Critical Rhetoric| Privileged Vulnerability: Embodied Pedagogy as Critical Rhetorical Praxis

Abstract

Contextualized within the space/place of the classroom, in this article we use autoethnographic, narrative inquiry as a method built on a foundation of critical rhetoric and feminism as intersecting orientations. This study demonstrates how critical rhetoric as an orientation provides liberatory opportunities for our pedagogy at this historical moment of cultural forces intervening in a misogynistic culture that antagonizes feminist inquiry. Through our embodied and privileged vulnerability, our stories emerge, which can lead to empathy and transformation. In the case of knowledge production of and about feminism(s), embodied pedagogy—revealed via critical rhetoric—positions educators and students as cocreators and critics of discourse and lived, bodily experiences, inside and outside the classroom.