Book Announcement: Cross-Border Networks in Writing Studies has just been published! For this volume, Inkshed Publications partnered with Parlour Press to publish this cross-border study. Ordering details are below. 

Cross-Border Networks in Writing Studies coordinates mixed methods approaches to survey, interview, and case study data to study Canadian writing studies scholars. The authors argue for networked disciplinarity, the notion that ideas arise and flow through intellectual networks that connect scholars not only to one another but to widening networks of human and nonhuman actors. Although the Canadian field is historically rooted in the themes of location and national culture, expressing a tension between Canadian independence and dependence on the US field, more recent research suggests a more hybridized North American scholarship rather than one defined in opposition to “rhetoric and composition” in the US. In tracing identities, roles, and rituals of nationally bound considerations of how disciplinarity has been constructed through distant and close methods, this multi-scaled, multi-scopic approach examines the texture of interdependent constructions of the Canadian discipline.

Cross-Border Networks in Writing Studies. Derek Mueller, Andrea Williams, Louise Wetherby Phelps, and Jennifer Clary-Lemon. 2017. Published in association with Parlour Press. Available from ParlorPress.com and Amazon.ca in March 2017. Available through Amazon.com, Parlour Press, or by emailing Roger Graves (if you are in Canada and want to avoid duty costs).

Call for Papers: Special Issue of Pedagogy

Ideological Transparency in the Classroom and On Campus

Daniel P. Richards and Louise Wetherbee Phelps, Guest Editors

Context

It has been over a decade since Karen Kopelson published her article “Rhetoric on the Edge of Cunning” (2003), in which she proposed the performance of neutrality as a potential strategy to address ideologically-driven student resistance in the writing classroom. Overtly politicized critical composition pedagogies, she argued, might exacerbate student resistance—in particular if those pedagogies are enacted by marginalized teacher-subjects—and thus looks to theories of “radical resignification” to explore the value of performing the type of objectivity many students expect in university classrooms. Situated, as Kopelson’s article is, in Richard Boyd’s (1999) notion that the field of rhetoric and composition has long been preoccupied with student resistance as evidenced by its “incessant return” as a narrative, this special issue asks scholars in the field to do just that: return incessantly to thinking and theorizing about our own ideological commitments and political inflections in our teaching practices and performances.

While we might have consensus in the belief that there simply is no teaching without ideology, indeed that ideology is inherently inescapable, there is ample room for conversation about the degrees to which we make our commitments and political affiliations apparent and what role these various approaches play in the larger conversation of public perception of higher education and, more urgently, the changing nature and forms of student resistance in our current sociopolitical moment. Have the manifestations of student resistance changed, and if so, what does this mean for our own pedagogical performativities? Need they change? In what ways? For whose interests? And for what ends? How much of our own ideological allegiances do we make transparent to our students, and what are the reasons we give? What are the bounds of pedagogical neutrality in the shifting landscapes of higher education and politics?

Guiding Questions

The editors of this special issue invite proposals of full-length articles pertaining to this topic, and are open to various types of methods relevant to pedagogical inquiry and classroom research. The editors are particularly interested in responses to the following questions:

• How do our pedagogical choices reinforce or challenge the public perception of higher education practices?
• How has student resistance changed?
• How do we approach the perception of “ideological bias” by students?
• How do we make apparent the differences to students between content coverage, pedagogy, and fair assessment practices?
• What role does political affect play in our pedagogies?
• What administrative moves could or should be made to address issues of ideological discrimination or invisibility in the classroom?
• What are the ideological issues facing writing program administrators in terms of curriculum development and teacher training and what are the various approaches available?

Overall, this special issue seeks to re-examine discussions, approaches, and rationales of pedagogical ideological transparency and/or performativity in order to encourage more explicit discussions of how and why teachers do or do not inflect their politics in the classroom, all the while positioning these approaches in the larger topics of student resistance, public perception of higher education, and political surveillance.

Timeline

Proposals due: April 7, 2017

Decision to authors on preliminary inclusion: May 5, 2017

Author drafts to guest editors: November 17, 2017

Article revisions (due to guest editors): October 2018

Issue to Pedagogy: December 2018

Issue mails to readers: December 2019

Submission and Contact Details

Individuals or co-authors should submit a 600-word proposal that indicates type of submission, overall topic, questions addressed, and contribution to the field. Proposals should be submitted as .doc or .pdf files to dprichar@odu.edu and lwphelps@odu.edu. The subject line of the email submission should read “Special Issue Proposal, Ideology in the Classroom.” For more information or queries, email Daniel Richards at dprichar@odu.edu.

Journal Description

Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture is an innovative journal that aims to build and sustain a vibrant discourse around teaching in English studies. In spite of the large role that teaching plays in the lives of most English studies scholars, no other mainstream journal in English devotes itself exclusively to pedagogical issues spanning the entire discipline. By contrast, Pedagogy covers all areas of English studies from literature and literary criticism to composition and cultural studies. It seeks to reverse the long history of the marginalization of teaching and of the scholarship produced around it. Fusing theoretical approaches and practical realities, Pedagogy is an essential resources for teachers.

 

Acting Director for the Writing Centre, University College, University of Toronto

University College at the University of Toronto invites applications for a one year, part-time (40%) appointment as the Acting Director of the University College Writing Centre (UCWC). The appointment will be at the rank of Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream and will commence on July 1, 2017, ending on June 30, 2018.

The University College Writing Centre offers one-on-one writing assistance to UC students and to students in UC programs. It also offers skills workshops on various aspects of writing and supports writing development in UC programs. The Acting Director of the Writing Centre will provide academic administration of the centre and also undertake direct writing instruction. Candidates must have a Ph.D. at the time of appointment or equivalent professional, creative, or instructional experience in a relevant field and have demonstrated excellence in teaching and pedagogy. Experience in university level writing instruction is required; experience teaching in a writing centre and administrative experience are considered assets. Evidence of excellence in teaching will be demonstrated through a teaching dossier submitted as part of the application and contact with referees. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Duties of the Acting Director include, but are not limited to, providing academic administrative leadership for the UCWC; forming and leading a team of writing instructors; collaborating with UC program directors and instructors on assignment design and the delivery of writing instruction in UC program courses; and collaborating with other writing centre directors on the delivery of group workshops and other common initiatives.

The Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto have both a collegiate and departmental structure. University College is the founding college of the University and has a long-standing commitment to challenging its diverse body of over 4600 undergraduate students to excel intellectually and to preparing them to engage in the wider world. In addition to the Canadian Studies Program, University College sponsors two other interdisciplinary undergraduate programs – Cognitive Science and Health Studies – and is affiliated with the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies, and the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies.

All qualified candidates are invited to apply by sending the following to uc.searches@utoronto.ca: a cover letter, curriculum vitae, teaching dossier (including a statement of teaching philosophy), a list of three referees, and relevant materials related to the teaching of writing.

To ensure full consideration, all application materials should be received by Tuesday 21 March 2017.

 The University of Toronto offers the opportunity to teach, conduct research and live in one of the most diverse and cosmopolitan areas in the world. For more information about University College, please visit www.uc.utoronto.ca/; for the Writing Centre, please visit http://www.uc.utoronto.ca/writing-centre .

The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons/ persons of colour, women, Indigenous/ Aboriginal People of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Special Issue of WLN: Multimodal Writing in the Writing Center

Due Date: March 1, 2017

WLN are inviting proposals of no more than 500 words for this special issue on “Multimodality in the Writing Center: Relationships, Roles, and Responsibilities. Accepted articles should be in MLA format (8^th edition) and no more than 3,000 words, including notes and works cited. We also welcome proposals for the “Tutors’ Column” (accepted articles 1500 words, including works cited and notes, in MLA format).

Send article proposals (300-500 words) to Susan DeRosa and Steve Ferruci derosas@easternct.eduand FerruciS@easternct.edu by March 1, 2017. Invitations to submit full articles will be issued by April 15, 2017. Manuscripts will be due July 15, 2017.

More information can be found here.

The English for International Students (EIS) program in the Duke University Graduate School invites applications for a full-time instructor position beginning August 2017.

Applicants should have a master’s degree in TESOL or applied linguistics as well as three years of teaching experience in a university-based ESL program. Preference will be given to applicants with experience in curriculum development, preferably in the area of English for Specific Purposes (ESP).

More information about the program, job responsibilities, qualifications, and application procedures can be found online. Priority consideration will be given to applications received by February 27, 2017.