Students Present Recent Research in Rhetoric and New Media

Spread the WoRD, the fifth annual WRD student conference, was a huge success in part to a large number of presenters, their friends and family, and the support of WRD faculty and staff. This year’s conference was attended by approximately 80 people, double the number of guests who attended in 2012. Special thanks to graduate assistants and conference organizers: Amy Hubbard, Tasha Sookochoff, Hilary Conlisk, and Megan McCarthy.

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First-Year Writing Students Published in New York Times

It’s not every day a student gets to see their work printed in the New York Times, but Michael Moore’s WRD 104 students are at it again. During spring quarter Emily Daniel and Marisa Coulter both had their responses published in the Letter to the Editor section of the Times. Moore’s 104 students write letters according to the Times guidelines as part of their coursework.

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Alumni Spotlight: Chad Seader

Recent graduate, Chad Seader, MAWRD 2013, shared with us how he customized the MAWRD program to help him achieve his academic goals and what he’ll be doing as a post-graduate. Q: What was your academic and professional background prior to entering WRD? Directly before entering MAWRD, I had completed my BA in Philosophy for Northeastern Illinois University, but in my last year at NEIU I decided to switch over to rhetoric and composition for my graduate education. 

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Fest with Us

Tuesday of Finals Week at 5:00 pm. What will you be doing? Studying? (Very responsible.) Sleeping? (We’re sure you need it.) Packing? (Wait, don’t go yet.) Or…. Festing? (Yes, choose this one!) WRD Fest June 11, 2013 5 – 7 pm McGaw Lobby Come party with us right here in McGaw! Enjoy delicious appetizers and beverages. Eat some cake. Mingle, hobnob, and socialize. We’ll be giving out awards and celebrating our graduating students. If haven’t already, click here to RSVP. See you there!

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Skolnik to Speak on Spirituality and Neuroscience in Jerusalem

Dr. Christine M. Skolnik of the Department of Writing, Rhetoric & Discourse at DePaul University has been invited to speak on a panel about spirituality and neuroscience at the Neuroplasticity and Cognitive Modifiability conference in Jerusalem, June 2-5, 2013, sponsored by the Feuerstein Institute. Dr. Skolnik will speak on a panel titled “Materialism v. Spiritualism on Brain Plasticity” with experts on spirituality and neuroscience from Israel.

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Bernard-Donals Speaks About Jewish Rhetoric

The latest installment of the Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders speaker series brought Dr. Michael Bernard-Donals, professor of English and Jewish Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison, to DePaul on April 29, 2013. He spoke to WRD faculty and students on how to carve out a space for Jewish rhetoric by emphasizing the deterritorialized Jewish stance. He explained how this perspective does not seek to speak “for” or “about” others, but instead attempts to create the prospect of dialogue and understanding by speaking from the position of the exile.

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WRD Students Perform High Stakes Research

Performing research in a WRD course takes on a whole new layer of meaning when there are real stakes in the outcome of the research. Students in WRD 530: Workplace Ethnography, taught by Assistant Professor Sarah Read during AQ12, had the opportunity to do qualitative research for stakeholders at Josephinum Academy, a Catholic girl’s high school in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. Read’s course partnered with Josephinum with the assistance of Jean Vipond at DePaul’s Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning.

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WRD Alumnus Wins National Education Reporting Award

Ray Salazar’s education blog, The White Rhino: A Chicago Latino English Teacher, tied for second place in the Best Blog category of the Education Writers Association (EWA) contest: the 2012 National Awards for Education Reporting. A judge from the contest had this to say about White Rhino: “White Rhino offers an interesting point of view on Latino issues at a moment of their emergence as a political and cultural force. He also has an endearing approach of a crusader, asking hard questions of the union chief and criticizing the mayor.”

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