Abstract
<jats:p>As anti-DEI policies increasingly target public universities, the challenge is not only to resist erasure but to reimagine what inclusive, justice-centered education can look like. This chapter explores how diversity topics in rhetoric courses can help us rethink our roles as educators in an era of political backlash. Positioning the classroom as a space of both cultural resistance and creative possibility, the chapter examines how these courses have been reshaped to center rhetorical inquiry around themes of border politics, intersectionality, and the perspectives of traditionally excluded individuals and groups. The courses challenge students to critically engage with the sociopolitical contexts of their identities, communities, and lived realities. The chapter highlights how rhetorical education can be transformed into a form of social action. In doing so, the chapter contributes to a broader conversation about reimagining the university as a site of cultural resistance, political engagement, and intersectional justice, even in the face of institutional constraints.</jats:p>