Tag: Rhetoric

Alumni Perspectives: 2023 CCCC Convention

The 2023 CCCC Convention, themed “Doing Hope in Desperate Times,” took place in Chicago from February 15-18. Attendees joined the conference from around the country – and world – among whom were several WRD students, alumni, and faculty! WRD alumni Maddy Crozier (BA 2018; MA 2020) and Krissy Wilson (MA 2018) both presented original research at this year’s conference.  Crozier is currently a third-year PhD student in Rhetoric, Writing, and Linguistics at The University of Tennessee Knoxville, where she teaches first-year composition courses.  Wilson is a Senior Learning Designer at Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies and an adjunct instructor at

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Student Perspectives: 2023 CCCC Convention

After several years of online and hybrid conventions, the Conference on College Composition and Communication hosted a primarily in-person convention this year in Chicago. Themed “Doing Hope in Desperate Times,” the 2023 CCCC Convention took place February 15-18. Many WRD students, alumni, and faculty attended, sharing their scholarship in various presentation formats. Here, MAWRD students Nan Denette and Maggie Rothrock offer insights on their convention experiences as first-time attendees and presenters. The Big Picture For both students, their first CCCC Convention yielded exciting ideas and new opportunities. Denette shared, “I was (pleasantly!) surprised how large the conference was, both in

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Community Engagement in WRD Courses

One of the WRD Department’s goals for students is to prepare them, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, to excel in the range of contexts in which they will go on to write. Practicing writing in a variety of contexts and genres, for a variety of audiences, is a key part of this preparation that is embedded into many WRD courses. Community-engaged WRD courses offer students the opportunity to deepen their learning by engaging with real-world audiences, learning more about their local communities, and producing meaningful writing with tangible impacts. Read on for perspectives from faculty in various roles

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Event 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

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Course Spotlight: WRD 511 Rhetorics of Displacement Update

During Spring Quarter 2021, Professor Monica Reyes taught WRD 511: Rhetorics of Displacement which was a hit with students and will be coming back for Winter Quarter 2022. We caught up with Reyes to talk about how this class differs from the last time she taught it.  Are you doing anything differently for this iteration of WRD 511: Rhetorics of Displacement? Yes! Students responded so positively to the course the first time I taught it in Spring [of] 2021, so the bones of the course are still the same. I still have units/themes centered around various rhetorics (like those in

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Job Sleuth: Grant & Proposal Writing

When students decide to pursue a career in professional writing, grant writing might not immediately come to mind. However, knowing how to write grants and proposals is an important work skill even if you have no intention of pursuing that industry. That’s why Professor Lisa Dush’s WRD 526 Grant and Proposal Writing class for graduate students is popular year after year. Students from other departments flock to it too–not just the WRD folks.  So we asked Professor Dush to tell us a bit more about her class and how the skills you learn in WRD 526 can help prepare you

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Event Preview: Ecological Rhetorics  in vivo/in situ: Precarity Infrastructure Across Borders with Dr. Jennifer Clary-Lemon

The WRD Writing & Rhetoric Across Borders Series is back in person! On Wednesday, October 5 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in McGowan South 105, gather together with Dr. Jennifer Clary-Lemon to learn about how built objects affect the things around them. If you have ever gotten into a serious debate about what is and is not considered rhetoric–this talk is for you! As always, the event is free to attend!  Dr. Clary-Lemon is an associate professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. She has a BA in Political Science from the University of Arizona, an MA in

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Six Books to Keep the Summer Interesting

Being that we are nearly at the end of the Spring Quarter, thinking about reading for fun might not be high on the priority list. But we are just a few short weeks away from summer break which opens up some time for reading what we want to read. Luckily we have some recommendations courtesy of the WRD graduate assistants as well as from experts on social media.  Don’t worry, these aren’t all high-level academic works. These recommendations will, however, keep your summer interesting and your mind curious.  For Fun: The Secret History – Recommended by GA Kristin Fleming Written

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