Community

A vital component to the FSU Rhetoric and Composition program is our sense of community. We build a community by fostering an environment where monthly socials, bi-weekly working lunches, and daily interaction among professors and students are the norm.

 

Monthly Rhet/Comp Socials

Monthly socials, held at local restaurants, mix the casual with the professional. Here Rhet/Comp faculty and students engage in both academic and non-academic conversation. Students utilize this time to query professionals about subjects ranging from how to publish articles and books and how to develop research interests to ways of how to establishing working relationships at conferences.

 

Bi-Weekly CHEW Group

Named for its uniting activity, CHEW is a bi-weekly gathering of Rhet/Comp students at a local eatery. Students gather to discuss upcoming issues, work through class and conference papers, and plann informal social events all while—of course—eating! CHEW formed as students found a need to gather outside of school and has become a place where Rhet/Comp students come for encouragement, feedback, and support.

 

Rhet/Comp Office Space

At the start of the 2008 academic year, the Rhet/Comp program moved to its own suite of spaces. Located in the heart of the Williams English Building, and adjacent to the First-Year Composition program, the Writing Center, and the Digital Studio, the Rhet/Comp Office has become a central location for faculty and students to gather. Home to professors' offices, the program assistant, a Rhet/Comp library, and a community space, this suite provides space for both casual conversation and collaborative projects.

 

Visiting Speaker Series

An important component of our program is the Rhetoric and Composition Visiting Speakers Series. Over the last two years, we have enjoyed visits from scholars of digital literacy, rhetoric and composition communities. While visiting FSU, speakers are taken to lunch by graduate students and interviewed by a team of graduate students. In addition, they present a talk to the department and engage with students at a faculty member's home.

Speakers from 2006-2008 include:

Doug Hesse, Professor of English at the University of Denver and past CCCC's chair "The Leeward Lay of Essayistic Literacy-'By a Friend of the Late Elia'" (Transcript available)

Lester Faigley, Professor of English at the University of Texas and past CCCC's chair "Writing, Design, and the Nature of Order" (Transcript available)

Amy Devitt, Professor of English at University of Kansas "Between Stability and Flexibility: How Genres Change" (Transcript available)

David Holmes, Professor of English at Pepperdine University "Recasting the Kingdom, Reclaiming the Word: Race, Religion and the Democratic Paradoxes of African American Rhetorical Sovereignty" (Transcript available)

David Blakesley, Associate Professor of English at Purdue University "Teaching and Composing Visually"

Anne Wysocki, Associate Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee "The Tastes of Production"

Kathrine Hayles, Professor of English at UCLA Presentation on electronic textuality, especially the logic of electronic literature and its aesthetics

Todd Taylor, Professor of English at the University of North Carolina Presentation on multi-media in the composition classroom and accompanying workshop.

Richard Fulkerson, Professor of English at the University of North Texas Presentation on the state of composition today

Cheryl Glenn, Professor of English at Penn State and past CCCC's chair Presentation on feminist rhetoric

 

Some Current Activities

Editorship

A Special Issue of Across the Disciplines focused on Writing across the Curriculum and Assessment. The FSU Editorial Collective: Kathleen Yancey, Emily Baker, Scott Gage, Ruth Kistler, Rory Lee, Natalie Syzmanski, Kara Taczak, and Jill Taylor Gordon. Forthcoming: Summer 2009.

Peer Tutoring Course

Under the direction of Scott Gage and Liane Robertson, we are developing a new peer tutoring course for undergraduates, to be offered for the first time in Spring 2009. Participants in this project include Leah Cassorla, Rory Lee, and Natalie Syzmanski.