Rhetoric and Composition
Florida State University
405 Williams Building
Tallahassee, Florida
32306-1580
Phone: 850 644 4230
Fax: 850 644 0811
At Florida State University we offer two graduate programs in rhetoric and composition: an M.A. program in Rhetoric and Composition and a Ph.D. in English with a specialization in Rhetoric and Composition. In each we focus on rhetorical and social practices and theories of composing and composition, particularly emphasizing the relationships between texts (print, audio, visual, and digital), technologies, and literacies. In addition to offering a repertoire of challenging courses and various connections to the field, the program features a hospitable environment for graduate students.
As members of the graduate program, we—students and faculty—often work on research together. For example, TAs and faculty have presented together at conferences (for example, National Council of Teachers of English); several of us have submitted "combined" panels for CCCC. In addition, a team of graduate students and faculty wrote and were awarded a 2006-2007 CCCC research grant. We gather regularly to "read and eat" at a faculty member's home or a local spot, where we discuss current articles and plan collaborative projects. And all doctoral students enroll each semester in a one-hour reading course, where MA students are welcome as well. Not least, each term we host at least one distinguished scholar in rhetoric and composition who shares with us his or her latest research.
February 11,
2010 Charles Bazerman, Charles Bazerman is Professor of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Chair of CCCC. He is interested in the social dynamics of writing, rhetorical theory, and the rhetoric of knowledge production and use. He has been active in developing graduate degree objectives in rhetoric, literacy, and communication at UCSB and previously at Georgia Tech. His recently edited Handbook of Research on Writing won the 2009 CCCC Outstanding Book Award. In his presentation, he will discuss how writing studies as an organized field of research is new and dispersed, under the title, "Writing Research: What does it add up to? Where is it heading? What is visibly missing? What is invisible? Who has the eyes to see it?"
October 29, 2009 Shirley Logan, Shirley Wilson Logan is Professor of English and Director of Writing Programs at the University of Maryland, where she teaches courses in composition theory and pedagogy, history of rhetoric, nineteenth century rhetoric, and writing. Professor Logan's current projects include a study of Amanda Berry Smith's religious discourse and further exploration into the literacy practices of black Civil War soldiers and post-Reconstruction African Americans, which was the subject of chapter one of her 2008 book, Liberating Language. In her talk, she will discuss this topic and what future research promises to uncover, under the title, "Free Floating Literacies, Then and Now."
December 1, 2008 Donald
Leu, Donald J. Leu, the John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology at the University of Connecticut, studies reading generally and new literacies more specifically. His current research focuses primarily on new skills, strategies, and instructional tools needed to prepare students for learning to read and write with Internet technologies. At the University of Connecticut, he also directs the New Literacies Research Lab, and he is a past President of the National Reading Conference. With more than 100 research publications and seventeen books, Leus research showcases his dedication both to teaching and to finding ways to bridge new technologies and literacies.
February 16, 2009
Charles Schuster, Associate Dean for the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. While at FSU, he met with nine PhD and MA students on research projects they were currently working on. With an inviting manner and a light sense of humor, Dr. Schuster gave professional feedback on publishing and research questions as well as on drafts. Afterward, Dr. Yancey hosted a pot luck dinner where Dr. Schuster gave a quick talk on the future of publishing in rhetoric and composition and enjoyed socializing with members of the rhet/comp program.
January 12, 2009
Deborah Brandt, Deborah Brandt, Professor of Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Wisconsin Madison, researches literacy, specifically social and economic histories of mass literacy, and the status of mass writing within late twentieth and early twenty-first century culture, diversity, equity, and access in literacy learning. At the University of Wisconsin Madison she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in literacy, writing studies, and qualitative research methods. Brandt currently is working on a project following her award-winning volume Literacy in American Lives, entitled Writing Now: New Directions in Mass Literacy, which explores the ascendancy of writing as a second stage of mass literacy.
March 30, 2009 Beverly
Moss, Beverly Moss, Associate Professor of English at the Ohio State University, focuses both on community literacy, especially in African American communities, and on writing centers. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses on composition theory and criticism, literacy theories and practices, qualitative research methodologies and basic writing. Author of several articles addressing composition and pedagogy and African American Rhetoric, she is also the editor of Literacy Across Communities and the co-editor of Writing Groups Inside and Outside the Classroom.
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Gilman Page
Gilman Page is a second year Master's student in Rhetoric and Composition and an accounting specialist in the Office of Student Financial Services. Gilman moved to Tallahassee from Boca Raton in 2003 to attend FSU and he graduated with a B.A. in Creative Writing with a minor in Art History in April 2007. His research interests include the intersection of civilian and military visual representations of war and the loss of knowledge in the workplace through technological advancement.
Gilman's current reading includes: Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, Walter Ong's Orality and Literacy, and Thomson Course Technology's Microsoft Office Excel 2007, because, according to him, you can never know too much about spreadsheets.
On September 3, 2009, Gilman and his wife, Lauren, welcomed with joy the arrival of their first baby girl, Nora Audrey—Nora, because it's pretty, and Audrey, in honor of Lauren's maternal grandmother. They are both extremely excited and can't wait to show off their parenting skills. Gilman plans to rarely use the baby's real name, opting for the alternative "Norgax-5" and "Norgon the Destroyer." He hopes to be that really embarrassing dad who dances in line at the supermarket while his daughter pretends to belong to the guy in line behind them.
