Robert Hariman

Robert Hariman is a distinguished philosopher of rhetoric, currently professor and department chair at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Hariman has a B.A. degree in Communications from Macalester College, as well as a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Minnesota. Hariman has written numerous significant publications and bolsters this academic writing as an avid blogger. According to the university website, Hariman’s scholarship focuses on “the role of style in human affairs, particularly with regard to political judgment and the discursive constitution of modern society.” ^[1]

Major publications

Hariman’s major publications include: Political Style: The Artistry of Power (Chicago, 1995); Prudence: Classical Virtue, Postmodern Practice (2003), and No Caption Needed. He is also known for writing book chapters and journal articles in several disciplines.^[2] Hariman has edited several other journals and books, and he has been acknowledged and awarded for his teaching. As a part of his recognition, Hariman is also frequently requested as a scholarly speaker.

Political Style: The Artistry of Power

One of Robert Hariman’s most notable publications is Political Style: The Artistry of Power. He wrote this book while he was a professor of rhetoric and communication studies and Endowment professor of Humanities at Drake University. In this book, Robert Hariman argues that the way in which a message is conveyed (the style) is just as important as the content of the message itself. Also, he posits that this style of relaying messages influences politics. Through the use of critical essays, this book highlights the idea that, as politics is an art-form, it must therefore have facets of style that are critical to the practice of it. He asks that citizens become better readers and judges of such style as it is deployed in everyday politics and speech-making. Hariman outlines four dominant political styles, namely, the realist, courtly, republican, and bureaucratic styles. In the book, he defines each one individually through the critical analysis of texts such as Machiavelli’s The Prince, Kapuscinski’s The Emperor, Cicero’s letter to Atticus, and Kafka’s The Castle, respectively.

Prudence: Classical Virtue, Postmodern Practice

Prudence: Classical Virtue, Postmodern Practice has two contributions from Hariman; Theory without Modernity and Prudence in the 21st Century. This publication adds to the current revitalized interest in prudence. ^[3]

Book and Blog: No Caption Needed

The blog started in 2008, and is now also a book. In this book, the co-authors outline a study of the “iconic photograph as a dynamic form of public art.” ^[4] The co-authors critically examine nine photographs as they have been portrayed in several different forms of media. They examine how the replication and reproduction of these icons transform significant political experiences to satire and comic relief. ‘No Caption Needed’ is focused on the discourse of the impact and influence that photojournalism and other visual art forms have on a democratic society. ^[5]

Other publications

- Popular Trials: Rhetoric, Mass Media, and the Law.In this text, Robert Hariman contributed the introduction and the chapter: Performing the Laws: Popular Trials and Social Knowledge. Hariman argues that in addition to popular trials being classified as “a rhetorical form, a social practice and a symptom of historical change,” they should also be acknowledged as a form of public discourse. ^[6]

- Post-Realism: The Rhetorical Turn in International Relations has contributions from Hariman in three sections. These are: 1. Refiguring realism. ‘Realism and rhetoric in international relations’ 2. ‘Rereading realist writers. Henry Kissinger: realism's rational actor’ and 3. ‘Post-realism. Strategic intelligence and discursive realities. This publication combines essays that cohesively form a history and challenge scholars’ overriding perception of realism.

- Future Imperfect: Imagining Rhetorical Culture Theory in Culture+Rhetoric edited by Ivo Strecker and Stephen Tyler (Berghahn Books)

- Images of the Fall of the Berlin Wall: When History Becomes Public Art with John Louis Lucaites in the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s digital forum Eingebrannte Bilder: Zum Verhältnis von kollektivem Gedächtnis, Erinnerungskultur und Politik (Burnt Images: The Relationship among Collective Memory, Remembrance Culture, and Politics. ^[7]

Other accomplishments

Hariman “was selected as the 2009 recipient of the National Communication Association’s monograph (best article) award for "Parody and Public Culture." For his blog with John Louis Lucaites, they have won the following awards: Frank Luther Mott-Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award, Diamond Anniversary Book Award, James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Award and Susanne K. Langer Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Symbolic Form. ^[8] Hariman also served on a panel at the Confounding Expectations: Photography in Context – Framing the Presidency. A panel held by The Aperture Foundation along with the photography department at Parsons School of Design. ^[9]

References

External links