Future Course Offerings
ENG 5317 Literacy Studies, Fall 2013
This class pushes students to develop a view of literacy, not as a neutral skill, but embedded within culture and as depending for it’s meaning and practice upon social institutions and conditions. Students examine and construct connections among theory, research, and practice. This class primarily focuses on the way literacy exists in diverse communities. A major part of this class is to grapple with the political issues of literacy, especially as they relate to diversity.
When: Tuesdays, 6:30-9:20
Instructor: Dr. Octavio Pimentel
ENG 5327 Research Methods, Fall 2013
A core requirement in the MA Rhetoric and Composition program, this course will introduce you to the variety of research approaches (or methodologies) and methods common to our field over the last ten years or so. Think about this course, then, as a guided “tour” through the various approaches to research, with stops along the way designed to acquaint and give you practice with strategies and methods related to these approaches. We’ll examine the following approaches to research: historical/archival; qualitative—case studies, ethnographies; quantitative and quantitative descriptive; mixed-methods; and digital, feminist, teacher, and critical/activist, each of which may be approached from a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods approach. We’ll also discuss and experiment with research methods that compliment these approaches: observation, interview, artifact and text analysis, surveys, focus groups.
Throughout the course we will focus on critically evaluating existing research, developing workable research questions of our own, and choosing the best methods to address the questions we ask. The course will culminate in a research proposal that might be used as the basis for a thesis, research grant request, publishable article, etc.
When: Wednesdays, 3:30-6:20
Instructor: Dr. Rebecca Jackson
ENG 5383 Studies in Rhetoric, Topic: The (Supposedly) Rhetorical Mind: Rhetoric and Psychology, Fall 2013
What rhetoricians really need to do is invite a psychologist to lunch. At least, so it was suggested at the close of a recent conference panel on generative theories of rhetoric and writing. In this course we will pursue that invitation in investigating interdisciplinary relationships in psychology and rhetorical theory. As rhetoric is understood to be the art and effective use of discourse, and psychology the study of the mind, it makes sense that the two disciplines would inform one another and develop along parallel paths. Our course of study will begin at least as early as the Scottish Enlightenment with its reliance upon faculty psychology in developing rhetorical theory, and we will end with some of the latest developments in neurorhetorics, which, as Jordynn Jack and L. Gregory Appelbaum argue, should include both the rhetoric of neuroscience and the neuroscience of rhetoric. This double vision will characterize our approach throughout the term as we investigate how psychology informs rhetoric as well as how rhetorical critiques might apply to psychological constructions of human thought and interactions. Along the way we will consider topics such as identity, affect and emotions, cognitive psychology, Rogerian rhetorics, therapy and persuasion, moral psychology, psychoanalysis, and empathy. We will explore the interdisciplinary nature and application of rhetoric, arriving, in the end, at a greater appreciation for how we speak and write, how we think and feel, and the interrelations among those as areas of academic inquiry in rhetoric and composition.
When: Mondays, 6:30-9:20
Instructor: Dr. Eric Leake
ENG 5383 History of Rhetorical Theory, Fall 2013
This course examines the development and evolution of rhetorical theory from the classical era to the twentieth century. The course provides a broad view of rhetorical theory, an historical perspective that encompasses how rhetoric has been defined and practiced, how its definitions and practices have been challenged and changed, and how it affects the fields of rhetoric and composition and technical communication. Primarily we will read canonical texts but you are invited to bring in counter or additional perspectives each week. Rhetoric resides at the core of our understanding of writing and writing pedagogy; civic, professional, and institutional discourse; power, politics, participation, and voice. Rhetoric can even constitute, rather than merely reflect, reality. Studying rhetorical history, we come to understand the impact this history has on contemporary notions of writing, writing instruction, language, literacy, textual production, agency, power, and culture.
When: Thursdays, 6:30-9:20
Instructor: Dr. Deborah Balzhiser
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