Intellectual Affairs columnist for Inside Higher Ed Scott McLemee has written an excellent piece on KBS 2011 at Clemson. Here's a brief excerpt:
Attitudes Toward Kenneth Burke
. . . The triennial meeting of the Kenneth Burke Society, held at Clemson University over the Memorial Day weekend, drew a diverse crowd, numbering just over one hundred people -- with at least a third, by my estimate, being graduate students or junior faculty. The Burkological elders told tales of the days when incorporating more than a couple of citations from “KB” in a dissertation would get you scolded by an adviser. Clearly things have changed in the meantime. Tables near registration were crowded with secondary literature from the past decade or so, as well as a couple of posthumous collections of KB's work. The program featured papers on the implications of his ideas for composition textbooks, disability studies, jazz, environmental activism, and the headscarf controversy.
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/mclemee/mclemee_on_burke_society