Rhetoric and Composition @ WSU

The graduate program in composition involves a community of students and faculty in researching and teaching literacy, rhetoric, and writing. While we are concerned with broad issues of written communication, our location in the cultural center of Detroit leads us to focus on writing in urban communities and professional settings. At the local level, as well as nationally and globally, writing now takes complex and multiple forms, including multimedia composing for electronic environments. Through our digital literacy initiative, WSU students and faculty are exploring contemporary issues in the design and distribution of textual artifacts, as well as the construction of theoretical and methodological frameworks for researching and teaching in new media environments

Faculty in the graduate program in composition studies have diverse research and teaching interests and expertise. The breadth and depth of faculty experience provide students in the graduate program opportunities to research current issues in the field of composition studies.

Graduate students in composition studies at Wayne State University bring wide-ranging interests to their work. Upon graduation, many acquire tenure-track positions at major universities across the country.

Professor Ruth Ray’s book Endnotes: An Intimate Look at the End of Life was recently published by Columbia University Press (June 2008) as part of their End of Life Care series. Here is the description provided on the Columbia UP website:

In the summer of 1996, Ruth Ray, a gerontologist in her forties, befriended an eighty-two-year-old man suffering from Parkinson’s. The two remained close until the end of his life, sharing stories and memories while building a deep relationship. Part memoir, part biography, Endnotes explores how people construct meaning through their interactions with others. With grace and wit, Ray situates her friend’s past experiences and present relationships within the theories and literature of gerontology, providing a deeper understanding of autonomy at the end of life. She also delves into the complexities of sexuality and intimacy in old age, communication across disabilities and age groups, the disabling nature of nursing homes, and the trials of death and dying. Writing as both a woman and a gerontologist, Ray finds that the “quality of care” we provide for others requires not only an understanding of the relationships that have given a person’s life meaning but also a willingness to accept and share deeply in the emotional process of physical and mental decline.

There are three Rhetoric/Composition seminars scheduled for the Fall 2008 semester:

ENG 7061 (Rhetorical Theory)
Rhetorical Theory
Wednesdays 3:00-6:00 PM
Professor Richard Marback
Since its discovery in ancient Greece rhetoric has been simultaneously praised as the medium of civic virtue and blamed for propagating individual vices. As a result the study of rhetoric historically has been a chronicle of attempts to account for the ambiguity of the influence we can exercise over others through our manipulaiton of symbols. In this seminar we will study contemporary efforts to account for rhetoric’s influence. Seminar participants will be introduced to the current disciplinary organization of the study of rhetoric in English departments, they will then learn the range of issues that constitute rhetorical theory. Participants will also learn how rhetoric is mobilized in popular media such as comics. Through this survery of the current cultural, institutional, and theoretical manifestation of rhetoric seminar participants will acquire a broad awareness of the field of rhetorical studies.

ENG 7065 (Writing Technologies)
Writing Machines: Rhetorical Technologies and New Media Ecologies
Thursdays 6:00-9:00 PM
Professor Jeff Pruchnic
Writing Machines is designed to introduce students to the increased focus within English Studies on the rhetorics, politics, and aesthetics of new media and information technologies. Topics covered will include the relationship between episteme and tekhne in the Western philosphical tradition, the impact of technology on contemporary critical and cultural theory, and, most generally, the kind of work on and with new media and its associated vectors that takes place within English Studies. Althought this is a Rhetoric/Composition courses, we will spend equal time engaging work within philosophy, film and television studies, economics, and literary studies. Out tenative list of texts includes works by Adam Banks, Jonathan Bellar, Richard Dienst, Deleuze, Derrida, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, Alexander Galloway, N. Katherine Hayles, Jeffrey T. Nealon, Bernard Stiegler, Stuart Selber, and Paulo Viron. Whenever possible, these authors will join us via tele- or videoconference for short periods during class meetings to personally field students’ questions and comments about their work. In addition to a research paper, course deliverables include weekly responses, brief presentations on works related to our readings, and the design of a professional web presence for use during the job research process (no previous web design experience required).

ENG 8007 (Seminar in Composition Studies)
Writing Peace: Literacy Studies and Contemplative Practices
Mondays, 6:00-9:00 PM
Professor Gwen Gorzelsky
This seminar will examine spirtual efforts to promote peace and justice by using literate practices (activities associated with reading and writing). We will briefly overview historical ad contemporary literacy scholarship to develop a basis for evaluating research on spiritual uses of literate practices, which will be our primary focus. I’ll present a case study of one Zen teacher’s contemplative practices by analyzing key texts, outlining several approaches to researching these practices, and discussing their theoretical implications for literacy studies. Major assignments will include: discussion leadership with a partner; a project proposal and two individual conferences with me; and a final essay that undertakes one of the following projects: developing a theoretical position in response to questions, issues, and/or debates raised in seminar; developing a historical case study of spiritual uses of literate practices; developing a qualitative case study of spiritual uses of literate practices; or pursuing a project developed in consultation with me.

As usual, the pedagogical practicum for new Graduate Teaching Assistants will also be offered this Fall:

ENG 6001 (Graduate Teaching Practicum)
The Pedagogical Toolbox
Wednesdays, 3:00-6:00 PM
Professor Jeff Pruchnic

The pedagogical practicum is designed to build skills in teaching English Studies at a university level generally and teaching Wayne State’s English 1020 course specifically. By reading pedagogical scholarship, familiarizing themselves with the challenges and controversies of the profession, and composing lesson plans and teaching strategies throughout the semester, students will engage both the theoretical and practical vectors of teaching first-year composition. Most classes will be devoted to discussion of class readings and of lesson plans for Eng 1020. There is no research paper required for the course; graded deliverables include weekly responses to readings and other prompts, lesson plan designs and teaching demonstrations, assignments involving the use of technological resources for teaching, and the drafting of a teaching portfolio for use as a job application resource.

The next meeting of the Rhetoric Reading Group will take place at 6:30 PM, June 12. The location will be Kim Lacey’s residence (510 Montrose Ave., Apartment 7, in Royal Oak). Our text will be Susan Wells’ Sweet Reason: Rhetoric and the Discourses of Modernity (U of Chicago P, 1996). If weather permits we will barbeque at a nearby park.

Dr. Ranney has won a 2008-2009 Josephine Nevins Keal Faculty Fellowship for tenured faculty for her project The Spirit of Rhetoric.

Professor Marback has been chosen as a recipient of a 2008-2009 Distinguished Faculty Fellowship Award.

The April, 2008 issue of The Journal of Aging Studies, edited by Professor Ray in memory of British cultural theorist Mike Hepworth, features critics from the United States and Great Britain writing what Margaret Gullette calls “critical age autobiography,” along with institutional histories of their own work in age studies.

The Writing Center will present the last technology workshop of the year - “Movie Making” - at 2 PM, Tuesday, April 22, in State Hall 337. The workshop will cover creating movies as part of composition, literature, and technical writing courses. “Movie Making” can be one of the most engaging projects students work on during a term. Software already exists on all of our classroom computers (Windows Movie Maker and iMovie) to allow easy editing of video taken on digital still cameras, camcorder, or even cell phones. Presenters will provide instruction in using Movie Maker, equipment instruction, and examples of student projects taken from classes here at WSU.

As part of the DeRoy Lecture Series, Dr. Beth Coleman will give a talke entitled “Hello Avatar!: Virtual Communities and Networked Subjects” on Friday, April 18, at noon, in the English Department Seminar Room (10302, 5057 Woodward). Dr. Coleman is a professor in Writing and Humanistic Studies and Comparative Media Studies at MIT. Her research interests include virtual world design and use, networked subjectivity, global media emergence and practice in China, India and Africa, contemporary art and technology, and critical history of race and technology. For excerpts from her forthcoming book, Hello Avatar: A Virtual World Primer and other publications, see her website. She blogs on emergent media practices at projectgoodluck.com. This event is co-sponsored by the Digital Humanities Working Group.

The Rhetoric and Composition Program and The Writing Center will present a workshop on grading on Monday, 4/14, at 1:00 in the English Department Lounge. This informal discussion is a follow-up to the January Grading Workshop.