USC Annenberg hosted a gathering of more than 300 rhetoricians from around the globe to discuss the history of rhetorical inquiry. The 15th biennial Congress of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric convened at USC from July 13-17, 2005.

Communication professor G. Thomas Goodnight, one of the conference organizers, chaired a panel "Rhetorical Perspectives in Japan." Also, communication professor Stephen O'Leary presented a paper "Ranters, Levellers, and Diggers as Discourses and/or Movements: Heresy, dissent and the norms of religious rhetoric from the English Reformation to postcolonial America." English professor Lawrence Green is the International President of ISHR and chaired the Global Roundtable discussions that were webcast.

USC is a fitting site for the august assembly of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric. The study of rhetoric is a long-standing part of the University's tradition. USC included elocution, or public speaking, in its course of studies the year it was founded, 1880. A College of Oratory was established in 1895, and became the School of Speech in 1921, which hired USC’s first female faculty member. The first MA degree was given in 1924, and the Doctoral degree in speech was conferred in 1935.

The tradition was celebrated at a reception for the International Society for the History of Rhetoric on campus at ASC Thursday July 14. Students and faculty were invited to meet these 300 scholars from the world over who came to USC this summer to share work on the history of the rhetorical tradition—research that explores the many theories and practices of rhetoric that have shaped global culture, and the future of such work as it creates new understandings of communication and influence.

The ISHR has been at the center of interdisciplinary world-wide developments in rhetorical studies. At the time the Society was founded, there was no single society that brought together the disparate disciplines necessary to study the subject linguistics, political science, law, literature, philosophy, and history. In the quarter-century since its founding, the Society has served as both parent and inspiration, leading to the establishment of affiliated national or regional societies in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, the Nordic Group (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden), Poland, Lithuania, South Africa, Japan, Korea, and China. The ISHR, with its international biennial congress and its award-winning journal Rhetorica, remains the common ground and the driving force for these international studies.

Events for the Congress have received the support from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, USC's 125th Anniversary Committee, the Department of English, and the Office of Summer and Special Programs.
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