This book examines how rhetorically effective uses of silence and materiality mediate feminist
activism and discusses the implications of these dynamics for pedagogy. Specifically the text
establishes a theoretical foundation for what the author terms psychosocial composing or the
metaphorical composing and revising of individual participants and society and the
contribution of written and visual texts as an input and output of the relationships between
individuals and social culture. This idea is examined through primary research on the
Clothesline Project an international event that invites people who have experienced gender
violence (directly or indirectly) to decorate tee shirts that get hung on clotheslines in
public places. Through looking at values and roles of silence in global cultures and the use of
material arts in activist efforts the author argues for the unique value of silence and
materiality in individual and collective spaces. The manuscript includes discussion questions
and sample teaching materials. Overall making connections among composition and rhetoric
psychology sociology politics women's studies art and design pedagogy and history this
book further demonstrates the potential interdisciplinary approaches to rhetoric and
communication.
