Hanne Roer

Hanne Roer

Ph.d.

    • Karen Blixens Plads 8

      2300 København S

    Personal profile

    Short presentation

    I am president of The International Society for the History of Rhetoric (from 2024) and vice-president for The International Society for the Study of Jesuit Rhetoric.

    I am a member/council member of these societies: 

    1. Orbis Terrarum

    2. Martin Andersen Nexø-fonden

    3. www.dansketaler.dk

    4. Nordisk Forening for Retorikkforskning

    5. Societas Latina Daniae.

    Research:

    I do research in the history of rhetoric, in two fields:

    1. The history of Danish rhetoric

    2. The reception of Augustine's rhetorical writings, from 430 to modern rhetoric and contemporary homiletic, with a focus on Jesuit rhetoric.

    My papers, book chapters and journal articles have for the past years been dedicated to Danish orators and issues (war and pacifist rhetoric, constitution day speeches) as well Augustine’s rhetoric and its impact on later rhetorical writers in the middle ages, the early modern period as well as 18th rhetoricians (such as Dante, Petrarch, Melanchthon, Reggio, Strada, Segneri, Panigarola, Fenelon, Noghera) and modern rhetorical theorists such as Kenneth Burke. 

    I have been an associate professor at the section for rhetoric at the Department for Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen since 2004. My Ph.D.-thesis on Dante Alighieri’s theory of language, poetics and rhetoric in 1999 was titled Dante Impositor. On the Origins of Poetry and Language in Dante and the Modistae (2000). Taking the dissertation as my starting point I published the monograph Beatrice i Paradiset: En rejse i Dantes værker. Aarhus Universitetsforlag 2010 (307 pp) on Dante's poetics and rhetoric - the first monograph in Danish on Dante since 1892. I regularly give talks on Dante in and outside of academia; I have translated some of his Latin writings into Danish (De vulgari eloquentia; Letters 5, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13, 2008 and 2022).

    I have partly written and edited (with M. Lund, Aarhus University) a textbook on rhetorical criticism, Retorikkens Aktualitet, that has come out in four editions (2006, 2009, 2014 and 2023, the last with M. Lund and C. Madsen as co-editors). It introduces American rhetorical criticism and offers original close readings of Danish political texts. I co-edited the volume on the Catholic reformation, En anden Reformation, Forlaget Orbis, 2017.

    Teaching:

    I teach courses in the history of rhetoric, visual rhetoric, argumentation, rhetorical theory and rhetorical criticism. I supervise students in most disciplines of the curriculum.

    Conferences:

    Since 2005 I have attended the conferences held by The International Society for The History of Rhetoric as well as the Nordic conferences on research in rhetoric (since 1999).  I have been participating in conferences and seminars held by the Nordic network on law, literature and rhetoric and the Bergen School of Law and Literature (2005-2015). In the period 1999-2006 I was part of the Nordic Dante Network, attending the related conferences.

    Research visits abroad and languages:

    I have stayed in Rome and Pisa for longer periods, working in libraries and archives, and in shorter periods in Paris, Venice, Oxford and Coimbra. I read (and translate from) Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German, English and some Spanish, apart from the Scandinavian languages.

    Communication to the public:

    I regularly write for popular magazines such as Retorisk Arena (former: Retorikmagasinet), Den store danske (lex.dk), Kommunikationsforum and Sfinx, and I frequently give talks on Dante.

    I have also curated (with artist Anita V. Nielsen) the art exhibition 00197 Roma (Sophienholm 2015). 

    CV

    Short summary in English:

    I have been an associate professor at the section for rhetoric at the Department for Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen since 2004. From 1998-2004, I organized the new rhetoric courses at the University of Aarhus, resulting in the establishment of a Center for Rhetoric, first as an assistant professor at the Department for Classical studies and from 2003 as an associate professor at the Department for Aesthetic Studies. I finished my Ph.D.-thesis on Dante Alighieri’s theory of language, poetics and rhetoric in 1999 and became a Ph.D. in 2000 with the dissertation Dante Impositor. On the Origins of Poetry and Language in Dante and the Modistae. I graduated from Aarhus University in 1992 (Greek, Latin, Comparative Literature).

    Since 2005 I have attended the conferences held by The International Society for The History of Rhetoric as well as the Nordic conferences on research in rhetoric (since 1999). I have been participating in conferences and seminars held by the Nordic network on law, literature and rhetoric and the Bergen School of Law and Literature (2005-2015). In the period 1999-2006 I was part of the Nordic Dante Network, attending the related conferences. I have stayed in Rome and Pisa for longer periods, working in libraries and archives, and in shorter periods in Paris, Venice, Oxford and Coimbra. I have also curated (with artist Anita V. Nielsen) the exhibition 00197 Roma (Sophienholm 2015), because I consider communication to a broader public very important.

    Keywords

    • Faculty of Humanities
    • Rhetoric, Literature, Jesuit eloquence, Dante, Augustine
    • Augustine, Dante, Rhetoric, Literature, Visual Communication

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