Dr. Frankie Condon visits DePaul October 22

For the Autumn Quarter’s Writing & Rhetoric Across Borders Speaker Series, WRD has invited Dr. Frankie Condon to speak on Tuesday, October 22. In her talk, Dr. Condon will discuss the racial imaginations present among writing teachers and tutors and assess how it influences the pedagogical values and systems at play in their environments.

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Kathy Yancey Recap

Introduction Kathy Blake Yancey joined the WRD Department as a part of its quarterly speaker series, Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders. Yancey is the Kellogg W. Hunt Professor of English and Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University. Her presentation, “Tracing College Writers’ Prior Knowledge: What Is It, and How Can it Help Us Teach Writing Better?” highlighted why and how teachers should draw on students’ various prior knowledges about writing.

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Elaine Richardson Recap

The WRD Department welcomed Dr. Elaine Richardson, Professor of Literacy Studies from The Ohio State University, as part of our ongoing quarterly speakers series, Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders. Dr. Richardson’s talk was co-sponsored by the Department of African and Black Diaspora Studies as well as the Department of Women and Gender Studies and the Black Cultural Center.

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Todd Ruecker Recap: Working With Multilingual Writers

Recently the WRD department welcomed speaker Todd Ruecker to discuss his research on working with multilingual writers in the composition classroom. Ruecker is an Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at New Mexico University and author of Transiciones: Pathways of Latinas and Latinos Writing in High School and College, an ethnography focusing on the writing practices of several Latino students as they transition from high school to college. Ruecker’s research focuses on the increasing diversity of the writing classroom and the role institutions and instructors play in making classrooms more engaging and successful environments for multilingual writers.

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Tracy Morse Recap

As part of our ongoing speaker series, the WRD Department welcomed Tracy Ann Morse on Friday, February 9th. Morse is the Director of Writing Foundations and an Associate Professor of rhetoric and composition in the Department of English at East Carolina University, and author of Signs and Wonders: Religious Rhetoric and the Preservation of Sign Language. Morse’s talk, “He will Reach His Hand in Mine: Religious Rhetoric and the Preservation of Sign Language,” discussed research from her book on the connection between religious rhetoric and the history of oppression against deaf Americans. Morse shared examples of attempts at preserving American Sign Language (ASL)

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Tracy Morse visits DePaul February 9

The Writing Rhetoric and Discourse Department welcomes Tracy Ann Morse. As part of our ongoing speaker series, Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders, the WRD department will be welcoming visiting speaker Tracy Ann Morse, Director of Writing Foundations and associate professor of rhetoric and composition in the Department of English at East Carolina University. Her talk will cover a historical overview of how religious rhetoric empowered deaf Americans to protect and preserve their sign language culture against the dominant hearing community.

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Candice Rai speaking at DePaul WRD

Candice Rai Recap

As part of the Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders speaker series, the WRD Department hosted Dr. Candice Rai on Friday, October 27. Rai is an associate professor and the director of the Expository Writing Program at the University of Washington. As well as the author of the book Democracy’s Lot: Rhetoric, Publics, and the Places of Invention. Rai’s talk, titled “On Hope, Invention, and Politics in the Ruins of Democracy,” drew on the research she did for Democracy’s Lot—an ethnographic study exploring the complex negotiations of everyday democracies here in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.

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Recap: Sara Wachter-Boettcher’s Talk on Design for Real Life

DePaul’s Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse hosted a talk on Thursday, May 11th featuring content strategy consultant and coauthor of the book Design for Real Life, Sara Wachter-Boettcher. In her talk, she recounted the many ways our designs can be offputting to users, and how designs can leave some users feeling left out. She also delivered solutions on what we can do to mend and prevent setbacks like this. Many users believe that the term “algorithm” evokes a sort of frigid and unbiased truth that only computers could posses. An algorithm is thought to be born with no natural flaws, unlike

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