A play on words, “privacy settings,” as our guiding framework
for the workshop, offers insight on the places and spaces where privacy and surveillance are in
tension as well as the choices (the settings) users choose to take control of their privacy.
Guided by discussions on scholarship in surveillance studies, rhetoric/communication theories,
writing studies, and intersectional and embodied analysis, participants will work on deliverables
of their choices that interrogate and investigate issues of privacy and surveillance. The
workshop topics draw from the three sections of our edited collection: Public Spaces, Bodily
Borders, and Learning Landscapes. Other than exploring scholarly conversations, participants
will gain practical resources on how to protect our privacy in day-to-day life and how to teach
students to be more conscious of privacy issues and be better custodians of our rights to
privacy. Participants will work towards developing research project ideas, public-facing projects,
or pedagogical materials by the completion of the workshop.

Note from the organizers:
As per previous workshops, there may be pre-reading and pre-work required before June. Your leaders will reach out to you some time after registration with additional details.