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Submit to 2025 Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society

Kenneth Burke, the Humanities, and Agency in the Era of AI

An Onsite and Virtual Inter-Conference and Festival

The 12th Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society welcomes proposals that focus on any Burkean subject. Proposals that address the conference theme, “Kenneth Burke, the Humanities, and Agency in the Era of AI,” are especially welcome. The conference will be hosted by Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, from May 22 to May 25, 2025. In addition to lively presentations, performances, exhibits, a film festival, games, and unending conversation in the parlor, KBS 2025 will also feature a virtual exhibition space in New Art City that features presentations, installations, art, and video. A film production crew will film a live theatrical and cinematic enactment of the Burkeian parlor for The Wordman film. The theatrical trailer for The Wordman will premiere at the conference. Conference Website: http://kbjournal.org/kbs25.

Drawing of Kenneth Burke by Taylor Jones. (c) 2006 by David Blakesley. All rights reserved.
 

  • Proposal Submission Deadline: 1 March 2025
  • Proposal Acceptance Notifications: 15 March 2025 or earlier
  • Please see the Presentation and Session Format descriptions below.

Conference Theme

Kenneth Burke, the Humanities, and Agency in the Era of AI

Daniel Plate and James Hutson argue that we must view AI “not merely as a technological tool, but as a powerful extension of our symbolic lives, with profound ethical implications” (“Reclaiming the Symbol: Ethics, Rhetoric, and the Humanistic Integration of GAI: A Burkean Perspective,” p. 69). They view AI as an extension of human symbolic action and argue for a balanced approach to its use, which can potentially bridge the divide between humanistic inquiry (what Burke advocates) and continuing digital innovation. Is it possible to view AI as anything other than an adversary of the humanities (especially since AI isn’t going anywhere soon)? Plate and Hutson argue that it is possible to develop a more nuanced understanding of AI by viewing this technology specifically within the context of Burkean rhetorical theory. The LLMs that fuel generative (and textual) AI may enable contextually coherent and persuasive or informative predictions, so how might this generative capacity be differentiated from what Burke calls the entelichial nature of language, our efforts to track down the implications of a terminology (dramatism, terministic screens), or the idea that language does our thinking for us. What might Burke have thought of the technological, linguistically infused golems of generative AI? How does or might generative AI transform (for better or worse) the understanding and value of the humanities? What’s the difference between human and AI agency? What acts might human-AI agency or agents perform? This theme welcomes presentations that offer Burkean readings of AI, which collectively may attest to the importance of the humanities in guiding our ethical and creative uses of AI technology.

“I expect AI to be capable of superhuman persuasion well before it is superhuman at general intelligence," ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman tweeted on X (formerly Twitter) in October of 2023, "which may lead to some very strange outcomes." We welcome proposals for individual presentations, panels, flash talks, short films, critical AI projects installations, games, BAHFest presentations, or seminars that explore them:

  • What strange outcomes might those be? 
  • What does AI have to do with Kenneth Burke?
  • How might dramatism (Burke) differ from pattern recognition (AI)?
  • How does AI complicate our understanding of Agency? Act? Scene? Agent? Purpose? Attitude? 
  • In what ways might generative AI and its superhuman persuasion/rhetoric function as a counter-statement to traditional principles of rhetoric? 
  • For Burke, pure persuasion is a motive. Can AI simulate pure persuasion? Agency? 
  • How does generative AI reinforce or challenge systemic racism, ableism, sexism, classicism, and the intersectional nature of identity and identification?
  • In the era of AI, why/how does rhetoric matter? 

As with prior KBS conferences, we also welcome all proposals from all disciplines—and all students and scholars of Kenneth Burke’s work. 

Throughout the conference, a combination of keynote speakers, featured presenters, and performers will explore these topics and more. Keynote speakers will be announced in February or March 2025.

We invite proposals for individual presentations, panels, flash talks, short films, critical AI projects installations, games, BAHFest presentations, or seminars exploring the above ideas and concerns. Proposals should be submitted in here inSubmittable. The submission window opens January 21, 2025, and closes Saturday, March 1, 2025, at midnight wherever you are.  Proposals for individual presentations, flash talks, short films, critical AI projects, installations, performances, or BAHFest presentations should be no more than 250 words. Proposals for panels with multiple presenters may be up to 500 words. Acceptances will be announced by March 15, 2025, or earlier. Presenters may submit a proposal in multiple categories.

Film Festival

We invite conference attendees, both in person and virtual, to submit short films for the inaugural Kenneth Burke Film Festival. Those who wish to participate should submit pitches of 150-200 words for their films (also due by March 1, 2025). A film pitch is a brief but concise rundown of your film: title, premise, style, and thematic relevance. The pitch doesn’t have to completely summarize the film but should highlight a compelling idea that connects with the theme of this year’s conference (“Kenneth Burke, the Humanities, and Agency in the Era of AI”). Conference attendees whose pitches are accepted will be notified by March 15, 2025, and invited to submit a rough cut or trailer at the next step.

NOTE: The Burke Film Festival is its own unique event within the conference. Videos made for conference presentations/panels are not eligible to be included. 

Completed films should be between five and ten minutes in length. All genres—documentary, narrative, experimental, adaptations, explainer, film essays, interpretation, etc.—are welcome, and other than sticking to the length constraints, all content and aesthetic choices are left to the filmmakers. (Use of generative AI is allowed so long as it is properly credited by the filmmaker.) We hope the film festival inspires imagination, innovation, collaboration, and critical engagement. Be creative!

For a few examples of what others have done, check out these short films with Burkean themes:

A rough cut or trailer (i.e., however much participants have been able to put together) will be due by April 22, 2025, for preview by the “studio execs” (i.e., conference organizers), and final cuts are due by midnight on May 15, 2025. Submission instructions will be included in the acceptance notification. 

The Burke Film Festival will take place during the Kenneth Burke Conference. An exact date/time will be determined once the conference schedule is finalized. The festival will screen over Zoom and “live” on a large screen in the Watt Family Innovation Center at Clemson.  A Zoom link will be provided in the conference program.

Prizes: Grand Prize (Burke D’or): $500 gift card for Parlor Press books; Second Prize: $250 gift card for Parlor Press books; Third Prize: $100 gift card for Parlor Press books

All films will automatically be reviewed for inclusion in the premier issue of a new video journal now in development (name TBD), as well as for publication in KB Journal.

Bonus: We will also be screening the world premiere of the trailer for David Blakesley’s forthcoming documentary, The Wordman. 

During the festival, viewers will be asked to vote on their top films. Winners will be announced at the the end of the conference.

Any questions about the Burke Film Festival can be directed to the Film Festival Coordinator, David Williams (dgwilli@clemson.edu). 

Happy filming, and we’ll see you on the red carpet!

Accessibility

Clemson University and the Kenneth Burke Society are committed to creating an accessible and inclusive environment for all participants, whether attending in person or virtually via Zoom. Presenters must provide the following accommodations: presentation slides in an accessible PDF format at least 48 hours before their session, accurate closed captions for any videos, alternative text for all images, and clear verbal descriptions of essential visual content. Sign language interpretation and real-time captioning will be available for both in-person and virtual sessions by request. If you need additional accommodations or have specific accessibility requirements, please contact Ashlyn Walden at acwalde@g.clemson.edu.

The Physical Venue

Clemson University is located in the city of Clemson in upstate South Carolina. The Watt Family Innovation Center (https://www.clemson.edu/centers-institutes/watt/index.html) is a state-of-the-art high-tech teaching and learning space ideal for hybrid events. The Madren Conference Center (https://www.clemson.edu/madren/conference/) is surrounded by beautiful Lake Hartwell and the Walker golf course, with easy access from Greenville/Spartanburg, Atlanta, Asheville, and Charlotte. The climate in May is ideal for outdoor gatherings, golf, and water sports.

The Virtual Venues

Asynchronous virtual presentations will be in the form of pre-recorded video hosted by the presenter “live” in Zoom, with additional interactivity in Gather. All presentations (papers, films, posters, flash talks, installations, performances) will also be curated in the interactive virtual space New Art City at the reincarnation of the Virtual Burkeian Parlor. Virtual or onsite attendees will have access to the Virtual Burkean Parlor in Gather, coordinated by Dave Rochlin (drochli@g.clemson.edu)

Technical Support

Virtual and onsite presenters can ask for technical support to produce video presentations, installations, or other alternative formats. Email Andrew Okai (Program Coordinator) at aokai@g.clemson.edu or Ashlyn Walden (Accessibility Coordinator) at acwalde@g.clemson.edu.

Hosts

The conference chair is David Blakesley (dblakes@clemson.edu). Hosts, program planners, and liaisons are students and faculty in the Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design PhD program at Clemson University. Funding for the conference is sponsored by the Campbell Chair in Technical Communication at Clemson, the Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design Program in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Clemson University, the Society of the Third Sophistic, Parlor Press, and the Kenneth Burke Society.
 

Submit to Best of the Independent Journals in Rhetoric and Composition

The Best of the Independent Rhetoric and Composition Journals represents the result of a nationwide conversation—beginning with journal editors, but expanding to teachers, scholars and workers across the discipline of Rhetoric and Composition—to select essays that showcase the innovative and transformative work now being published in the field’s independent journals. Representing both print and digital journals in Rhetoric and Composition, the essays featured explore issues ranging from classroom practice to writing in global and digital contexts, from writing workshops to community activism. Together, the essays provide readers with a rich understanding of the present and future direction of the field.

This submission form asks editors to supply all the necessary information and files for production. Please review the categories and prepare all the information and files before starting to complete it.

WAC Journal
Submit to WAC Journal

 

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The WAC Journal invites article submissions. The longest-running national peer-reviewed journal dedicated to writing across the curriculum, The WAC Journal seeks scholarly work at the intersection of writing with teaching, curriculum, learning, and research. Our review board welcomes inquiries, proposals, and articles from 3,000 to 6,000 words.

We are especially interested in contributions that creatively approach a diverse range of anti-racist pedagogies, feminist rhetorics across the curriculum, intersectional contexts of feminism, and international WAC initiatives. Articles focusing on the ways WAC can be fostered in online courses are welcome as well. The WAC Journal supports a variety of diverse approaches to, and discussions of, writing across the curriculum. We welcome submissions from all WAC scholars that focus on writing across the curriculum, including topics on WAC program strategies, techniques and applications; emergent technologies and digital literacies across the curriculum; and WID.

The WAC Journal  is an open-access journal published annually by Clemson University, Parlor Press, and the WAC Clearinghouse. It is available by subscription in print through Parlor Press at http://www.parlorpress.com/wacjournal and online in open-access format at the WAC Clearinghouse via http://wac.colostate.edu/journal/. Articles are accepted throughout the year on a rolling basis.

The peer review process is double-blind, which means all identifying information must be removed from the submission. Any submission notes must be included in the field provided for them, not in a separate cover letter or attachment. Submissions that aren't ready for double-blind review will be returned.

Submit to KB Journal

 

Update on Submissions 2024–2025

KB Journal is migrating its website to a new system in Fall 2024, so we have suspended review of new submissions until that process has been completed in December, 2024, or fairly early in 2025. You may still submit your work for consideration, but please be aware that the review process will not begin until January, 2025. Thanks for your patience! —The Editor

Mission Statement

KB Journal: The Journal of the Kenneth Burke Society takes as its mission the exploration of what it means to be "Burkean." We publish original scholarship that addresses, applies, extends, repurposes, or challenges the work of Kenneth Burke, which includes his books, articles, reviews, fiction, poetry, and music, as well as the growing body of research about his contributions to the unending conversation of history. KB Journal provides an outlet for integrating and critiquing the gamut of Burkiean studies in communication, composition, English, gender, literature, philosophy, psychology, rhetoric, religion, sociology, and technical writing. In light of this, Burke need not be the sole focus of a submission, but his ideas should be integral to the argument or performance.

 Submission Guidelines

All scholarly approaches—historical, textual, empirical, pedagogical, performative—are welcome and encouraged. Each essay, hypertext, or other project submitted for possible publication will be anonymously reviewed by a minimum of two editors or experts from a particular area. Submissions for possible publication should be submitted through KBJ's submission interface at Submittable (see below for a button, also). Allowable formats include Word, RTF, or HTML. All article submissions should conform to the most recent style guide of the Modern Language Association, which covers all matters related to manuscript preparation not covered by KBJ guidelines. Authors must use in-text citations and provide a reference or Works Cited page at the end of the essay. Authors may also include explanatory endnotes, though such notes should be kept to a minimum and should not be automatically embedded in the text using Word's note function (they will need to be extracted). Hypertext or other projects requiring multiple files may be submitted as a Zip file. All essays may run a maximum of 7,000 words (not including the Works Cited or other endmatter). For projects that lie outside of these parameters, contact the editors.

Each submission should also include the author's or authors’ name(s), title, professional affiliation, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone number. No author-identifying information should appear in the corpus of the text itself. Each submission should include a fifty-word abstract. Works submitted for review should not have appeared in any other published form. If any part of the submission has been presented at a colloquy, conference, or convention, the date and form of that presentation should be indicated in the submission notes. It is expected that such submissions will be substantially revised to make them suitable for publication in the journal.

Reviews

KB Journal seeks reviews of recent books focused on Burke and his ideas. Reviews should run a maximum of 2,000 words and include the book title in MLA format at the beginning of the review. The journal also seeks review essays discussing at least three books and/or articles that share a common Burke-related focus. Review essays should discuss how these works forward, enhance, or challenge Burke studies. Reviews essays should run a maximum of 4,000 words and should include the titles in MLA format at the beginning of the review.

Parlor Press and Clemson University