We are soliciting proposals for a volume of essays that examines the future of graduate education in rhetoric and composition. It is our premise that rhetoric and composition specialists in general and recent Ph.D.s in particular occupy an anomalous position in the modern university, a position not infrequently calling them to the frontlines of the cultural, political, and economic struggles that now characterize English studies. For some time, composition scholars have worked to define their ethical obligations as they play their assigned roles, first in literary English departments and more recently in the "managed university"; they have now begun to focus their critical awareness on the nature of the training they have received and the training they provide for their graduate students. The time has come, we argue, to expand this critical attention into a sustained conversation about a re-imagined doctoral training for a re-imagined university.
We intend our call to generate different points of view on the challenges of re-envisioning rhet/comp doctoral training. To our question of whether the exigencies faced by rhet/comp faculty members can be addressed through current preparation models, we invite consideration of all facets of graduate work in rhetoric and composition, including but not limited to issues such as the following: What are the current models for graduate training in rhet/comp and how well do they prepare junior faculty for the responsibilities they are asked to shoulder? In what ways have recent pressures on higher education affected graduate education and how should these pressures be addressed? Have recent alterations in graduate training for rhet/comp specialists been effective and how should they be supplemented? Should rhetoric and composition Ph.D. students prepare formally for administrative or bureaucratic positions? What roles might gender, class, and race play in a newly imagined doctoral training in rhetoric and composition? We invite especially pieces by junior faculty reflecting on the relationship between their graduate training and their professional situations, and pieces by senior faculty with experience in writing program administration or graduate program design and administration. We also encourage papers by graduate students undergoing preparation for positions in a much altered higher education landscape.
For a more complete discussion and list of possible issues, click here.
|
Virginia Anderson |
Susan Romano |