Volume 8, Issue 2 (2012) Future Tense: Iowa Looks Ahead

Future Tense: Iowa Looks Ahead to the Next Four Years

Welcome to this special issue of the Poroi journal! Today is Election Day in the United States, and the final day of an extremely contentious, divisive, and expensive Presidential campaign cycle. Poroi’s home - the Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry –regularly convenes “Public Rhetoric Seminars” to discuss topics of local and global import to the University and the Iowa City community that houses and feeds us all. Past Public Rhetoric Seminars have discussed the role of race and place in Southeast Iowa City’s reception of transplanted Chicagoans; the educational policy of No Child Left Behind, and reactions to the terrible events of September 11, 2001.

This special issue was conceived as a virtual Public Rhetoric Seminar; one providing an online space for University of Iowa students, staff, and faculty to opine about possible outcomes of today’s election and beyond. We received a strong showing of support from the University community, and are proud to present to you a collection of non-fiction prose, poetry, and opinion essays from the very talented members of the University community.