2010.  Wow.

I can’t think of a decade that went by faster than this past one.  I’ve spent 7 1/2 years of the ’00′s in Pennsylvania.  That means that I have lived here longer than DC (3years), Oxford, OH (4 years), and almost as long as I lived in Syracuse (8 years).  Pretty wild.  And…what’s really got me thinking…of my 7 1/2 years at Kutztown University, I’ve been the coordinator of composition for all but two of those years.  That’s right…I’m one of those people who took on the reigns of writing program administration well before I was tenured.  I’ve been a tenured coordinator of composition for only a year and half.   Believe me, I was told all during grad school that taking on WPA duties before tenure was a bad idea.  Practitioners in our field also recommend strongly against it.  But, at the time it didn’t feel like there was too much choice if I was going to be able to help build our composition program–one of the key reasons I came to KU.

At the end of my second year, ten faculty in our department retired; one tenure-track faculty member got married and joined her husband on the West Coast; and, our then Chair decided to tell us during finals week that he had accepted a new job and would not be with us the following fall.  He even passed around pictures of his new house in Michigan.  I remember that moment as both daunting and exciting.  Daunting in that our faculty was gutted by almost a third and we had to scramble to elect and new chair and figure out how to staff all of our courses by the fall semester.  Exciting because many of those people who were retiring were the very faculty members who seemed committed to internal factionalism and personal conflict.  In one fell swoop, that dysfunctional departmental dynamic would be gone for the most part.  We had the opportunity to build a new, collaborative department.

Our coordinator of composition at the time decided to run for department chair.  She and I had talked about me taking over the coordinator position, but this would mean I would do so a year ahead of time.  I didn’t see any real alternatives, no matter how conflicted I was about my premature entry into the world of writing program administration. I can’t pretend that my first couple of years at the coordinator were easy.  It was a huge adjustment that was marked by my own, at times, ambivalent relationship to administrative work.  But, in looking back on these 5 1/2 years, I think I can say that I’ve been able to do some pretty good things here.

I think my biggest contribution has been to privilege growing the program.  This has meant: 1) prioritizing building a core faculty in composition and rhetoric; 2) cultivate intellectual spaces to support that core faculty and all faculty teaching composition; and 3) build an undergraduate (and eventually graduate) concentration in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies (the name came later, actually). Since I took over in 2004, we’ve hired three new faculty in composition and rhetoric and we are in the middle of hiring our fourth.  We’ve also converted a temporary faculty member–who is completing her PhD in composition and rhetoric–to a tenure-track position.  So, by fall 2010 we will have increased the number of comp/rhet faculty from three to eight.  Not bad.

In terms of creating an intellectual space, I started a reading group in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies that meets monthly to discuss current scholarship in the field.  Thanks to the great work of Amy Lynch-Biniek and the Composition Conference Committee, we’ve expanded our annual undergraduate composition conference to include students taking composition and rhetoric courses at all levels.  We’ve also brought in keynote speakers such at Keith Gilyard, Rosa Eberly, and Steve Parks–and this spring Susan Wells will be joining us.

We have also revised and added several new courses to the department’s offerings.  In my first year as coordinator, we added ENG 430 “Rhetorical Traditions/Contemporary Renditions.”  Last year, we added my course ENG 316 “Rhetoric, Democracy, Advocacy.”  And this past semester, we added ENG 260 “Issues in Composition and Rhetoric” (Lynch-Biniek) and ENG 274 “Women, Writing, and Rhetoric” (Cullum).  Linda Cullum also worked with Lisa Weckerle from Speech/Communications to update ENG/SPE 335 “Rhetoric of Literature.”  Thanks in large part to our Chair (and fellow compositionist) Janice Chernekoff, ENU 405 “Teaching of Writing” runs every semester and is a required course for all Secondary Education/English majors.  All of these new courses are part of our proposed concentration in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies, which I expect to have cleared all the curricular hurdles by the end of spring 2010 semester.  It’s really been quite an amazing run so far.

Like anything else, I could also list the many things I wish I had done, done better, or didn’t do.  But, I’m pretty good at beating myself up about those things on a daily basis.  In the spirit of the New Year, I thought I’d cut myself a little slack, look back at some accomplishments, and remind myself that the work is worth it.  Now I can actually begin planning for the next step!

Hmmmmm….where can we go from here?

As many of you know, I am scheduled to teach my new course, “Rhetoric, Democracy, Advocacy,” in the upcoming (spring ’10) semester.  This will the be first time that the course is offered.  Unfortunately, the course was scheduled in conflict with the only other rhetoric course in our department…as a result, several students who would have liked to take both, cannot.  Worse yet, this means that my course has a low enrollment and, given the “budget crisis,” my be cancelled unless a few more students add the class. I posted quite a bit about the class a while back, but I thought I would post again in case there are any KU students out there interested in activist rhetorics and democracy.

Course Description

ENG 316: Rhetoric, Democracy, Advocacy The connection between rhetoric and democracy is an old one dating back to the origins of both concepts in Western traditions. Simply put rhetoric—the skilled use of argument and persuasive discourse—and democracy were seen as ways to replace violence as the primary means of governing and resolving conflict. This course argues that the intimate connections between rhetoric and democracy are critical to retain and reclaim for the health of democratic society and culture. American democracy has been defined not only by its institutions and Constitutional frameworks, but also by vibrant traditions of citizenship advocacy that have relentlessly stretched the boundaries of democratic freedoms, identities, and protections. A healthy democracy requires citizen advocates who are skilled in the analysis of public discourse and the rhetoric of advocacy. This course will be a sustained study of the theory and practice of advocacy rhetoric, primarily in the American context. In addition, this course will raise practical questions about what citizenship advocacy means in a context of increasing globalization and new media. 3 s.h. 3 c.h.

Course Rationale

Despite the historic connection between the rise of democracy and the rise of rhetoric in Western traditions, rarely do we study rhetoric as a “citizen discipline.” That is, while it is common to find courses training students in the “expert rhetorics” of corporations (public relations) and political campaigns, there is a general lack of courses that focus on the role of citizen advocacy as integral to the health of democratic cultures. As one of the missions of higher education is to train critical citizens capable of meeting the challenges and responsibilities of an ever changing world, this course seeks to make such training an explicit part of the English department’s curriculum.

Books for the Class

• Emergent Publics: An Essay on Social Movements and Democracy (Semaphore Series)
• The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control
• Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists
• Rhetorical Democracy: Discursive Practices of Civic Engagement
• Rules for Radicals
• Activist Rhetorics and American Higher Education, 1885-1937

So, there ya have it!  Come one, come all!

It’s been no secret that this has been one of my most chaotic and overwhelming semesters at Kutztown.  I’ve had to apologize to virtually everyone at work (and am still doing so) for lagging behind, missing deadlines, losing things, not following through on projects, missing meetings…do I need to continue?

It seems that becoming a father has taken a serious toll on my worklife this semester.  The positive thing is that my son is awesome…I love every minute I spend with him…even when he’s having a bad night or when he’s pooping like you’ve never seen pooping before.  He’s an absolute joy. 

What I didn’t fully appreciate was 1) the amount of time I USED TO work at home; 2) that all of that home-work-time would disappear; and, 3) there were not going to be enough hours in the day to do all the work I used to do in the WAY I used to do it.  It’s taken me a good 12 weeks to refigure my work schedule.  In academic work, however, that basically means that I’ve “lost” my semester.   

Don’t get me wrong…I have been able to do a lot.  But “a lot” for me is significantly less than I usually do, even while it’s more than many others may accomplish.  I’ve decided to simply try and slog through the remaining 13 days and focus on recharging after the semester is over.  

Basically. these remaining 13 days are going to suck basically.  So, I’ve decided to do what I can to slog peacefully…or at least attempt to do so.   I’ve loaded my “end of the semester” soundtrack with loungey, ambient, and downtempo stuff to keep my pulse steady and mind open.  At least in theory. 

Here’s what I’ll be listening to (at least for now):

Om Lounge 7
OM Lounge, Vol 3
A Journey into Ambient Groove: Phase 2
Untouchable Outcaste Beats V.1
Asian Travels, Vol. 1: A Six Degrees Collection
Buddha Bar Presents Amnesty International
Battlestar Galactica: Season One
Battlestar Galactica: Season Two
State of Bengal: Visual Audio

Hey all…welcome to another experiment in podcasting. This podcast comes to you from the 5th Annual Kutztown University Composition Conference for Student Writers. Three brave souls, Tim Crane, Katrina Albert, and Renee Franklin agreed to have their panel recorded for this little experiment. (btw…check out our vlogging from KUCC posts on the KU Comp/Rhet blog).

As you may know, I am now the proud owner of a “Snowball” by Blue Microphones. I went for this mic because it every review I read/watched pointed to this USB mic as THE mic to have for professional quality podcasting and digital recording. The big bonus with the Snowball is that is has the capability of 360 degrees recording…so, you can plop it down in the middle of a table, plug it into your laptop, and you’re good to go. And that’s what we did. I’ve gotta say, I’m quite pleased with the quality.

A Little Context:

This panel grew out of my ENG 230 Advanced Composition class this spring.  The first text for the class is Rhetoric: A User’s Guide by John D. Ramage.  Let me just say that the text is not a “user’s guide” in the “how-to” genre.  More of a “user of rhetoric” introducing the uninitiated to rhetoric through the lens of rhetoric.  Students learn in the first couple of pages that Ramage will not tell them what rhetoric “is,” but he will tell them quite abit about what it is like in terms of other things.  He suggests that rhetoric is a Western version of Tao or Dine.  In short, it’s a non-traditional introduction to rhetoric. 

To complicate things that are already complicated, the paper I assign focusing on Ramage is not a traditional paper.  It asks students to write a travel narrative recounting their journey through “Ramageland” (you can check out the paper assignment here).  The papers are generally very creative and quite engaging.  The three papers you will hear here are three such creative and engaging responses to my first assignment.  

I’d love to hear your responses to this podcast…in terms of the quality of the sound, thoughts on the papers, questions about the assignment, ideas about the conference, or…well…you tell me.  I’ll get out of the way now…you can click on the radio (top) or the play button below to hear the podcast.

 Journeys with Ramage panel at 2009 KU Composition Conference [47:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (89)

Hey all, I just got this email from the National Coalition for Adjunct and Contingent Faculty:

On April 30th, contingent faculty from all over the country will be teaching their classes outside and holding rallies and press conferences to educate the public and their students about the current working conditions at American universities and colleges. One reason why these faculty members will be holding their classes outside is to draw attention to the fact that most of the people teaching in higher education do not have tenure and have limited academic freedom and job security.  By bringing their classes outdoors, contingent faculty will not only make their labor more visible, but they will also gain a stronger sense of shared working conditions.

Another important motivation for this event is the threat that higher ed administrators will use the current economic downturn to justify the letting go of many non-tenured faculty, and once these teachers are released, we will witness a cutting of courses and an expansion of class size coupled with an increase in tuition and fees.  In other words, parents and students will be paying more and getting less.

While it is clear that some cost cutting will have to be implemented, we have to question why the loss of funds will be taken out on the most vulnerable faculty members and students. Why can’t universities fire administrators or freeze their salaries? Why can’t the wealthy institutions borrow from their billion dollar endowments to weather the storm?

If faculty, students, and staff come out and make their presence known, they may be able to stop the easy administrative solution of just not rehiring the teachers who work outside of the tenure system.  By claiming our status as the new majority in higher education, we can protect the quality of education in American universities and colleges.   Please come out and support faculty, students, and higher education on April 30th.

For more info and a flyer, go to: http://thenewfacultymajority.blogspot.com/

I’m sitting here in Lehigh Valley airport in Allentown waiting to board the first leg of my trip to San Francisco.  I was reminded why I chose to fly out of LV and not Philly: no waiting in line, free WiFi, and a calm waiting area.  This is the way I want to start off my day–especially if I have to be in a plane for this long. 

I decided to go through my carry-ons just to see what I actually brought.  Here’s the main inventory:

• camera
• lots of pens
• notebooks
• union contract
• conference schedule
• laptop (obviously)
• web cam
• headset
• books
  • Democracies to Come  (shameless, I know)
  • Rules for Radicals, by Saul Alinski
  • Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff
  • Academic Collective Bargaining , ed. Ernst Benjamin and Michael Mauer
  • Rhetoric: A User’s Guide, by John Ramage
  • Emergent Publics, by Ian Angus
  • Communists Like Us, by Toni Negri and Felix Guattari
  • Writing Permitted in Designated Areas Only, by Linda Brodkey
• June 2008 issue of CCC

Yes, that’s actually what’s in my bags.

Well, CCCCs here I come…rrr…actually not until tomorrow morning.  I’ve still got to finish packing, but it’s about time to call it a night.  

I’m quite excited about our panel and the labor caucus meeting for sure.  I’m also going to be playing around with blogging and podcasting from the CCCCs.  Blogging for sure.  Podcasting if I can get things up and running without too much hassle.  So, stay tuned.  Hopefully I’ll be able to cajole Amy, Mysti, Moe, Seth, Rachel, and others to post a little to our comp/rhet blog as well.  

In the meantime, here’s what I’m looking forward to:

NWS San Francisco Bay Area/Monterey, CA Zone Forecast: San Francisco County

Tonight…Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 30s to lower 40s. West winds 5 to 15 mph.  Wednesday…Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 50s to lower 60s. West winds 5 to 10 mph. Wednesday Night…Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 30s to mid 40s. West winds 5 to 15 mph. Thursday…Partly cloudy. Highs near 60. West winds 5 to 10 mph. Thursday Night…Mostly clear. Lows in the 40s. West winds 5 to 15 mph. Friday…Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 50s to mid 60s. Friday Night…Mostly clear. Lows in the 30s to upper 40s.

Two things always happen at this time of year. First, one week of classes left in the spring semester, I begin thinking about my classes in the fall. Second, it’s at least 90 degrees in my office. So, here I sit…planning my graduate class for the fall and, well, sweating.

This fall I am teaching ENG 502 Introduction to English Studies: Traditions, Boundaries, and Change. This will be the first time the course has been taught. My colleague Jennifer Bottinelli and I designed it to be one of the two required courses for our redesigned MA (the other being literary criticism). I’m very excited about teaching this course and reading/rereading the texts. It’s the kind of class that I’ve always wanted to teach…and the fact that it will be our graduate students’ introduction to the degree puts a big smile on my face.

The official syllabus for the class has an extensive bibliography (way too much to actually read in a semester)…I’m beginning to narrow in on the texts I’ll be using…at least a draft of a required book list. Here’s what I’m thinking:

• Berlin, James. Rhetoric, Poetics, and Cultures: Refiguring College English Studies. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2003.
• Downing, David, Claude Mark Hurlbert, and Paula Mathieu, eds. Beyond English Inc.: Curricular Reform in a Global Economy. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2002.
• Graff, Gerald. Professing Literature: An Institutional History. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1987.
• McComiskey, Bruce, ed. English Studies: An Introduction to the Discipline(s). Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2006.
• Scholes, Robert. The Rise and Fall of English. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1998.
• Yagelski, Robert and Scott Leonard, eds. The Relevance of English: Teaching that Matters in Students’ Lives. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2002.

That’s what I am thinking right now at least. I like pairing Graff and Scholes, especially since Scholes begins his text with a reference to the importance of Graff’s book:

The rise of English in American colleges is now a familiar part of the story, thanks especially to such books as Richard Ohmann’s English in America and Gerald Graff’s Professing Literature. My version of this story will be similar to theirs, but with some different emphases that enable me to propose another ending for this tale that is still in progress. (Scholes 2-3)

And I like this pairing because 1) it enacts the kind of “conversation” approach to English Studies that the course is designed to foreground; and, 2) it connects this required course with an established discussion in the field of English Studies. That is, the fact that Scholes is taking the study of the institutional and curricular history of English as a given, helps make a case for why we are requiring our students to take ENG 502.

I am trying to be cautious not to overload the reading list…especially since this course has several goals in addition to looking the construction of “English Studies.” In any event, just (re)reading some of these texts is helping remind me of what drew me to English and my field, rhet/comp to begin with. That’s a good feeling.

For now, I am going to call it a day and head home (and change out of these sweaty clothes…yuk!). Current (outside) temperature, 75. Partly cloudy. Feels like summer.

This is what happens to me when I get some down-time from the craziness of the semester. Yes, it’s recess and here I am geeking out on comp/rhet. From my perspective there’s a difference between just immersing oneself in reading, writing, and thinking about building programs and geeking out on the field. The latter includes decidedly non-academic identity building–a “brand experience” to conjure up Naomi Klein and/or Kevin Roberts (depending on your political persuasion).

And, well, there’s swag–ok, well, not exactly swag but it’s such a great word.

A few months ago I was messing around with cafepress.com to do some mock-ups of some APSCUF-KU designs I was working on. We were considering printing t-shirts and bumper stickers for PR and fundraising. I wanted to show people more than the designs…I wanted people to see what the actual item would look like. Cafepress.com is perfect for this kind of task. Anyway, while I was doing that I came up with a couple of designs for the comp/rhet geek in me. One design stated: “i’ll take my gorgias over your socrates anyday.” Another one said: “rhetorical question: you talkin’ to me?” You get the picture.

Ever since then I’ve been playing around with different ideas. Today I geeked out and (re)built my cafepress store: Comp/Rhet Spot. And, yes, you can actually buy the items in the shop. And, for the record, I will not get rich on this project. All proceeds from Comp/Rhet Spot will go to help fund student scholarships through our faculty union APSCUF-KU. I don’t expect Comp/Rhet Spot will generate huge contributions to the scholarship fund, but it was the only way I could justify actually selling this stuff (if comrade Stu is out there, I am sure his anti-capitalist meter is red-lining) .

So, I think I’ll add a page to Cooking with Dionysus as well…so you can always find your favorite site for comp/rhet swag.

I can’t put my finger on it, but it seems like it’s time to build.  Maybe it’s because I’m just worn out.  But I don’t think that’s it. All I know is that I continually find myself looking at other Comp/Rhet program and imagining the possibilities at Kutztown.  It is just coincidence that I stumble across an issue of Composition Studies from last spring dedicated to the emerging trend toward undergraduate majors in writing, writing studies, cultural rhetoric, and the like?  Is it happenstance that I’m reading Rebecca Moore Howard’s article in said journal and hear echoes of my own arguments? Signs.  Swing away, Merill.

As I’m reading about different programs I’m sketching visual representations of curricula.  Overlapping egg shapes circled by satellites of course clusters.  I need to see things visually if I have any hope of holding onto my thoughts.  A few months ago the possibility of building courses and curricula seemed like wishful thinking.  Or, at least, hardly worth the effort.  Something has shifted.

Best I can tell, it’s linked to the work I’ve done with the union these past several years.  I’m thinking that because of a comment I made to a colleague last week.  I said to her I wanted to bring what I learned over the past couple of years in the union back home.  I don’t know if it’s stranger that I called our little comp program “home” or that I made the link between my union work and my comp work.   Maybe it’s because our vote of no confidence discussions–which have occupied most of this semester–have begun to bear fruit.  Maybe in this little spring break pause has been enough for me to reflect a bit.

I mean I look back at how far we’ve come as a union over the past 4 years and I am amazed.   Most of our new leadership were untenured and/or temporary faculty when we were elected to our Executive Committee.  While some people warned us to “keep our heads down” until we got tenure, or reminded us that “things are not done that way at Kutztown,” we worked.  We worked for the kind of union we thought we should have.  We didn’t settle for “good enough” or “no other choice.”  I look back now and am pleasantly surprised to see the synergy between my writing and my union work.  I guess it’s time for that kind of work to come “home.”

I also said to that same colleague that my preferred approach to leading our program is to create spaces for discussion and conversation.  But now, I said, I think it’s time to begin to assert our program a little more.  Time to work for what we would like to see, not only what is “good enough” or safe.  I’m looking forward to that.