October 20 marked another National Day of Writing. The Stanford Hume Center of Writing and Speaking calls it “a day to recognize and celebrate writing in all its forms.” On October 21, The WRD department teamed up with The Writing Center to celebrate. Writing Center tutors were set up in Arts and Letters Hall on DePaul’s Lincoln Park Campus. Students, faculty, and staff were all welcome to engage with fun prompts, yummy treats, and good conversation. Four prompts were offered for those willing to participate: Check out some of the amazing responses we got! Thank you to all that came out
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Event Preview: MAWRD 2024 Independent Studies, Portfolios, and Final Presentations
This Thursday, June 6 @ 2:00–4:00pm (Central) in SAC 301 and on Zoom, join the WRD department for presentations by MAWRD students Nan Denette, Andrea Hamler, Lara Diaz, and Christian Woodley. Nan, Andrea, and Christian will be presenting their research from their independent studies completed during Spring Quarter 2024. Nan and Lara will share their experiences in the MAWRD program in their final exit requirement presentation. Additionally, several students completed Professional Portfolios highlighting their work in MAWRD; here, Bee Browning shares their perspective on the portfolio process as well. Get a Sneak Peek of the Presentations We checked in with
Continue readingEvent Recap: Dr. Antonio Byrd’s AI Presentation
On Wednesday, April 17th the WRD Department greeted Dr. Antonio Byrd, an Assistant Professor of English from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, to present “Practicing Linguistic Justice with Large Language Models.” In the hour and a half long presentation, Dr. Byrd discussed the need for a critical AI literacy that supports students who speak non-standard forms of English. With over 20 attendees in person at Arts & Letters Hall and many more attending via Zoom, the event was a success that garnered interest in the department from students, staff, and faculty alike. In the interactive presentation, Dr. Byrd began by
Continue readingEvent Recap: WRD Internship Information Session, Winter 2024
On February 14, the WRD Department’s Student Community Committee hosted an internship information session to help students navigate finding, funding, and making the most of internship experiences. Current undergraduate student Miranda Kincer, MAWRD alumna Natalie Toth, and Professor Lisa Dush shared about their own experiences being, hiring, and advising interns (respectively). Each offered advice for current WRD students looking to incorporate internship experience in their academic journeys. The Panelists Miranda Kincer, BA ‘24, is a Research Assistant Intern at the Chicago History Museum, where she is working with a curatorial team to write, format, and present a special exhibit on
Continue readingEvent Recap: National Day on Writing 2023
Each year, October 20 marks National Day on Writing. This year, WRD teamed up with the Writing Center to celebrate, while starting conversations on campus about the writing we each do in our everyday lives. This celebration was established by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) “to draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing Americans engage in and to help make writers from all walks of life aware of their craft.” On October 19, WRD students and faculty as well as Writing Center staff hosted a three-hour tabling event in Arts and Letters Hall on DePaul’s Lincoln Park
Continue readingEvent Recap: Pilsen Mural Rhetorical Tour
In May, the Equity Committee and Student Community Committee hosted a walking tour through Pilsen to explore the history and visual rhetoric of the neighborhood’s vibrant murals. The walk was led by DePaul History professor Dr. Juan Mora-Torres, whose research and teaching interests include Latin American history with an emphasis on the history of the border. Professor Mora-Torres is an editor for the non-profit bilingual online monthly magazine “El BeiSmAn” based out of Pilsen as well, and he sits on the committee of DePaul’s Center for Latino Research/Latin American and Latino Studies Program. The tour began outside of the Lozano
Continue readingEvent Recap: WRD Professionalization Panel
Last quarter, WRD”s Student Community Committee hosted a Professionalization Panel for students to hear from WRD graduates who work as professional writers about their lives post-graduation. As Dr. Michael Gallaway, who facilitated the panel shared, “The goal is to talk about what life is like after you leave DePaul and after you have received your degree from the WRD Department, including what kind of things you might be doing and some of the intricacies of professional writing jobs.” WRD undergraduate and graduate students joined the panel on Zoom, which included three speakers: one DePaul Career Center staff member and two
Continue readingEvent Recap: The Colorado Environmental Justice Digital Storytelling Project with Dr. Phaedra Pezzullo
In the latest installment of the Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders Speaker Series on April 12, the WRD Department welcomed Dr. Phaedra C. Pezzullo, scholar-activist, University of Colorado-Boulder professor, and Co-Director for the Center for Creative Climate Communication and Behavior Change and Just Transition Collaborative. Dr. Pezzullo’s presentation, “Beyond Punchlines, Deficit, and Fatigue: Piloting the Colorado Environmental Justice Digital Storytelling Project,” outlined her work sharing the stories of communities impacted by environmental harm across Colorado, demonstrating storytelling’s power to spark change. Framing the Presentation: Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Opening with a land acknowledgement, Dr. Pezzullo shared her intention to
Continue readingEvent Recap: PLACE-based Writing, Research, and Teaching with Kenneth Walker and Carolina Hinojosa
On January 25, the WRD Speaker Series Committee welcomed Dr. Kenneth Walker and Carolina Hinojosa, from the University of Texas, San Antonio, for another installment of the Writing & Rhetoric Across Borders speaker series. In the virtual event, Walker and Hinojosa presented a Pedagogical Conversation on Environmental Rhetorics titled “Place, Liberation, Advocacy, Community, Environment: (PLACE)-based writing, research, and teaching in transdisciplinary rhetorical studies.” Read on for highlights of the insightful presentation and discussion. To give context to PLACE-based pedagogy, Walker and Hinojosa explored community engaged projects across San Antonio. Three key aspects informed the presentation’s rhetorical lens: place-keeping, decolonization, and
Continue readingEvent Recap: Ecological Rhetorics in vivo/in situ: Precarity Infrastructure Across Borders with Dr. Jennifer Clary-Lemon
On Wednesday, October 5, the DePaul WRD community was joined by WRD alumna Dr. Jennifer Clary-Lemon, who restarted the in-person Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders Speaker Series! Her presentation, “Ecological Rhetorics in vivo/in situ: Precarity Infrastructure Across Borders.” examined both “human and nonhuman elements of the rhetorical situation . . . in vivo/in situ,” that is, “in living bodies and on site.” Clary-Lemon, rhetorician and associate professor at the University of Waterloo, shared her examination of “precarity infrastructure”—measures that act as mitigation for human harms against the environment, often without success. In her presentation, Clary-Lemon discussed her field research on
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