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There are just three days left in the semester and we’re wrapping things up. Like most of my colleagues, I am deep in grading mode. However, I thought I would take a few minutes this morning (before I head into campus and while my son is sleeping) to post.
This past academic year has been pretty incredible for our little composition program. We have one new class on the books, ENG 316 Rhetoric, Democracy, Advocacy, which will be offered in spring 2010 for the first time. We also have two classes heading for college and university curriculum committees after passing our department unanimously: Women, Writing, Rhetoric and Issues in Composition and Rhetoric Studies. A very productive year for course development and another step toward rounding out a solid concentration in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies at KU.
This past year we also completed two successful tenure-track faculty searches. In the fall, we will welcome Mysti Rudd from Lamar State College-Port Arthur (IUP PhD candidate) in Texas and Moe Folk from Michigan Tech. Over the summer I am going to ask Mysti and Moe to introduces themselves to you, but for now let me just say that both of these folks promise to contribute to our program in exciting ways. As I have suggested before on this blog, our program has at its core an ethic of “conversation.” That is, we are interested in a diversity of approaches at our composition table that can contibute to a lively conversation over the teaching of writing, literacy in the 21st Century, and all things composition and rhetoric. Many of us got into this field because of its lively discussion over the purpose and nature of writing, rhetoric, and literacy…so, it only makes sense that we would want to use that energy, that commitment to discussion as the model of our program. I am sure that Mysti and Moe will both expand and deepen our conversations.
This past spring saw another successful Composition Conference for student writers. This 5th annual conference was expanded to include student writers from all levels of composition courses, which exceeded our expectations. Despite a very miserable weather day, attendance at this year’s conference was the best yet. Our keynote speaker, Steve Parks from Syracuse University, gave an engaging talk entitled “Once I was a Washing Machine: Worker/Writer Alliances at the Edge of the Economic Abyss” (see the pics below). His talk was both well attended and sparked conversations that echoed through our conversations for weeks.
Over the course of this summer we will be planning for what promises to be an exciting new academic year. We will be hiring an additional tenure-track faculty member in Multicultural/Multiethnic Rhetorics; formally submitting our concentration for department approval; expanding our course offerings; deepening our use of new media; and continuing conversations in our weekly meetings and reading groups. Toward the end of this semester, we began some interesting and exciting conversations with our fellow rhetoricians in the Speech Department (soon to be Communications Studies). Frankly, the promise of reuniting rhetoric just gets me all happy (yes, I am a rhetoric geek). In short, I think we are in great shape…or, given that today is Obama’s 100th day in office, maybe I should say: “the state of our program is strong!” :-)
The English department held its fifth annual Kutztown University Composition Conference on April 3 2009. Our conference theme, “Writers @ Work,” represented our effort to showcase the myriad means we use to compose, as well as the genuine toil required to create. Over 300 students attended the conference.
This year, the KUCC was open to student writers from across all levels of composition courses. More than fifty students enrolled in first year composition, Advanced Composition and Teaching Writing during the 2008-2009 academic year presented original academic works at the conference.
Also new at the 2009 KUCC was our “technology room,” allowing students to present multimodal compositions. Presentations here included a short film; PowerPoint displays; the projection of compositions via document cameras (in order to display their visual elements); and a paper on protest songs culminating in the performance of an original piece of music.
Students in Dr. Chernekoff’s Teaching Writing Course created an impressive poster session, adding a new visual dimension to the day. We also sold copies of the cookbook, A Semester of Seasonings. This text was composed by members of Dr. Chernekoff’s Advanced Composition Course and reimagined by Dr. O’Brien’s Desktop Publishing class. Sales of the text benfit the foodbank of Friend, Inc in Kutztown.
The Keynote Speaker, Prof. Stephen Parks of Syracuse University, spoke to a large and enthusiastic crowd in Alumni Auditorium. His talk, “Once I Was A Washing Machine: Worker / Writer Alliances at the Edge of the Economic Abyss” explored many of the obstacles inherent in pursuing a higher education while working. His account of worker-writer alliances made among his working class Syracuse students was both moving and inspiring.
We should be very proud of our students and campus community! Read more about the event at the Composition Program’s blog: http://kucomprhet.wordpress.com/blog/
Pictures from the conference can be found at: <http://kucomprhet.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/photos-from-kucc-2009/>
My thanks to the English Department Faculty, department secretary Annette Christman, Department Chair Dr. Janice Chernekoff, and the KUCC Committee for making the day a success for our student-writers!
Best,
Amy Lynch-Biniek, KUCC Chair
In addition to all the vlogging we did and photos we took, we did our first experiment in podcasting for the KU Composition Conference. Three students from my Advanced Composition class–Tim Crane, Katrina Albert, and Renee Franklin–agreed to having their panel recorded for a podcast. A huge thanks goes out to them for their willingness to try this out.
I just finished loading up the audio (with very minimal editing) and it sounds good! If you’d like to check it out, click on the radio icon above. A QuickTime (or other audio program) should start up and play the file. If you want a little context for the panel, check out the paper assignment that provided the prompt for Tim, Katrina, and Renee’s paper. Or, check out the Ramage-tagged posts on our class blog.
Here is the first paragraph of the article “Create, Collaborate, Communicate: Empowering Students With 21st Century Skills,” by Chris Riedel. It was published in T.H.E. Journal in January.
“We need to change the way we teach,” said Howie DiBlasi, speaking at FETC 2009 in Orlando, FL last week. DiBlasi, retired district CIO and emerging technology evangelist, pointed to a statistic from the United States Department of Commerce that left many in the audience shaking their heads: According to a study that ranked 55 industry sectors by their level of IT intensiveness, “education ranked 55 … below coal mining.”
Check out the full article here
Hello all comp/rhet followers. We’re only two weeks into the semester and already it’s exciting.
As you may know, three of us–Linda Cullum, Amy Lynch-Biniek, and I were in San Francisco at MLA interviewing candidates for our tenure-track position in Comp/Rhet. This week we begin our interviews. On campus interviews are always hectic, but from my perspective they are one of the most interesting parts of my job. It’s an opportunity to talk to great people who are doing excellent work in both their classrooms and their research. At the very least, it’s an opportunity to build networks of connection with other Comp/Rhet folks across the country.
If interviewing candidates for one position was not intense enough, we decided to push to search for a second tenure-track position this year. The position: Digital Literacies/Visual Rhetorics. Our initial plan was to search DL/VR next year along with a position in Multicultural/Multi-ethnic Rhetoric. But when opportunity presented itself to push the search to this year, we went for it.
If we are able to hire both positions this year we will have a total of 6 Comp/Rhet faculty, which will put us in an excellent position to focus on program development over the next couple of years. The addition of a faculty member in Multicultural/Multi-ethnic rhetoric in 2010 will give our little-program-that-could further depth.
In any case, we are looking forward to an exciting few weeks!
It’s hard to believe that we are already in the fourth week of the semester. Wow. I must say that we’re off to quite a start.
Earlier today the Composition Conference Committee met to begin planning our annual conference. Next April will be the fifth year of the conference. Last year’s conference was a grand success thanks in large part to Amy Lynch-Biniek’s tireless efforts as Chair of the Composition Conference Committee, the work of committee members, Keith Gilyard’s excellent Keynote Address, and the fabulous work presented by all of our student participants. While it’s still only mid-September, we’re already planning the conference theme, keynote speaker, and getting materials ready to distribute to faculty and students.
Last week the Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies Reading Group met to decide what we would read this semester/year. We decided on the following texts:
Here’s a look at the other texts we will be checking out this year:
- Kathleen Blake Yancey, “Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key.”
- Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle, “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions: (Re)Envisioning ‘First-Year Composition’ as ‘Introduction to Writing Studies’.”
- Jonathan Alexander, “Transgender Rhetorics: (Re)Composing Narratives of the Gendered Body.”
- Nancy Welch, “Living Room: Teaching Public Writing in a Post-Publicity Era.”
- Min-Zhan Lu, “An Essay on the Work of Composition: Composing English against the Order of Fast Capitalism.”
- Donna LeCourt, “Performing Working-Class Identity in Composition: Toward a Pedagogy of Textual Practice.”
We’re starting out with Yancey’s article for our October 9th meeting and go from there! And you may have noticed that CRLS Reading Group has replaced the CRG group and blog. Since we are working on developing a concentration in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies, it seemed to make sense to link our curricular work with the reading group. As you may notice, many of the articles we chose for this year focus on different approaches to composition and rhetoric and curriculum development.
And of course, Composition Conversations are in their second week. As we get closer to the due dates for our first papers, we’ll be sharing ideas for responding to student texts, effective workshopping, designing assignments, generating class discussions, and a whole range of other things!
All in all, we’ve hit the ground running. If you want to know what’s going on and where, check out our new Composition Calendar!
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