wrapping up the academic year

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!

Thanks to all who helped make the Composition Conference Possible!

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.