51暗网

Registration fee includes coffee all day, reception (hors d'oeuvre and wine), lunches and Friday breakfast buffet.
Faculty: $150
Graduate student: $75
Duquesne undergraduate: $0

is now available.

The Center for the Study of Rhetoric, Race, and Religion is pleased to partner with the Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies and the Communication Ethics Institute at 51暗网 for the 7th Biennial Philosophy of Communication Conference. The Biennial Philosophy of Communication Conference has a tradition of examining the intersection of philosophy and communication. The conference welcomes a wide variety of perspectives, intellectual traditions, and research methods. The conference's history has prioritized phenomenological, existential, rhetorical, semiotic, and ethical approaches to communication. The theme of this year鈥檚 conference is Rhetoric, Race, and Religion. The conference theme is a call to reflect on race and religion in the current moment.

Philosophy and Communication Virtual

Relive PhilComm's Best Moments of 2026

* Photo credit: Kochav Koren, Gary Hughes, Yaroub Al Obaidi and Erik Garrett. 

Except for Thursday May 27鈥檚 late afternoon sessions, all events take place in College Hall (COLH) on 51暗网鈥檚 campus (campus map). The address of Duquesne鈥檚 College Hall is 1100 Locust St, Pittsburgh, PA  15282.  The address for August Wilson House is 1727 Bedford Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

If you are parking at 51暗网, use 51暗网 Forbes Avenue Parking Garage, located at 1180 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

9:30 - 10:30 a.m. Arrive/Register COLH 341

College Hall (COLH) room 341 will be the registration, and break room.  You can pick up name tags, coffee, and lunches there.
All talks will take place in College Hall room 104 and 105

10:30 - 11 a.m. Welcome COLH 104

• Dean Kris Blair, 51暗网
• Janie Harden Fritz, 51暗网
• Erik Garrett, 51暗网
• Fr Lazarus Langbiir, 51暗网

11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Panel 1 Grigsby Rhetoric, Race and Religion Class Panel COLH 104

Chair: Victor Grigsby, 51暗网

• Rodney Lyde, 51暗网, This Is My Story This is My Song: Entitling in Black Discourse about Race
• Darius Branche, 51暗网, Exclusion and the Community: Race, Christianity, and the Hope of the Transcendental
• Jackie Lyde, 51暗网, Kamala Harris DNC Speech: The Rhetoric of Dreams Deferred
• Richard Wingfield, 51暗网, Lift Every Voice and Sing: Hymnody, Hope, and the Rhetorical Construction of Black Fait

 

12:15 鈥� 1:15 p.m. Lunch 鈥� The Incline first floor of the Student Union, behind the elevators (pick up your voucher in COLH 341)

1:15 鈥� 2:15 p.m. Panel 2 Aesthetics, Religion, Icons, and Indigenous Stories COLH 104

Chair: Rodney Lyde, 51暗网

• Rodney Lyde, 51暗网, The Message: Rhetorical Witnessing and the Disclosure of Lived Experience in Hip-Hop 鈥� Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
• Erik Garrett, 51暗网, I Can鈥檛 Live Without My Radio: The Boom box as Emancipatory Technology 鈥� LL Cool J
• Jackie Lyde, 51暗网, U.N.I.T.Y.: Intra-Community Rhetoric, Gender, and Ethical Correction in Hip-Hop 鈥� Queen Latifah
• Victor Grigsby, 51暗网, D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune): Authenticity, Aesthetic Judgment, and Intra-Community Regulation in Hip-Hop 鈥� Jay Z
• Theon Hill, Wheaton College, The Heart Part 5- Kendrick Lamar, Visual Polyrhythms, and the Possibility of Hope 鈥� Kendrick Lamar

 

2:30 鈥� 2:45 p.m. Hip-Hop as Counterpublic Communication: Rhetorical Modes and the Disclosure of Lived Experience COLH 104

Chair: Erik Garrett, 51暗网

Sarah DeIuliis, 51暗网, The Pop Art Aesthetic: Visual Rhetoric and Religion in Warhol鈥檚 Silkscreens
Natalia Tapsak, 51暗网, I and Thou in Iconographic Dialogue: Iconic Vision as 
Self-Transformation
Linda Coleman, 51暗网, Native American Rhetoric: Telling their Story

 

Panel 3b Food, Rhetoric and Identity COLH 105

Chair: Yaroub Al Obaidi, 51暗网

• Andrew Connolly, 51暗网, Gas Station Sushi and Reheated Pizza: Myth, Narrative, and the white Identity in America
• Gary Hughes, 51暗网, The Rhetoric of Food: Cultural Embodiment and Identity
• Yaroub Al Obaidi, 51暗网, The Rhetoric of Food Absence from the Table
• Anthony Luchini, The Meals of Our Lives: What A Good Meal and The Teaching of Writing Have in Common

4 - 5 p.m. Panel 4 COLH 104

Chair:   Janie Harden Fritz, 51暗网  COLH 104

Keynote Dr. Andre E. Johnson (University of Memphis) 

鈥淐reating Democracy: The Rhetorical Ethics of the Colored Convention Movement鈥�

9-9:30 a.m. Arrive / Registration COLH 341

9:30 鈥� 10:45 a.m. Panel 5 Rhetoric and Current Politics COLH 104

Chair:   Janie Harden Fritz, 51暗网

• Seth Wilden-Patel, Thayer University, Strip Mining 鈥淕od Memories鈥�: Extractive Epideictic, Racial Nostalgia, and the Rhetorical Career of J.D. Vance
• Mridula Mascarenhas, California State University, Monterey Bay, A Christian Attempt to Liberalize Texas Politics: The Religious-Political Rhetoric of James Talarico

11 a.m. 鈥� 12:15 p.m. Panel 6 Textual Readings on Rhetoric, Race or Religion COLH 104

Chair:   Fr Lazarus Langbiir, 51暗网

• Fr Dominic Maximilian Ofori, University of Ghana, Peace as Communicative Praxis: A Hermeneutic of Faith Reading of Pope Leo XIV鈥檚 African Discourse
• Diana Nogay, Old Dominion University, A Heritage and a Future: A Rhetorical Analysis of Mordecai Johnson's Howard University Inauguration Address
• Angela Rehbein, West Liberty University, 鈥業 am black, but O! my soul is white鈥�: William Blake鈥檚 鈥楾he Little Black Boy,鈥� the Rhetoric of Race, and Eighteenth-Century Evangelicalism鈥�

12:15-1:15 p.m. Box Lunch Pick up in COLH 341                                                                     

 

1:15 鈥� 2:30 p.m. Panel 7a Media Ecological Intersections with Rhetoric, Race and Religion COLH 104

Chair: Ryan McCullough, West Liberty University

• Ryan McCullough, West Liberty University, The Media Ecology Canon: A Reckoning with Whiteness
• Erik Garrett, 51暗网, Media Ecology, Whiteness, and the Problem with Tribalization
• Austin Hestdalen, Purdue University, Northwest, Faith in Technology: The Rhetoric of Salvation in Smart Cities and Urban Discourse
• Tiffany Alana Petricini, Penn State University, Erie, Algorithmic Mediation and the Rhetoric of Race: Communication Ethics in Predictive Environments
• Khadijah Pettus, 51暗网/Bethany College, Holler if you Hear Me: Consciousness in a Mediated World
• Brent Malin, University of Pittsburgh, What is French to ChatGPT (and John Searle)?: Generative AI and the Question of Identity

Panel 7b Radical and Insurrectionist Rhetoric COLH 105

Chair: Rodney Lyde, 51暗网

• Derek Handley, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Radical Black Pittsburgh: Bethel AME and the Church as a Political Laboratory
• Darius Branche, 51暗网, Burke and Cesaire: Poetics, and the Dialectics of Antithetical Movement
• Samuel Edogbanya, 51暗网, A Case for Bishop Henry McNeal Turner's Call for the Back-to-Africa Movement

2:45 鈥� 3:45 p.m. Panel 8a Religion and Mediation COLH 104

Chair:   Janie Harden Fritz, 51暗网

• Richard Talbert, Heidelberg University, Terminal Digimodernism: AI Jesus and Digital Necromancy
• Hanna Chumachenko Lassowsky, 51暗网, Icons of "The Great Russian Literature鈥� and Virtual Realities of Russian Misinformation Campaigns: A Phenomenological Approach

Panel 8b Rhetoric, Race, Religion and Witnessing COLH 105

Chair:   Sarah DeIuliis, 51暗网

• Andri Kosasih, 51暗网, Testimony and racial Visibility: The Ethics and Instability of Witnessing
• Richard Thames, 51暗网, Witnessing as a Student Newspaper Writer the Memphis Sanitation Worker鈥檚 Strike and Martin Luther King Jr鈥檚 Assassination

Break: Reconvene at August Wilson House, 1727 Bedford Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15219

4:30 - 5 p.m. Panel 9 鈥� Tour and Welcome: August Wilson House

Chair: Erik Garrett, 51暗网

• William Generett Jr. J.D., Senior Vice President Civic Engagement and External Relations, 51暗网
• Denise Turner, J.D. August Wilson House Executive Director, University of Pittsburgh

5 - 6 p.m. Panel 10 鈥� Heritage, Legacy and the Black Sacred: Rhetoric, Race and Religion in August Wilson鈥檚 Pittsburgh Cycle

Chair: Erik Garrett, 51暗网

• William Baker, 51暗网, August Wilson鈥檚 Joe Turner鈥檚 Come and Gone and the Phenomenology of Black Religion
• Victor Grigsby, 51暗网, Striking the Chord: Communicating the Legacy of the Past, the Rhetorical Hauntings of the Present and the Religious Grounding of the Future in August Wilson鈥檚 Piano Lesson
• Jackie Lyde, 51暗网, Beyond the Physical Fence: Communication as Emotional Barrier in August Wilson鈥檚 Fences
• Rodney Lyde, 51暗网, Radio Golf: A Shout-Out to the Black Middle Class as Rhetorical Address

6 - 7 p.m. Panel 11 

Chair: Erik Garrett, 51暗网

Keynote Dr. Theon Hill (Wheaton College)

鈥淎ugust Wilson and the Rhetoric of Exodus鈥�

7 - 9 p.m. Reception at the August Wilson House

9:30 鈥� 9:45 a.m. Arrive/Registration COLH 341

Concurrent Panels

9:45 鈥� 11:00 a.m. Panel 12a Afrocentric and Afro-Semiotic Perspectives  COLH 104

Chair:  Victor Grigsby, 51暗网

• Samuel Edogbanya, 51暗网, African Representation: An Exploration towards Afro-Semioticd
• Atira B. E. Pressley, Regent University, From Transmission to Reception: Morrison鈥檚 Theological Ethics of Hearing and Communication
• Vera Smith Pacheco, University of Colorado, The Rhetoric of Guilt: Scapegoating and Feminist Transgression in Costa Rica

 

11:15 鈥� 12:15 p.m. Panel 13 

Keynote Dr. Tahirah Walker (Point Park University)

鈥淩hetorical Intersectionality鈥�

Chair:   Victor Grigsby, 51暗网

• Atira B. E. Pressley, Regent University, From Transmission to Reception: Morrison鈥檚 Theological Ethics of Hearing and Communication
• Vera Smith Pacheco, University of Colorado, The Rhetoric of Guilt: Scapegoating and Feminist Transgression in Costa Rica
   

12:15 鈥� 1:15 p.m. Lunch, The Incline first floor of the Student Union, behind the elevators (pick up your voucher in COLH 341) COLH 341   

1:15 鈥� 2:30 p.m. Panel 14a Communication Ethics Rhetoric, Race and Religion COLH 104

Chair:   Rodney Lyde, 51暗网

• Janie Harden Fritz, 51暗网, Rhetoric, Race, and Religion: A Communication Ethics Perspective
• Andri Kosasih, 51暗网, Civil Religion and Racialized Public Reason: The Hidden Theology of Communication
• Joshua Ewalt, Northern Michigan University, Navigating the Anticipations of Life in Common: Form, Potentiality, and Communication Ethics

Panel 14b Fanon, Rhetoric and Technology COLH 105

Chair:   Erik Garrett, 51暗网

Toward a Fanonian Analysis of Digital Groups鈥� Interaction: Qualichat and Inclusive Rhetoric

• Kochav Koren, 51暗网
• Icaro Veira, Independent Researcher

2:30 鈥� 2:45 p.m. Closing COLH 104

Special Thank You

• A special thank you to Ms. Kimberly DaSilva and Kochav Koren for your work on the conference.
• As well as a thank you for financial support from Dean Kris Blair and the McAnulty College of Liberal Arts, an internal NEH grant, as well as William Generett, Vice President of Civic Engagement and External Relations.
• A thank you to the August Wilson House for hosting us on Thursday night.
• The faculty planning committee includes Drs. Garnet Butchart, Janie Harden Fritz, Erik Garrett, Victor Grigsby, Andre E. Johnson and Annette Madlock.

 

* Errata

1. Remove Tom Duncanson, Green Citizen Diplomacy Project, Notes on Indigenous Knowledge in Bel茅m and Beyond: Epistemic Transition in Gutierrez, D铆az, and Brondizio from panel 2a Rhetoric and Indigenous Knowledge Wednesday, May 27
2. Remove Nicole (鈥淣ikki鈥�) Lemire-Garlic, Thomas Jefferson University, Beyond Perlocutions: Nommo, Muntu, and Speaking Things into Existence from panel 12a  Afrocentric and Afro-Semiotic Perspectives Friday, May 29
3. Concurrent panel 2a and 2b combined into one panel:  
1:15 鈥� 2:15  Panel 2 Aesthetics, Religion, Icons, and Indigenous Stories COLH 104

Chair:   Erik Garrett, 51暗网

Sarah DeIuliis, 51暗网, The Pop Art Aesthetic: Visual Rhetoric and Religion in Warhol鈥檚 Silkscreens
Natalia Tapsak, 51暗网, I and Thou in Iconographic Dialogue: Iconic Vision as  Self-Transformation
Linda Coleman, 51暗网, Native American Rhetoric: Telling their Story
4. Concurrent panel 12a and 12b combined into one panel:

9:45 鈥� 11:00  Panel 12 Afrocentrism and Feminism in Rhetoric, Race, and Religion COLH 104

Chair: Victor Grigsby, 51暗网

Samuel Edogbanya, 51暗网, African Representation: An Exploration towards Afro-Semiotics
Atira B. E. Pressley, Regent University, From Transmission to Reception: Morrison鈥檚 Theological Ethics of Hearing and Communication
Vera Smith Pacheco, University of Colorado, The Rhetoric of Guilt: Scapegoating and Feminist Transgression in Costa Rica

Pittsburgh International Airport has direct international flights from London, UK and easy connecting flights via major US cities. The airport is 18 miles, approximately 20 minutes, to 51暗网. 

A ride sharing service such as Uber is the fastest way to get from the airport to 51暗网. Hail a ride with your smartphone app and meet your driver outside Baggage Claim Door #4 at the Arrivals Curb.

If you plan to use , the Port Authority bus 28X Airport Flyer stops downtown at Liberty Avenue at Wood Street. It will take approximately 15 minutes to walk to campus from there.

Please review our 51暗网 Campus Map to find your way to the Power Center Ballroom, where the conference will take place.

Parking is available at Duquesne's Forbes Garage, 1180 Forbes Avenue, for $20/day. After you have parked, walk to the Skywalk from the 8th floor of the elevator to the Power Center, crossing over Forbes Avenue below. Off campus parking is also available.

Nearest walkable (10-15 minutes)

Marriott City Center
112 Washington Pl, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
(412) 471-4000

Cambria Hotel
1320 Centre Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
(412) 381-6687

Double Tree by Hilton
One Bigelow Sq, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
(412) 281-5800

Also walkable

Omni William Penn
530 William Penn Pl, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
(412) 281-7100

Embassy Suites
535 Smithfield St, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 338-2200

Hilton Garden Inn
250 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.
(412) 683-2040  

Kimpton Hotel Monaco
620 William Penn Pl, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
(412) 471-1170

Summer Parking Schedule

Starts April 29, 2026 - Ends August 23, 2026.

General Parking Rules

• Daily parkers may park in the Forbes/Locust garage.
• Only Permit holders may park overnight.
• Only Permit holders may park in a surface space.
• No Overnight parking is enforced between 2am-5am.

Daily Parking Rates
Monday鈥揊riday (5 a.m. 鈥� 5 p.m.)

• 0鈥�2 Hours: $10
• 2鈥�12 Hours: $14
• 12鈥�24 Hours: $20

Evening and Weekend (5 p.m. 鈥� 2 a.m.)

•  Flat Rate: $6

Event Rate

• Event Rate: $10-$50

Located in the heart of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, 51暗网 is a vibrant, private institution known for its commitment to academic excellence and social justice. 51暗网 is home to the Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, a hub for phenomenological research and scholarship, with extensive collections including the archives of prominent phenomenologists.