Atilla Hallsby
LightNews LightNews
banner
atillahallsby.bsky.social
Atilla Hallsby
@atillahallsby.bsky.social
670 followers 770 following 100 posts
Rhetoric/Secrecy
a.i. refuser/OA advocate
he/him
🇹🇷/🇸🇪
www.atillahallsby.com

“Reading Rhetorical Theory” (UMN Libraries, 2022) https://open.lib.umn.edu/rhetoricaltheory/

“Sovereign, Settler, Leaker, Lie” (OSU Press, 2026). https://tinyurl.com/yfh4pvfd
Posts Replies Media Videos
atillahallsby.bsky.social
In Sovereign, Settler, Leaker, Lie, Atilla Hallsby argues that secrets play a pivotal role in organizing political discourse in the United States. Hallsby takes up contemporary case studies ranging from the Valerie Plame scandal during the George W. Bush presidency, …
A book jacket blurb for sovereign, settler, leaker, lie: “this analytically sophisticated book offers a captivating exploration of the often destructive role of political secrets in society weather found in conspiracy theories, national security fabrications supporting war, Atilla Hallsby shows how secrets powerfully shape collective knowledge and legitimize forms of violence.” Blurb by Torin Monahan, author of Crisis Vision: race and the cultural production of surveillance. A book jacket blurb for sovereign, settler, leaker, lie: “smart, playful, and theoretically sophisticated, sovereign, settler, leaker, lie introduces us to the hard truths of secrecy in American politics. A one-of-a-kind book.”Blurb by Joshua Reeves, co-author of the prison house of the circuit: Politics of control from analog to digital.
October 11, 2025 at 5:11 PM
atillahallsby.bsky.social
Forthcoming February 2026 from The Ohio State University Press: “Sovereign, Settler, Leaker Lie: Forms of the Secret in U.S. Political Rhetoric”!

ohiostatepress.org/books/titles...

Pre-orders available at link; the book will be released as an open access title. Book jacket description follows.
Cover image for sovereign settler leaker lie: forms of the secret in US political rhetoric. The image depicts a large empty office space with fluorescent lighting and telephones placed at regular intervals on the ground, next to poles where they are plugged in. The image is shot in black-and-white. the image is of the Philip Morris call center and was taken by Ezra Stoler. A book jacket blurb for sovereign, settler, leaker, lie: “much work on the secret skirts over it’s rhetorical form and associated tropes, but Hallsby has written a rigorous, capacious, and highly that situates the secret historically essential reading for those interest in the politics and aesthetics of secrecy.” by Clare Birchall, author of radical secrecy: the ends of transparency in datafied America A book jacket blurb for sovereign, settler, leaker, lie: “ sovereign, settler, leaker, lie, generatively brings rhetorical studies into conversation with surveillance studies to offer important expansions and correctives to the study of secrecy. drawing on a rich historical archive that includes figures like Allan Turing, Saul D. Alinsky, Valerie Plame Wilson, and Chelsea Manning, Hallsby powerfully illustrates how secrets are not just in but of discourse. And so doing he importantly, foregrounds the secret’s material impacts and entanglement with racial, colonial, and gendered violences.” Blurb by Mia Fischer, author of terrorizing gender: transgender visibility and the national security state. A book jacket blurb for sovereign, settler, leaker, lie: “ presented from a psychoanalytic perspective that ref binary of suspicion and faith, sovereign, settler, leaker, lie is both reassuring for its ability to name contemporary rhetorical dynamics, and sobering because, as Freud once put it, we are not masters of our own house.” Blurb by Joshua Gunn, author of political perversion: rhetorical aberration in the time of trumpeteering.
October 11, 2025 at 5:11 PM
atillahallsby.bsky.social
An image of a square-shaped wafer of sugary cereal with an expressively angry face photo edited on it. Above it, a caption reads: “What in the cinnamon toast fuck is this?”
October 8, 2025 at 2:27 AM
atillahallsby.bsky.social
EVENT 2: "Re-Discovering Public Address”

"Rediscovering Public Address"
Sat, November 23
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Baroness on Baronne St.
339 Baronne St, New Orleans, LA 70112
November 19, 2024 at 4:28 PM
atillahallsby.bsky.social
If you’re going to be at NCA this week, please consider adding the following Public Address Division sponsored events to your itinerary!

What is Rhetoric Enough? Roundtable Discussion
Sat, November 23
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Balcony J - 4th Floor Marriott
November 19, 2024 at 4:28 PM
atillahallsby.bsky.social
Here’s Millie and Murray!
A small grey poodle with a white mane looks upward wistfully while lying on a couch next to a pillow. A white chihuahua with a black spot over his ear lies on his side, sleeping, while wearing a harness and collar. A grey poodle with a white snout sits atop a pillow on a chair. Her eyes are closed as she drifts off to sleep. A white chihuahua with black markings over his ears sits partially upright, looking directly at the camera. His tongue is sticking out the left side of his mouth.
August 19, 2023 at 4:38 AM