Well, we’re just about at the end of the semester. Saturday’s graduation ceremonies will bring the semester to a symbolic close, while the deadline to turn in grades by Tuesday will mark THE END. While these moments tend to send me into a deep reflective space–thinking about all that has happened over the course of the academic year–I find myself looking forward instead.

In many ways this year brought a lot into focus for me about our composition program. I think the success of this year’s Composition Conference for First-Year Student Writers helped frame the incredible work that faculty and students are doing here. It also helped me focus on further developing our program over the next several years. In the fall we will begin a search for our fifth tenure-track composition hire. We also began to circulate a draft of a new concentration in the department: Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies (CRLS). I’m just about done with a proposal for a new course called “Rhetoric, Democracy, Advocacy.” It feels like we are turning a corner–what lies around that corner is still a bit of a mystery.

In any case, I’d like to thank all the faculty who teach composition in our department–especially those faculty who participated in our weekly Composition Conversations, (quasi) monthly meetings of the CRG, and who made the fourth Composition Conference such a success. I would also like to put in a special thanks to the faculty who have taught the majority of our composition courses: our non-tenure track (aka “temporary”) faculty. I know I am not alone in noting their tremendous commitment to their students despite sub-par working conditions. I am hoping that the new offices coming on-line over the summer will be a step toward equity and recognition.

Some things to look for:

  • Summer I: An on-line survey on teaching composition at KU
  • Suggestions for next year’s CRG
  • Planning for a “Composition Fair” in August
  • Early planning for next year’s Composition Conference (April 3, 2009)
  • More blog ramblings from our composition faculty!

Have a great summer!