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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!” :-)
Yesterday was a great day at CCCCs. All four of the panels I went to were fantastic. I did make one change in my schedule. I didn’t go to “We Have Been Here Forever” as I initially planned. Instead, I went to the session, “Community Literacies and Deliberative Democracy In and Beyond the University,” with Eli Goldblatt, Juan Guerra, Michelle Kells, and Carlos Salinas. Our panel, “Labor Rhetoric and Academic Organizing,” went extremely well…we had a packed house, our papers worked incredibly well together, Eileen Schell posed several key questions in her response, and many audience members walked with us over to the Serrano Hotel for our Labor Caucus Interest Group meeting. More on all of this when I have a little time (right now I am sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for my ride to the airport).
I was really looking forward to being here this year…and my expectations were more than met. The non-panel discussions I had with people who I haven’t seen since the last CCCCs and colleagues I see on a more-or-less regular basis were invigorating…which is, after all, why we come to these conferences in the first place, right?
More to come!
After spending some time reading through all of the sessions running tomorrow, I think I have my schedule for tomorrow:
- 10:30: “From Textile Mills to the Entrepreneurial University: Confronting the Political Economics of Writing”
- 12:15: “We Have Been Here Forever: Towards a History of Composition(ist)s of Color Rewriting Rhetoric within and beyond NCTE/CCCC”
- 1:45: “‘Driving into the Wreck’: A Feminist Inquiry of the Dissertation in Composition”
- 3:00: (no choice on this one, this is my panel) “Labor Rhetorics and Academic Organizing: Possibilities and Predicaments”
- 5:00: CCCC Labor Caucus Interest Group
Last week’s Composition Conference for First-Year Student Writers was an unqualified success! Over 150 230 students participated in the conference!
Amy Lynch-Biniek and Kevin Mahoney would like to thank the members of the Composition Conference Committee for helping make this event possible: Barbara Belejack, Tony Bleach, Liz Casner, Linda Cullum, Todd Dodson, Joanne Emge, Dan Featherston, Melissa Nurczynski, Carissa Pokorny-Golden, Patty Pytleski, Don McNamara, Rebecca Stewart, and Todd Williams. A special thanks goes out to Annette Christman, the English Department secretary, whose knowledge of the university and help has been indispensable.
Thanks to Janice Chernekoff, the Chair of the English Department, for her continued support of the conference; to Joanne Emge for helping bring the Foust Lecture and the Composition Conference together this year; to the Provost, Dr. Carlos Vargas for his moral and institutional support; and to LAS Dean, Dr. Bashar Hanna for supplemental funds to help bring Keith Gilyard to KU. Thanks to all of the faculty who have encouraged their students to participate in this conference as panelists and audience members. Finally, thanks to all the students who took a big step in submitting and presenting their papers. We welcome you to the conversation.
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