It’s the start of another semester and as usual it draws me to a place of reflection. I’m starting the semester with a strong draft of my prospectus, which I am hoping will be forwarded to my dissertation committee in the near future. Once my prospectus is defended and approved I can begin throwing my heart and soul into the research and writing for my dissertation. The whole process is daunting, but with the support of the many amazing people in my life it’s been rewarding and generally manageable!
In moments of calm I actually feel incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to go to school. It’s easy to get weighed down with stress and complain about the pressure of grad school, but really it’s a bit of luxury and gift to be able to dedicate myself to a career that I find important. Often students at all levels forget or ignore the fact that receiving an education is a privilege for many. I try not to lose sight of that as the semester becomes demanding or my research becomes depressing. So, for now, I’m working to make a positive change—even if it’s ever so slight—and I will keep my head up.
For those of you curious about my work here is a preliminary summary of my proposed dissertation:
My dissertation will be an analysis of the rhetorical strategies utilized by Latina activist Dolores Huerta in her role as vice president of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union. Huerta’s important and rich body of work demonstrates her ability to construct an ethos that is effective, embodied, and fluid. In 1962 Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers union with Cesar Chavez and became the inaugural vice-president. Although Chavez was the President and “face” of the UFW, he and Huerta worked together as the driving public force of the union. Chavez was known for his quiet and serious demeanor, while Huerta was often described as fiery and passionate. Together the two fought to improve working conditions and wages for farm laborers. Her work as an activist started years before she began her fight alongside Chavez, yet Huerta remains a relatively unknown and understudied rhetor. As a middle class Latina and mother championing farm laborer rights, Huerta’s intersectionality offers a challenge to many of the traditional assumptions about who can—and should—be considered an effective rhetorician. Huerta skillfully constructs an ethos that cannot be dependent on conventional symbols of authority that are often afforded to White males or those associated with powerful positions. Because Huerta is neither White nor male her ethos construction needed to be based on her astute awareness of the multiple and conflicting audiences she was addressing—the powerful, White male legislatures of the 60’s and 70’s as well as the predominantly Latino labor force of the Farm Workers Union and non-union laborers. Despite the difference between Huerta and her audiences, she was able to construct varying and effective ethos for each of these audiences.