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Emad Abdul-Latif

Professor of Rhetoric and Discourse Analysis

“Through my work in the field of rhetoric, I have decided to gamble in untrodden areas. My aim has been to pave the way for new methods and approaches in rhetorical research. In spite of the difficulty of walking through rough roads, I kept walking because I believe that “the journey is the destination”, which means that what people discover and learn during the journey of knowledge and life is the supreme goal of the journey itself.”

Arabic Writings

Abdul-Latif’s writings represent a move from the past to the future. Some of his writings aim to suggest unconventional approaches for studying the history of Arabic and Western rhetoric in an endeavour to establish new methods for rhetorical research. These methods are inspired by the process of rethinking the rhetorical traditions of the far and near past. Another group of Abdul-Latif’s writings focuses on examining contemporary rhetorical studies aiming at giving a picture of the current status of the rhetorical research: its methods, its accomplishments, and its implications. These writings also suggest new methods in teaching rhetoric, in which teaching programs are designed to keep pace with the development of rhetorical research. There are also the writings that have been dedicated to discovering new horizons of rhetoric. One of these horizons is Balaghat al-Jumhur (translated as Audience Rhetorical Empowerment); the project that has been developed by Abdul-Latif since 2005.

Audience Rhetorical Empowerment

In 2005, Abdul-Latif published an article titled “Balaghat al-Mukhatab: al-Balaghah al-Arabiyyah min Intaj al-Khitab al-Sultawi ila Muqawamatih” (Addressee Rhetoric: Arabic Rhetoric from Producing Authoritarian Discourse to Resisting It). In this article, Abdul-Latif presented a new area of research in rhetoric, which he named then as Balaghat al-Mukhatab (Addressee Rhetoric) and later it became Balaghat al-Jumhur (translated as Audience Rhetorical Empowerment). Balaghat al-Jumhur now forms one of the most influential trends in the Arab academia. It attracts many scholars from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds. Balaghat al-Jumhur is the field of knowledge that is concerned with audience responses to the persuasive discourses in the public sphere. It investigates the intersections of power, discourse, and audience response. Moreover, Balaghat al-Jumhur explores the possibilities of developing the ability of the audience to produce rational and independent responses to any given discourse, especially the manipulative ones.