Intersections (with lunch) | How bad ideas spread

How bad ideas spread

Allison D. Carr | Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Coe College
Drew E. Westberg | Associate Professor of Economics, Coe College

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NOVEMBER 7, 2025  |  11:45 AM – 1:00 PM
St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Cedar Rapids
** in-person event **

“We are burdening our children with the national debt.” “College just isn’t a good investment anymore.” “Deficits are bad!”

We have all heard such statements; they reflect commonly held understandings of subjects that are perennially relevant. Yet empirical examination suggests such statements are not always accurate. So why do we believe them and how do such sentiments become so powerfully etched in our collective psyche? In this brief presentation and discussion, Associate Professor of Rhetoric Allison Carr and Associate Professor of Economics Drew Westberg, both of Coe College, will explain how and why such ideas spread and stick. With DOGE as our case example, we will unpack the broader values and tensions that audiences connect with, how certain ideas come to powerfully shape and reinforce societal values, and how new sets of shared ideas can be created.

You may make your reservation to attend in-person (with lunch) by clicking on the "Register Now" button. Three boxed lunch options are available: turkey & swiss on ciabatta, roast beef & cheddar on wheatberry, and garden veggie salad; boxed lunches are $15 each. You must pre-order and pay for your lunch by 12:00 PM on Tuesday, November 4. Late orders or walk-in requests for lunch will not be available.

If you have any issues registering, please email info@interfaithallianceiowa.org or call 515.279.8715.

ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS

Allison Carr is the Esther and Robert Armstrong Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Director of Writing Across the Curriculum, and Associate Dean for Student Academics at Coe College. She teaches courses in critical/rhetorical theory and creative nonfiction that push students to discover and interrogate the ways language shapes our understanding of the world, both in terms of our personal experiences and in how we interpret patterns, events, and tensions in our shared social and political spheres.

As a researcher, Dr. Carr is interested in the affective/emotional dimensions of teaching and learning, particularly the role that failure plays in the writing process. Her published work argues for a conceptualization of failure as integral to the scene of writing, an intensive and intentional activity that produces discomfort and, from that, more inventive, wandering, and wondering ways of moving and being in the world. Her writing on this and other subjects has appeared in Composition Forum, Pedagogy, College Composition and Communication, and two edited collections: Naming What We Know (Adler-Kassner and Wardle, eds.) and Bad Ideas About Writing (Ball and Loewe, eds.) With Laura Micciche, she edited a book on failure, Failure Pedagogies: Learning and Unlearning What It Means to Fail (2020). Her second edited collection (with a five-editor team), Revising Moves: Showing and Narrating Revision in Action, was released by University Press of Colorado/Utah State University Press in 2024.

Drew E. Westberg is the Henry B. Tippie Chair in Business & Economics and the Associate Dean for Faculty Development. He teaches macroeconomics at the introductory level, upper-level microeconomics courses (particularly around urban economics), and seminars in Economic Development and Political Economy. Dr. Westberg received the Charles J. Lynch Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2021.

Dr. Westberg's research interests focus on the interactions between people and the places we build, namely cities. His published work focuses on nonprofit management and scale, focusing particularly on the ways urban scale impacts the location decisions of nonprofits. His most recent work is a chapter published with two of his former students (Dr. Brenna Junger and Mr. Evan Perry) on the impacts of disasters and the federal disaster recovery system on local nonprofit sectors.

On the side, Dr. Westberg is a passionate chestnut farmer.

Intersections is a monthly gathering of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa in Cedar Rapids. It's an opportunity to learn, to participate in civil dialogue, and to discuss issues at the crossroads of religion and politics.