Looking Back on Our Scholarship: Some Paths Now Abandoned

Abstract

This short essay surveys the breadth of scholarship published in the Quarterly Journal of Speech since its beginnings in 1915. I argue that many of the areas once regularly published in QJS have slowly—and rightly—migrated to other journals or other fields entirely. However, there are four areas that have only recently disappeared from the pages of QJS, and these areas—translations of key texts, studies in textual authenticity, rhetorical history, and studies of non-academic rhetorical practitioners—need to be recovered. By recuperating these four areas, QJS will better represent the breadth of rhetorical scholarship and incorporate important voices into the ongoing conversation about the nature and practice of rhetoric.