Alicen Rushevics

Alicen Rushevics is a Ph.D. candidate in Rhetoric, Politics, & Culture in the Department of Communication Arts. Her research focuses on discourses of reparation and apology, U.S. imperialism in the Pacific, and global indigenous human rights. Overarching themes in her research include attention to rhetorics of trauma, wounding, and grief, and how they affect the mobility and formation of individual and national bodies; questions of identity and mediations between nation, culture, and individual; coalitional activism, particularly the use of subversive media in writing over erasure; and relationships among history, memory, and storytelling in how they implicate past and ongoing experiences of state violence. 

Ali’s dissertation, titled “Constructing a Pacific Nation: Critical Interrogations of U.S. Imperialism in Apology and Reparation Legislation,” critically analyzes the rhetorical toolbox of U.S. Imperialism in the Pacific context, particularly those tools used to quiet U.S. military presence, violence, human rights violations, and other instances of injustice. Throughout the dissertation, I analyze cases of reparation and apology legislation as rhetorically rich sites that obscure and (dis)figure larger injustices of U.S. Imperial pursuits bubbling just under the surface of the U.S. settler imaginary. The project takes up four cases. The first chapter focuses on the Civil Liberties Act and “Aleutian Internment” – the forced relocation and internment of the Unangax̂, indigenous residents of the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands. The second analyzes the 1993 Apology Resolution signed into law by President Clinton which presents apology on behalf of the United States for the overthrow and annexation of the Hawaiian Nation in 1893. The third chapter explores the functions of the Compact of Free Association (COFA) agreements between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia, and the U.S. nuclear testing in the South Pacific which created the current conditions of livability in those regions. The final case takes up the Biden administration’s Pacific Partnership Strategy and the naming of the United States as a “Pacific Nation.” The analysis of this final case works contextually to interrogate what responsiblities the United States carries if it is to be described as a “Pacific Nation.” My dissertation project is located at the intersections of critical rhetoric, historiography, indigenous studies, settler colonial critique, and area studies of the Pacific.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Rhetorical Theory and Criticism; Public Address; Settler Colonialism; Indigenous Studies; Rhetorical Historiography; Apology and Reparation; U.S. Imperialism; Feminist Philosophy

EDUCATION

• M.A. Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin Madison, 2022
• M.A. Philosophy, Gonzaga University, 2020
• B.A. Communication Studies and Philosophy, Gonzaga University, 2018

PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles

Rushevics, Alicen (2024). “Intense Impressions: Joseph R. Biden toward a 2020 National Grief,” Communication and the Public.

Book Reviews

Rushevics, Alicen. Violent Exceptions: Children’s Human Rights and Humanitarian Rhetorics. Quarterly Journal of Speech 108, no. 3 (2022): 339-342.

Rushevics, Alicen. Humans R Social Media. The Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal 45, no.1 (2022): 107-111.

ACADEMIC & PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS

2024-            Doctoral Dissertation Fellow, University of Wisconsin – Madison

2023-            Program Assistant, Human Rights Program, University of Wisconsin – Madison

2020-            Graduate Student Instructor, Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin – Madison

2018-2020   Graduate Director, Writing Center, Gonzaga University

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Lecturer

• CA 100 – Introduction to Public Speaking (Spring 2022)
• CA 316 – Gender & Communication (Summer 2023)
• CA 373 – Intercultural Communication & Rhetoric (Summer 2022, Summer 2024)

Teaching Assistant

• CA 200 – Introduction to Digital Communication (Spring 2021)
• CA 260 – Communication & Human Behavior (Fall 2022)
• CA 262 – Theory & Practice of Argumentation and Debate (Fall 2020)
• CA 360 – Introduction to Rhetoric in Politics & Culture (Fall 2021)
• CA 370 – Great Speakers & Speeches (Spring 2023)
• CA 371 – Rhetoric of Campaigns & Revolutions (Fall 2023)

SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

“(Re)figuring Race: Reparative Rhetoric and the Legacy of Aleutian Internment.” Ethnicity and Race Division, International Communication Association, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. June 2024. Top Student Paper Award

“Resisting Singularity: Reparative Rhetoric, Settler Colonialism, and the Dawn Raids Apology.” Rhetoric Society of America, Denver, CO. May 2024. Gerard A. Hauser Award

“”Morbid Affects: Fat Livability against a Necropolitical Landscape.” Feminist and Gender Studies, National Communication Association, National Harbor, MD. November 2023. Top Student Paper Panel

“Survivance-based Vulnerability: MMIW and Rosalie Fish.” Feminist and Gender Studies Division, National Communication Association, New Orleans, Louisiana. November 2022.

“’Unspoken Traumas of the Past’: Instagram, Indigenous Activism, and the Shared Histories of North American Indigenous Genocide.” Indigenous Caucus, National Communication Association, New Orleans, Louisiana. November 2022.

“Indigenous Activism, Gender Performance, and TikTok.” Emerging Femininities and Masculinities Conference, Athens, Greece. September 2022.

“’Maybe they’re great, and maybe they’re just good. Maybe they’re not so good’: Mask Discourses and Neoliberal Rationality in Trump’s Presidential COVID-19 Briefings.” Rhetoric Society of America, Baltimore, MD. May 2022.

“Scarring Trauma: Individualized Participation and Affectivity of National Trauma at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.” Central States Communication Association Conference, Madison, WI. March 2022.

“Articulating Grief: The Rhetorical Leadership of the American Presidency in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Public Address Division, National Communication Association, Seattle, WA. November 2021.

“Healing the American Wound: Reparation through Recognition.” Concerned Philosophers for Peace Conference, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO. October 2019.

SELECTED AWARDS & HONORS

Kepley Dissertation Award, 2024
Awarded to dissertators who propose a transformative use of funds to conduct research. Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Advanced Achievement in Teaching Award, 2024
This award recognizes teaching assistants with four or more semesters of experience who demonstrate excellence in teaching. College of Letters & Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Gerard A. Hauser Award, 2024
Presented for outstanding graduate student papers at the national biennial Rhetoric Society of America Conference. Rhetoric Society of America

Frankenberger Award, 2024
In recognition of excellence in speech. Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Elliott Dissertation Scholarship, 2023
For successfully defending the dissertation proposal within a year of passing preliminary exams. Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Charles Chester Pearce Award, 2023
For supporting student research. Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Helen K. Herman Award, 2022
In recognition of excellence in research, teaching and extra-curricular activities. Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Service

2023-2025: President, Rhetoric Society of America University of Wisconsin-Madison Student Chapter

2023-2024: Grant-Writer & Event Coordinator, Midwest Winter Workshop Planning Committee