Ethics in Contact Rhetoric offers a novel communication theory centering touch and decentering symbolism. Critical case studies spanning diverse national and cultural contexts demonstrate contact rhetoric’s rich heuristic and applications. Inspired by Gandhi and King’s tradition of nonviolent power, a contact orientation outlines the incarnate and immediate ground of communication ethics. All media and symbolisms grow out of contact, one’s crucial bodily relationships with supporters and oppressors. Here, ethical interactions are defined as bio-relational dances arcing steps of nurture, respect, justice, and too often, violence. As efforts advance through space and time, interpersonal and social gyres form cycles manifesting degrees of relational balance, dynamics which can be described and interpreted with a multidimensional schema drawn from dance. Centering humanity’s physical mutuality is a vital move today. Communication is a thoroughly interactive art, but the West’s ancient “instrumental” (Aristotelian) tradition of rhetorical theory and its accompanying utilitarian ethic have worked across millennia to valorize individual agency over joint action. This book re-balances rhetorical theory by decentering symbolic acts and enabling critique of embodied relational patterns. The result is a much-needed foundation for communication ethics. Special emphasis is placed on engaging material injustice and discerning the role of rhetoric in social transformation. Grounded in concrete encounters, Ethics in Contact Rhetoric addresses how and why human beings function intentionally and interdependently, and how our linked movements can both harm and heal relational cycles. By identifying rhetorical energy within maneuvers advancing visceral engagement with difference, we outline potential for relational growth and transformation. Contact rhetoric asks us to embody and enact ethical ideals as we grapple with real life challenges of interdependence and social being.