Shre, Fidel, Matt reach out to students in Russia and Sweden!
Hi, everyone! So great to be posting on this blog and get introduced to students from all around the world. We are a group of sophomores taking a “Writing and Rhetoric” course on global controversies and practical rhetoric for leadership at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA.
Our group has three members. The first member of our group, Shrestha Chowdhury, is a student from New Delhi, India. She just completed her research paper on female leadership in the Indian subcontinent with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as the main subject of her research. She is excited that her research will help inspire her to become a leader some day, and thrilled about the insights her research has given her about the politics of the Indian subcontinent!
The second member of our group, Fidel Hernandez, is from Miami, Florida. He just completed his research on Walt Disney and his use of creative and motivational rhetoric to inspire childlike qualities of boldness, curiosity, playfulness, and innocence within society. He hopes that his research will demonstrate the enduring value of creativity in effective leaders.
The third member of our group, Matt Cook, is from Los Angeles, California. He completed his research on the humor of Ronald Reagan. In his paper he wrote about the ways in which Ronald Reagan used humor as a rhetorical tool to charm media, disarm adversaries, inspire optimism, and gain a following among people of multiple parties.
We are very proud to be a part of the Stanford community and hope to learn about other universities and cultures throughout the world. Here at Stanford, there is a big focus on entrepreneurship and initiative, which drives people of all majors to be active in doing what is practical. Instruction supplements theory with a heavy emphasis on practical application. Something else that defines Stanford is the emphasis on individuality. Rather than feeling like a “collective,” we celebrate the diversity, differences, and cultural roots of every single student. Something that demonstrates this is our band. Rather than having a band that marches around all wearing the same uniform and walking to the same beat (as our rival, University of California at Berkeley, does), our band members all wear something different! Every member is unique and individualistic. We love this attitude. Go Cardinal!
We’d love to hear about school spirit at your universities. How do students demonstrate school pride? Are sports games exciting? Also, with regards to academics, are you more theoretically oriented or practically oriented?
Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts. We’ve had fun on this blog!
Best wishes,
Shre, Fidel, and Matt
Here are the abstracts for the research we've been doing:
SHRE'S ABSTRACT:
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was one of the most notable female leaders of the 20th century. This paper analyses the effectiveness of Indira’s rhetoric as a case study of female leadership in the Indian sub-continent. Indira’s strategic use of her family’s political legacy in her rhetoric played an important role in her election to office and public appeal. Through her rhetoric and persona, Indira portrayed strength and resilience characteristic of stereotypical males to gain public acceptance in a patriarchal society like India. Indira also portrayed herself as “Mother India” and strategically used Indian society’s reverence for the strength of mothers to her advantage. The paper ultimately analyzes the effects of a large part of Indira’s political rhetoric being built on societal, cultural and religious aspects relevant only to Indian society, from a broader context.
FIDEL'S ABSTRACT:
For the sake of “growing up,” society encourages individuals to abandon childhood freedom as one develops towards adulthood. People are told they must ignore the inner child in order to effectively handle societal issues involving school, finances, family, and responsibility. This research paper, however, argues Walt Disney used rhetoric, theme parks, and personal experiences to illustrate the importance of a childlike mindset for effective, creative leadership. His message addressed historical shifts in societal priorities in which society lost youthful spirit and gave way to more pessimistic, stagnant, and distrustful outlooks on life. Walt Disney utilized his words and creations to revive America’s childlike nature, arguing effective leadership was grounded on four important juvenile qualities society once celebrated: boldness, curiosity, playfulness, and innocence. Through use of rhetoric that reminded America of their adventurousness during Manifest Destiny, the power of curiosity in developing revolutionary ideas, the playfulness of the Jazz Age, and the role of childlike innocence in fostering multicultural unity, Walt Disney argued that possibilities were limitless with the childlike tools to control their destiny, embrace the future, and fulfill their dreams.
MATT'S ABSTRACT:
Ordinarily people think of the United States Presidency as an intense office, especially in a time like the 1980s when the Cold War, economic recession, Challenger explosion, and other forces carried negative weight. Ronald Reagan found an effective way to incorporate humor into his rhetoric nonetheless. Reagan’s cinematic experience may have given him the experience he needed to use rhetoric effectively in shaping the character of the U.S. Reagan’s comedy, primarily apparent in speeches and debates, served as an effective rhetorical tool in four main ways: disarming political detractors and critical mainstream media, inspiring optimism in dire times, emphasizing exigency of message by intentional omission of comedy or adjusting levels of humor depending on time and place (comedic kairos), and appealing to people of all political parties. Reagan’s use of humor contributed to his earning the term “Great Communicator” during his quest for a moral revolution in America.
Comments
Too funny
I love how you created your own category
Posted by: Alyssa O'Brien | March 10, 2009 04:56 PM
Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
Allen Taylor
Posted by: Walt Disney | April 3, 2009 09:40 AM
I enjoyed getting to know you and your research interests.
Indira Gandhi was very popular in the former Soviet Union, when I was a student. I think she was a true leader of India and managed international relations very well. Good to learn from her!
Disney politics of encouraging creativity and mind openness is something that is badly needed in education, I agree. When we, parents and educators, want our kids and students to become adults faster, we often unconcsiously contribute to decreasing boldness, curiosity, playfulness, and innocence in their nature. But then, placing certain limitations and restrictions when raising children as individually and socially responsible personalities is also very important. There must be some kind of balance here which is hard to define or to describe. It entails the ART of child rearing, I believe, to be able to "detect" this balance internally.
I have a set of video films about Ronald Reigan's communication skills. Need to watch the films again, beacuse I was inspired by Matt's abstract. "Humor doesn't travel", they say, but some humor is able to, as I see it. And it does help people from different countries to get along better.
Posted by: Olga Kovbasyuk | April 4, 2009 06:19 AM
Matt,
Your research topic seems really interesting! Did you look into the possibility of negative effects of Regan's humor? You underline many of the positive results of his rhetoric, but did you come across anything in your research that suggested an inappropriate use of humor?
Posted by: Caitlin Hicks | April 6, 2009 12:45 AM
Hey Matt!
Your research topic sounds like so much fun!! I'm interested however how did Reagan cause his humor to be taken in a positive manner? Did you ever find instances when his humor was poorly perceived and even possibly discredited his ethos?
Posted by: Raylene | April 6, 2009 01:01 AM
Fidel,
Your topic sounds very interesting and I agree with you that society nowadays tend to have a generally pessimistic outlook on many aspects of life and issues, but in reality there is no need for so much cynicism.
Overall, I love the creativity of your topic!
Posted by: Chun Pan | April 6, 2009 01:55 AM
It is excellent to research on conservatives, such as Ronald Reagan.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 6, 2009 07:11 AM
Fidel,
I love your topic on Walt Disney and his use of playfulness and creativity as a leader. Disney is not the first person that comes to mind as a traditional leader, but he certainly is one of the most successful in his quest! Many times we forget the importance of creativity and imagination in leadership!
Posted by: Marie Dusch | April 6, 2009 10:27 AM
VERY interesting post!!!;-)
You have chosen awesome subjects for your research papers, guys ;-) Actually, I was fascinated when reading all of your abstracts...
Shre: It’s really a great job of you to trace how Indira Gandhi’s rhetoric led her to the election to office and public appeal and, what is more precious, helped to break through well-known stereotypes. I’ve read some really interesting aphorisms of Indira in the Internet and understood what does her powerful rhetoric stand for ;-) «It’s impossible to shake hands with clenched fists», «Truthful path of life – is the path of verity and love», «The history is the best teacher with the worst learners»…impressive words.
Shre, your research paper «analyzes the effects of a large part of Indira’s political rhetoric being built on societal, cultural and religious aspects relevant only to Indian society, from a broader context». So, I guess, the effects are mainly positive and constructive ;-) But did you come upon any negative or contradictory examples?
Fidel: Great topic! ;-) Walt Disney is really the person I’m interested in. Last year, when we were passing through Creativity at one of our English courses, I chose Disney for my research and presentation. It’s really a remarkable individual and a perfect example of rhetorical leadership!
You are absolutely right when saying that society encourages people to abandon childhood freedom as they develop towards adulthood. Really, we have many blocks and limits to creativity in modern fast-moving world. Someone might think that playfulness and innocence are from smth not serious, suitable for children, rather than for adults. But these are actually the tools, which sometimes work much more effectively, than strict mindset, if saying about rhetoric and leadership.
P.S. Do you have your own experience when childlike mindset helped to succeed in something or contributed to effective rhetoric? ;-)
Matt: You’ve touched an incredible side of effective rhetoric and leadership. Humor is a powerful weapon ;-) And there are many examples of that in different spheres of our life. But humor and politics…seem to be entirely opposite things. Nevertheless, as Reagan showed, they are not ;-);-)
Your research paper has a real practical value for modern politicians ;-) There is much to learn from Reagan ;-)
P.S. I wonder if there are some more examples of humor oriented persons in serious fields of our life (like politics) who are famous for their effective rhetoric and leadership. :-)
Posted by: Oksana M. World Economy-61 | April 8, 2009 11:19 PM
Hi, everyone!
First of all, I’d like to express my admiration of your post. Reading it I was impressed how deeply you had studied your topics, more then that, I’m absolutely sure you have much more to say then it was posted.=)
Now, Matt, your topic is really awesome! For me, as very humorous person it was extremely interesting to read your abstract…sorry it’s just an abstract, not a complete work :)…because I was thinking almost the same line. But do you think that incorporating humor into rhetoric is appropriate in any situation you’ve mentioned? As for me, when I hear someone speaks in a humorous tone about very serious problems, I automatically consider that person as thoughtless. But on the other hand, people use such tone in order to reassure audience that everything is not as bad as they imagine. It’s like:”Come on, people, look at me, I’m smiling, it means that everything is gonna be OK!” And it often works. However, I suppose that we should differentiate situations when it is acceptable to joke and when it is better to keep seriousness. Hope that Mr. Reagan found the best way to use humour in economical and political life remaining competent, authoritative and responsible speaker.;)
Posted by: Simona | April 10, 2009 05:29 AM
Hi, everyone!
First of all, I’d like to express my admiration of your post. Reading it I was impressed how deeply you had studied your topics, more then that, I’m absolutely sure you have much more to say then it was posted.=)
Now, Matt, your topic is really awesome! For me, as very humorous person it was extremely interesting to read your abstract…sorry it’s just an abstract, not a complete work :)…because I was thinking almost the same line. But do you think that incorporating humor into rhetoric is appropriate in any situation you’ve mentioned? As for me, when I hear someone speaks in a humorous tone about very serious problems, I automatically consider that person as thoughtless. But on the other hand, people use such tone in order to reassure audience that everything is not as bad as they imagine. It’s like:”Come on, people, look at me, I’m smiling, it means that everything is gonna be OK!” And it often works. However, I suppose that we should differentiate situations when it is acceptable to joke and when it is better to keep seriousness. Hope that Mr. Reagan found the best way to use humour in economical and political life remaining competent, authoritative and responsible speaker.;)
Posted by: Simona | April 10, 2009 05:30 AM
Hi, everyone!
First of all, I’d like to express my admiration of your post. Reading it I was impressed how deeply you had studied your topics, more then that, I’m absolutely sure you have much more to say then it was posted.=)
Now, Matt, your topic is really awesome! For me, as very humorous person it was extremely interesting to read your abstract…sorry it’s just an abstract, not a complete work :)…because I was thinking almost the same line. But do you think that incorporating humor into rhetoric is appropriate in any situation you’ve mentioned? As for me, when I hear someone speaks in a humorous tone about very serious problems, I automatically consider that person as thoughtless. But on the other hand, people use such tone in order to reassure audience that everything is not as bad as they imagine. It’s like:”Come on, people, look at me, I’m smiling, it means that everything is gonna be OK!” And it often works. However, I suppose that we should differentiate situations when it is acceptable to joke and when it is better to keep seriousness. Hope that Mr. Reagan found the best way to use humour in economical and political life remaining competent, authoritative and responsible speaker.;)
Posted by: Simona | April 10, 2009 05:30 AM
I'm sorry...I've posted my comments for 3 times...I have problems with my Internet....)))))
Posted by: Simona | April 10, 2009 05:33 AM
Very well done. Do you write for any other blogs? Nicely done, Steven.
Posted by: Steve @ Blu Electronic Cigarettes | November 16, 2009 11:29 AM
Amazing blog
I'm curious how you thought up with the
idea for this post? It was great in my opinion. Thanks Again!
Posted by: ImmegoFreette | November 17, 2009 05:57 PM
Nice article..will be a good reference for me.. thank's
Posted by: Smile Together | November 19, 2009 01:48 AM
Outstanding Article , I thought it was exceedingly great
I look forward to more innovative postings like this one. Do you have a subscription I can subscribe to for fresh posts?
Posted by: avairlFab | November 23, 2009 12:43 PM