Ghanaian Female Celebrities’ Digital Engagements as Rhetorical Feminism: A Rhetorical Analysis of Celebrity Instagram Rhetoric in Amplifying Unique Literacies

Authors

  • Ernestina A. Akorli-Coffie East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
  • Wendy Sharer East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

Abstract

This paper rhetorically explores the symbolic actions of agency exhibited by three Ghanaian female celebrities on Instagram to understand the literacy practices developed from the digital circulation practices of their audience on the platform. It specifically analyzes how Yvonne Nelson’s 2024 #DumsorMustStop vigil and Berla Mundi and Anitta Akuffo’s embodied rhetorics manifested in their Instagram photo posts and stories in 2024, considering them as symbolic actions that mobilize vernacular, digital, civic, and collaborative literacies among Ghanaian publics. By engaging with Cheryl Glenn’s (2018) framework of “invitational rhetoric” as tactics of rhetorical feminism and with Kovalik and Curwood’s (2019) theory of transliteracy to understand the celebrities’ symbolic actions, this rhetorical analysis highlights the rhetorical dexterity of Ghanaian female celebrities’ digital engagements and demonstrates how these engagements transform Instagram into a transmediatory space where dynamic digital and special literacies converge and also emerge. Ultimately, this study contributes to a contextualized understanding of rhetorical feminist tactics on Instagram, the rhetoricity of celebrity digital agency, and the ways this agency amplifies marginalized voices in order to create civic awareness through dialogic and collaborative rhetoric.

Keywords: rhetorical feminism, invitational rhetoric, digital literacy, Instagram, celebrity rhetors

Author Biographies

Ernestina A. Akorli-Coffie, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

Ernestina A. Akorli-Coffie is an international student from Ghana, West Africa, currently pursuing her PhD in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication at East Carolina University. Her research interests lie at the intersections of AI and new media pedagogy and policy; Transnational Black Feminist Digital Rhetoric; Transnational Indigenous Cultural Rhetorics and Literacies; Inclusive Technical Communication and Rhetoric; and Decolonial Composition Theory. As a scholar and teacher, her research is grounded in a commitment to promoting ethical, inclusive, and innovative technical and scientific communication, affirming contemporary digital feminist practices and literacies on social media, and advocating for socially just AI policies and pedagogy. Her work also seeks to liberate rhetorical and pedagogical practices within African and transnational contexts through decolonial approaches that advance her field’s diversity in inclusive research.

Wendy Sharer, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

Wendy Sharer is Thomas Harriot College Distinguished Professor of English at East Carolina University. She served as President of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition from 2020-2022 and currently co-edits the journal WPA: Writing Program Administration. Her books include the co-edited collections Reclaiming Accountability: Using the Work of Re/Accreditation to Improve Writing Programs (Parlor P, 2016, winner of the Council of Writing Program Administrators’ Best Book Award); Working in the Archives (Southern Illinois UP, 2009); and Rhetorical Education in America (Alabama UP, 2004). She has also authored Vote & Voice: Women’s Organizations and Political Literacy (Southern Illinois UP, 2004) and co-authored 1977: A Cultural Moment in Composition (Parlor P, 2007). She has published chapters in several edited collections and articles in journals such as WPA: Writing Program Administration, College English, Rhetoric Review, and Rhetoric Society Quarterly.

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Published

2026-02-24

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2026): Proceedings from the 9th Global Issues Conference

Section

Global Issues Conference Proceedings

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