Wendy Atkins-Sayre

Articulating Identity: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Animal/Human Divide

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) faces a daunting task in creating support for animal rights and convincing individuals that they share substance with animals. PETA challenges the animal/human divide by articulating a shared identity through discursive and visual appeals. Their advertisements invite viewers to see similarities to the Other, visually experience the Others’ world, and visually break down differences between the two. A critical reading of select PETA advertisements leads to conclusions about the nature and function of these specific rhetorical campaigns, as well as to larger conclusions about visual rhetoric, articulation of identities, and social movements.

Crafting the Cornbread Nation: The Southern Foodways Alliance and Southern Identity

The Southern food movement does far more than just celebrate a delectable cuisine; it also may provide the ingredients for gradual social change. We argue that the Southern food movement, led by the Southern Foodways Alliance, helps to craft a Southern identity based on diverse, humble, and hospitable food. This rhetorically constitutive work—the food and discussions about Southern foodways (food habits)—has the potential to open up spaces for dialogue about Southern identity and to move individuals closer to a shared experience.

Snapshots of the South: Eudora Welty's Photography and Contested Images of Race

Best known for her Southern fiction, Eudora Welty began her career with the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. Her photographic “snapshots,” as she called them, served as a window into the Jim Crow South, focusing on the poor, Black, female experience and providing an image of the South that runs counter to public memory. Weltys photographs alter memories of the segregated South by allowing contemporary audiences to gaze upon the Black experience, highlighting positive experiences and emphasizing a shared history. This altered public memory allows for more possibilities of a shared past and the potential for healing. At the same time, this alteration is problematic because it undermines the reality of the suffering experienced by African Americans.