rhetoric and composition

Professors have been advised to “publish or perish” for nearly 100 years. First coined in 1927, this phrase warns professors that in order to maintain their jobs, they must publish their work. Publishing has always been central to academia, as it is the primary vehicle through which scholars share their research with a larger audience. Yet, in recent years, academia has changed so that publishing is not reserved for those who are already professors. Instead, publishing has become a requirement for any one who is applying to become a professor, with PhD students being encouraged to publish their research before they have finished their degrees.

This roundtable will look at pedagogical strategies for examining the 2016 election in Standard Freshman English Composition courses. English Composition instructors are struggling with approaching relevant concepts (ex. argument) and reading selections that do not alienate portions of the classroom with every choice. While it would be ideal, it is not necessarily feasible or responsible to be bi-partisan with every lesson plan. Submissions should present pedagogical approaches that stimulate constructive inquiry, application of course concepts, and/or address concerns of partisan discourse (in the texts, by instructors, or students).

At the 2nd International Laurence Sterne Foundation Conference (26-28 October, Bydgoszcz, Poland) Dr Katarzyna Bazarnik will be convening the panel "Sterne, liberature, and the contemporary novel", addressing the multifaceted imprint of Sterne on the contemporary novelistic discourse.

Paper proposals should be sent to k.bazarnik@uj.edu.pl and j.lipski@ukw.edu.pl; the deadline is 5 July 2017.

To read more on the conference, please go to www.sterne2017.pl

CFP: Digital English: A Handbook for the 21st Century Classroom

Edited by Naomi Milthorpe, Robert Clarke, Joanne Jones, and Robbie Moore.

Submissions due: September 1, 2017.

New university students are digital natives; our classrooms filled with technology. Our students are increasingly online only – distanced by the demands of economics, geography, or time. Yet as English scholars, most of our training has been with physical materials and face-to-face methods: books, paper, discussion. So what are the best methods of using technology in our classrooms? How, why, and when should we use it?

Papers addressing the difficulties of students for whom academia is foreign, considered in terms of the student’s alienation, psychological unpreparedness, underdeveloped perspective, etc. How can such students be incorporated into academia, and thereby into work (and life broadly) made accessible by education? Alternatively, should we seek such incorporation, or instead reimagine and change academia, and how? Institutions have implemented a variety of assimilation and retention strategies, some with better records than others. Some programs engage students individually, whereas others emphasize building communities; some strategies focus on key first-year courses, such as introductory writing.