Opening Ceremony: Inviting Inclusion into University Governance, Kathryn Johnson Gindlesparger, University of Minnesota Press, 2023, 9781517915926, softcover, 96 pages, $10.00, 9781452969947, eBook, $4.95.

Abstract

Kathryn Johnson Gindlesparger is an associate professor of writing and rhetoric. Her recently published work Opening Ceremony: Inviting Inclusion into University Governance is part of the University of Minnesota Press series “Forerunners: Ideas First.” The book is written from her perspective as a faculty member at an institution recently merged with a more prominent university. She seeks to understand the role of governance in an institution when someone first learns about something new to the organization. The book expands on her previously published article “Trust on Display: The Epideictic Potential of University Governance” in the journal College English. Rhetoric is at the heart of her thesis. It combines a historical exploration of how academic institutions form themselves into organizations that operate distinctively with a reflective examination that seeks to move the reader toward a more inclusive approach to institutional governance.