Beer Rhetoric (BR) emerged from the conversations of local students and professionals who study and work in information, technology, culture, writing, and design  about topics such as community and networking. We get together weekly to extend the community of professional and technical writers and to network and share stories. So come join us to converse, network, or just have a beer.

Why Beer Rhetorics?

Beer Rhetoric started when students, thirsty after a long day of classes, decided to continue the conversations at a local restaurant. During that first BR, the stories and the friendly arguing helped everyone relax, and to further think about the ideas and projects for class. That synergy reminded us that not all learning happens within the walls of a classroom, and that sometimes the conviviality over a beer can aid the processes of invention, design, and community building.

Those initial gatherings generated an academic interest among some of us in the relationship between beer and communities, publics, cultures, and spaces. This investigation happens several ways, both online and off. Online there are weekly blogs about beer, community, and people. Additionally, every couple of weeks we will be producing podcasts with topics ranging  from interviews about “why beer?” to ethnographic observations of local breweries and bars. Offline, we have regular weekly meet ups in East Lansing where we throw around theories about language and digital culture, play euchre or pinochle, network with creative professionals, and plan collaborative projects. For more information see the Weekly Meet Up page.

(For another example of the kind of work that observes, examines, and participates in the discourse activities that happen over beer, see Michigan State University Professor Julie Lindquist’s A Place to Stand: Politics and Persuasion in a Working-Class Bar.)