Tag: Rhetoric

Recap: Professor Krista Ratcliffe’s Talk on Rhetorical Listening

As students and scholars of rhetoric, we understand that others’ conceptions of what is good or true are influenced by their beliefs and values. But how can we apply this understanding? How can we use our rhetorical knowledge to more effectively traverse difficult conversations, like those happening on our campus and in our city during this contentious election season? In a talk sponsored by the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse, given on Friday, October 7, Professor Krista Ratcliffe of Purdue suggested rhetorical listening as a teachable tactic to help students—and everyone—learn how to listen to and participate in conversations

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Flyer for Ratcliffe event

Oct. 7: Krista Ratcliffe Part of DePaul’s Race & Free Speech Series

As part of the university’s Race & Free Speech Speaker Series and the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Discourse’s Writing and Rhetoric without Borders Speaker Series, Professor Krista Ratcliffe will visit DePaul on Oct. 7 to discuss topics in language and cross-cultural communication. The author of Rhetorical Listening:  Identification, Gender, and Whiteness, Professor Ratcliffe has suggested that an inattention in schooling to listening as a critical communicative practice frustrates our ability to collectively discuss complex social issues.  In the context of competing definitions of race in contemporary American culture (white supremacy, colorblindness, multiculturalism, and critical race theory), Ratcliffe will offer rhetorical listening

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Faculty Spotlight: Jason Schneider

Professor Jason Schneider is the newest tenure-track member of the WRD faculty. Having taught at DePaul as a Visiting Assistant Professor since 2012, he moved into his current position of Assistant Professor in the department during fall quarter. With an MA in applied linguistics and a PhD in rhetoric from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Schneider felt immediately at home in the WRD program. Today, Schneider wears many hats here at DePaul. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in teaching English as a Second Language and coordinates the graduate certificate program in TESOL. Over the summer, he oversaw the creation of WRD 111, a new course for

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Canavor Workshop Brings Together Professional Writing Faculty

This is a first-person account written by one of the MA in WRD graduate assistants, Allison Pelletier.  On March 4, DePaul faculty members who teach professional, business, and technical writing for WRD attended an on-campus workshop, hosted by WRD and led by Natalie Canavor, author of Business Writing Today: A Practical Guide. As a graduate student in WRD, I am both excited by and intimidated by the prospect of teaching at the college level. I am equally enthusiastic about any opportunities that will help prepare me to teach. So although I’ve had little experience with professional writing, I was glad

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MA in WRD Course Profile: Feminist Rhetorical Practices

A new course offered in the autumn quarter of 2014 gave MA in WRD students the opportunity to recover and reinscribe women rhetors in the rhetorical canon. According to Professor Nicole Khoury, the special topics course, WRD 511: Feminist Rhetorical Practices, provides a necessary balance to more traditional classes in the rhetorical tradition. Of the course’s benefit to MA in WRD students, Professor Khoury says, the focus on gender discourse within rhetorical studies is an important one, particularly because women’s voices are often silenced and their contributions are overlooked in conventional courses on rhetoric studies.

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WRD Professor Explores the Rhetoric of Green Spaces

On Tuesday, February 11, WRD Professor Christine Skolnik participated in “Ecological Imaginings,” an interdisciplinary panel discussion sponsored by DePaul’s Institute for Nature and Culture.  In her talk, “Imagined Ecofutures,” Skolnik explored the persuasive, imaginative rhetoric of visual urban plans and their implications for ecological restoration. Skolnik, who holds a PhD in English and Rhetoric from Penn State, recently completed an MA in Urban Sustainability and is a faculty advisor for the Institute for Nature and Culture.

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Discover the Chicago Women Rhetors Website

Celebrate Women’s History Month and explore Chicago Women Rhetors, a website created by students in WRD 361: Topics in Alternative Rhetoric – Chicago Women Rhetors, taught by Professor Julie Bokser. The site features the work of women whose words and actions have helped shape Chicago. As the site explains, “We created this site to contribute to women’s history in the rhetorical tradition.”  Each student researched a figure or organization, and then designed a memorial, using rhetorical skills and theory to thoughtfully shape the memory of this figure. 

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Q: What would your dream WRD or NMS course look like?

Did you know Rutgers University offers students a class on Queen Bey? “Politicizing Beyonce” explores the boundaries / non-boundaries between American race, gender and sexual politics, but if this class wouldn’t do it for you, what would your dream course look like? Do you want to learn more on corporate Digital Asset Management (DAM)? Or how about spending 10 weeks exploring rhetoric, sports, and gender? As always, leave your answers in the comments or on FB and we’ll post them next week.

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