Charles Woods here. In the Spring of 2020, I launched “Rhetorics of Big Data,” an innovative, interdisciplinary writing course available in the general education curriculum at Illinois State University (ISU). I was a graduate student working on my dissertation about digital privacy, data collection, and New Surveillance technologies, specifically direct-to-consumer DNA technology, like Ancestry or 23andMe.com, but I put in the proposal and was awarded the course. No small feat for a graduate student, so I knew I was on to something. 

Well, the first few weeks were great! We talked about different ethical models, rhetorical theory, data visualization, art, and biometric technologies. I think we were discussing the trolley problem the day ISU shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. I never saw that group of students together again. I taught the class a couple more times, finished my dissertation—a pandemic dissertation—and hit the job market—a pandemic job market. I wound up taking a non-tenure-track role at East Carolina University and built upon interests in privacy and surveillance among graduate students (including Dr. Morgan Banville, who is now part of the DRPC Advisory Board) and implemented these topics into the technical communication courses I taught. I was only at ECU for one year before moving on the tenure-track at Texas A&M-Commerce, so there was no time (nor opportunity) to develop and institute a privacy and surveillance class into the curriculum, only assignments and activities. Of course, developing assignments and activities centering privacy and surveillance is important, especially when you are teaching within a curriculum that doesn’t support an entire course on these topics or you are working with a student population who might not be interested in these topics. 

Now I am here, on the ground, working in Texas and, suddenly, I have found myself chair of the curriculum committee for my department. Couple that with the outstanding support from my colleague, and DRPC Advisory Board member, Dr. Gavin Johnson, and I am thrilled to share that the graduate course we proposed, “Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics,” was accepted into implementation into the department curriculum!

It is important to note that while “Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics” stems from those early iterations of “Rhetorics of Big Data” in combination with Gavin’s work in surveillance, assessment, and educational technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, it is also influenced by a course Dr. Noah Wason (also a founding DRPC advisory board member) taught at Binghamton University in their Writing Initiative called, “Surveillance and Social Media.” Special thanks to Noah for sharing materials with us as we developed “Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics.”

Naming the class was actually a critical conversation: how do we capture the spectrum of issues related to privacy and surveillance without amplifying a privacy/surveillance binary with the word “and” (e.g., “Privacy and Surveillance Rhetorics”)? We decided to add a hyphen (-) between the words “privacy” and “surveillance” to imbue their inherent intertwining and emphasize the importance of understanding issues related to this topic as occurring on a spectrum. Below is a course description, learning outcomes, and schedule of topics which were included in the accepted proposal for “Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics.” 

“Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics” Course Description

Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics is a graduate-level course which interrogates the rhetorical implications of the privacy-surveillance spectrum throughout local and global culture(s). Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics focuses on the inherent intertwining of rhetoric and ethics through the lens of privacy and surveillance. This focus is triangulated with well-established and emerging topics within the field of rhetoric and composition, including literacy and genre studies, language and identity, comparative/cultural rhetorics, and digital rhetorics. Course content critically engages with rhetorical methods and methodologies to study the theoretical and ethical dimensions of privacy and surveillance, including, but not limited to, Terms of Service (ToS) documents (e.g., privacy policies), Artificial Intelligence (AI), New Surveillance (e.g., DNA technology, facial recognition), educational technologies, algorithmic surveillance, Big Data, and social justice. 

“Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics” Learning Outcomes

The following learning outcomes were included in the proposal for “Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics”:

1. Critically engage with the theoretical and ethical dimensions of privacy and surveillance, including how the privacy-surveillance spectrum influences culture, including asymmetrical power, inequitable lived experiences, and systemic marginalization and oppression
2. Triangulate key concepts and theories in privacy and surveillance studies with well-established and emerging topics in rhetoric, composition, and technical communication
3. Practice rhetorical methods and methodologies (e.g., digital, cultural, spatial) to analyze, discuss, and understand the privacy-surveillance continuum 
4. Examine how the privacy-surveillance continuum can reinforce or challenge societal norms and stereotypes related to bodies and identities
5. Reflect on personal and societal perspectives on the privacy-surveillance continuum as a way of reimagining a just, more equitable future defined by tactical privacy and ethical surveillance 
6. Uncover the rhetorical implications of the privacy-surveillance spectrum throughout local and global culture(s), with emphasis on local community engagement
7. Produce work which extends conversations about Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics in rhetoric, composition, and technical communication (or another field of English Studies) and merges them with public discourse on topics related to the privacy-surveillance continuum.
8. Consider emerging pedagogical applications for teaching students about privacy and surveillance in their own classrooms via curriculum development and course design 

“Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics” Schedules of Topics

The following schedule of topics were included (in this order) in the proposal for “Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics”: 

• Introduction to Privacy and Surveillance
• The Privacy-Surveillance Continuum
• What Rhetoric Does
• Engaging with Surveillance Globally and Locally
• Privacy Policies and other ToS Genres
• Educational Technologies and AI
• Feminist Surveillance Studies
• Privatizing Bodies, Surveilling Identities
• Spaces and Places of Privacy and Surveillance
• Algorithmic Culture and Big Data
• The New Surveillance 
• The Digital Rhetorical Privacy Collective
• Intellectual Property and Copyright
• Surveillance Studies in Technical Communication
• Privacy Justice
• Defining Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics

I wish those students from March 2020 could take “Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics” to see where we are now after the last three years. Reach out to the DRPC to chat more about our course design ideas, adapting “Privacy-Surveillance Rhetorics,” or to think through ways to propose similar courses for your own curriculum with the goal of meeting your department mission and students’ needs.