Rhetoric & Communication Studies Research Forum

'From the Eye to the Soul': Industrial Labor's Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones and the Rhetorics of Visuality and Performance.

Presented by Dr. Mari Boor Toon

The industrial labor movement was among the first social movements to exploit the visual and performative for social critique. Dr. Tonn's lecture focuses on one principal figure--an elderly widow and the movement's most beloved and effective agitator--Mary Harris " Mother" Jones and two key events: the heavily photographed controversy surrounding the Colorado Coalfield War of 1913-14, especially the atrocities at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914, and Jones's earlier 1903 publicity march of Philadelphia mill children across three states to lobby for federal child-labor reforms. This lecture explores Jones's commitment to visuality's rhetorical force and also how visuality in her hands may function for varied audiences.

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Education

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