2008 Forum Scholar: Dr. Susan Zaeske

“…there is a solitude, which each and every one of us has always carried with him, more inaccessible than the ice-cold mountains, more profound than the midnight sea, the solitude of self.” –Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The Class of 2008 is proud to announce that Dr. Susan Zaeske will be the 2008 Ripon Forum on Ethics and Oratory Scholar. During her February visit to campus, Zaeske will provide each senior with individualized critiques on their analysis of the 2008 Forum speech, Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Solitude of Self . The University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor will also deliver the annual Forum address to the campus community.

“Dr. Zaeske is a leading authority on women’s rhetoric, in particular the rhetorical strategies of early women’s rights leaders like Elizabeth Cady Stanton,” explains Prof. Steve Martin. “Her article ‘The ‘Promiscuous Audience’ Controversy and the Emergency of the Early Woman’s Rights Movement’ is a contemporary classic. It’s been on the reading list for Rhetorical Criticism at Ripon for several years now.”

Zaeske earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1997. Since then, she has won ten prestigious awards for her research and teaching, including the National Communication Association’s (NCA) Winans-Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship, the NCA Public Address Division’s Marie Hochmuth Nichol’s Award, and the NCA Golden Anniversary Monograph Award. Most recently, Zaeske was named Visiting Professor and Research Fellow in the Women’s Studies in Religion Program at Harvard University.

Dr. Zaeske's keynote address as the 2008 Ripon Forum on Ethics and Oratory Scholar will be held in the Great Hall of Harwood Memorial Union Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 11:15 a.m.  For additional information, please contact Jody Roy, royj@ripon.edu or 920-748-8712.