Posted 1:45 PM by Kim
UNL: Part 2 (I wanted to post that last one so I wouldn't lose it). Here's the link to UNL's undergraduate info:
UNL undergrad (I hope that worked). They even have a culture/ethnicity/gender requirement...I love that!

For prospective graduate students, there's a welcome page
UNL grad welcome
Part of the reason that I fell in love with this program is because they have no core program at the Ph.D. level. You make up your own program--with the help of an able adviser, naturally. For me, that's the most enticing part of their program. This kind of freedom could give you the chance to focus on courses that fit with your own pedagogical or theoretical goals or explore some of those that you may wish to know more about. Of course, for me it's not that high-falootin'...it's just because there's so many things I want to study that I'm all for a place that helps me do that AND end up with a Ph.D. out of it.

Finally, the faculty. UNL faculty They have a lot of people there working on ethnography and literacy (my two pet projects), along with feminist theory and pedagogies--they just really have a lot of neat specialties that are hard to find at a lot of other graduate programs (especially if you're looking in the midwest).

Posted 1:20 PM by Kim
The program I looked into is at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Their program offers some specialties and emphases that others don't--particularly Great Plains studies and ethnic studies. Here's an excerpt from their mission statement: "Students with special interests in creative writing, ethnic studies, film studies, Great Plains studies, linguistics, and women's studies have found the English major a base for beginning study of these areas. The English major is also a classical liberal education major for students who do not have specific career plans but are interested in developing the analytic and communication abilities that underlie many professions in American society."

I'm not completely comfortable yet identifying theories in a program, but I would say that UNL leans toward the Social Epistemic camp, with a dose of Cultural Studies. Since they also offer a comprehensive Women's Studies curriculum, naturally Feminist theory creeps in there, too. Their literature emphasizes the idea of students studying communication, historical aspects of communication, and the environments and cultures that influence language and communication. However--the fact that they also tout their Creative Writing program adds a dash of Expressivism. As we have already perhaps realized, it would seem that most departments, while they may having an "overriding" theory at their base, have a variety of things at play.

Posted 10:51 AM by Katey
As I searched for ways to continue my education past this grueling experience, I ran across an interesting program at Oklahoma State University. They offer an extensive program in technical writing, creative writing, ESL, literature, and film studies. This program peaked my interest because it appears to be flexible in design. What I mean by that is that the website leads me to understand that I could pursue my doctorate in film and take other emphasis in technical writing or creative non-fiction (ahhhh, when dreams come true). The only thing that is very vague on the site is the opportunities for teaching assistantships and financial aide... which is a necessity for most of us. Check it out! I am seriously thinking about applying to this school once I finish my thesis... we could go together. Website: OK STATE

FYI Kevin: I figured out how to put the site in all by myself. Techno geeks -- watch out!

Posted 10:08 AM by Joshua
I misinterpreted the assignment originally and was researching freshman comp courses at various colleges rather than theory in graduate programs, so you’re all going to get a bit of both.

I had been looking at Georgia Tech on Kevin’s advice due to their work with literature, technology and culture in several of their Master’s programs (though they regrettably lack a doctoral program in the Humanities). The institution’s emphasis on technology and culture naturally leads to more of a cultural studies/social epistemic outlook at teaching composition in their freshman coursework. In their equivalent of Composition 110, the course mission is to develop “analytical reading and writing skills through the investigation of methods used in cultural and literary studies and the application of those methods to specific texts”. This is done through the use of writing assignments and in-class workshops, which drags in a bit of the expressivist angle as well. In Composition 120, the course mission is to develop “communication skills in networked electronic environments, emphasizes interpretation and evaluation of cultural texts, and incorporates research methods in print and on the Internet”. In addition to learning how to interface with technology, students are encouraged to “think critically and analytically about their own historical moment”, keeping the class tied firmly in the cultural studies/social epistemic realm. The instructor’s website includes an online syllabus for perusal. What I still wonder is how the prevalence of technology influenced their decision to approach the Humanities from a decidedly cultural perspective.

After realizing my mistake, I quickly began looking into PhD programs, in particular Kent State (once again on Kevin’s advice), still in pursuit of my unholy montage of science fiction/fantasy, technology and philosophy. While I didn’t find much in that regard here, the two programs they had were extremely interesting. The lit track is titled Literature, Cultural Theory and, Social Practice; the comp track is Literacy, Rhetoric, and Social Practice. Similar yet subtly different implications. The comp track was broken down into five required sections: The Study of Writing and Rhetoric, Theoretical Foundations, Language and Linguistics, Research Methods and Literacy: Learning and Functions. While the most relevant category to our discussion, Theoretical Foundations, did not have a survey course of composition theory as such, courses are offered in periods of theory, including classes in Greek and Roman rhetoric and another in 19th and 20th century theories. I believe that the presence of period courses in comp theory assume a familiarity with theory on the part of the student; therefore, this program tries to emphasize the historical reactions and contexts within which a particular theory developed. Feel free to check out each section’s course descriptions (these links should work).

Posted 8:14 AM by Kendra
Blogger hates me today. Here's the last link that was supposed to be on my other post:

Courses

Posted 8:12 AM by Kendra
I chose to loot at the Carnegie Mellon PhD program in Cultural Studies. (I chose this before our guest speaker last week and then felt woefully underinformed) The idea of Cultural Studies fascinates me, but I'm not sure if I'm tough enough to handle it. I'll put links to the program at the end of the entry, but here are the basics--

"Carnegie Mellon's program in Literary and Cultural Studies is distinguished by its energetic commitment to theoretical approaches linking cultural artifacts to the historical and social contexts in which they are produced and consumed." From what I have read, this program is definitely more centered on literature than composition. They admit just a few candidates each year to keep the ratio of students to teachers optimally workable. They also have grad program in Rhetoric, and it seems like an interested and passionate student could combine interests in Cultural Studies and Composition and Rhetoric in order to build a super program. (like a super hero, not {in valley girl voice} "like, your program is totally super!"}

The school is located in Pittsburgh, and the information about the Cultural Studies program plays up nearby areas of cultural interest. Carnegie Mellon is a research institution with self proclaimed strengths in the performing arts and new technology. How does all of this play into their theory? The descriptions of the Cultural Studies program continually play up the cultural richness of the university, staff, students and location.
In looking at the faculty, it becomes readily apparent how strong the literary focus is in this department. I'm not sure how much room there is within this program for someone who is primarily interested in composition. A glance over the current students indicates some diversity of research topics, but still not much toward comp.
Here are the links I promised--

Introduction
Faculty
Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Posted 9:55 PM by Kevin
Oh, to respond to Nancy's last paragraph, have we decided that the goal of first year comp is to turn out students who can communicate clearly and effectively? While I am not opposed to those goals, on the one hand they don't seem to me to be enough to consititute a whole course, and on the other hand, those apparently straight forward goals are so incredibly difficult to reach, it seems like we need something (call it theory, call it praxis, call it experience, call it hope) to begin to even take a step towards meeting those goals.

One reason "theory" has become so important to composition is that just "practice" (we now call it Current-Traditional Theory) failed. Tobin talks about learning a few things from his CT comp. class, but he recognized, eventually, that there were better things to learn and better ways to teach. But he is still waiting for the next iteration of composition, and there is no consensus about how to meet these nasty, tricky, goals.

Posted 9:48 PM by Kevin
Codi asked what to write for the PhD summaries--Nancy has provided a really big model.

Write enough so that other people can get a sense of what a particular place offers--the blog is about sharing the information with the class, and this "task" is a nice way to let people know what is going on in graduate studies around the country. So Codi, tell us what a PhD program in TESL looks like: what are the required courses? How long does it take to get that PhD? What signs of "theory" are posted on TESL websites?

If you want to write to learn or write to think, you can certainly contribute as much as Nancy has, but she set the bar higher than I expected. Share URLs if you can.

Posted 7:39 PM by Nancy
I attempted to figure out what type(s) of theory might be in play at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. I dug through their master’s and PhD web info, as well as the first year comp pages, to see what types of theory courses are required, what textbooks are used and what they are teaching. I don’t know that what I found fits all that well in any of the pedagogies/categories that we have read about, but I think that the boundaries of the different pedagogies are really blurred at times anyway.

There are only two required courses for the master’s and PhD coursework, one of which is a theory course (Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory), which is described in part as “intended to familiarize you with the main currents of modern criticism, giving you enough background from ancient and early modern criticism to understand the context of the critical debates of our time. The course will survey thirty or so major twentieth-century figures, represented by individual essays, and you will be asked to write brief, substantive, non-evaluative summaries of them. In that way the course is designed to give you a broad base for your future writing rather than offer intensive analysis of one or two approaches.” From the title, I would think that a high value is placed on Cultural Studies, yet at the same time, the content is so broadly described that it would most likely reflect something like we are doing now—exploring a range of theory possibilities. I think that the fact that students are just asked to summarize instead of evaluate implies that they don’t really need to choose which one they identify with or would like to take on for their own use. I would think that one could go anywhere from that—they could take bits and pieces of what theories are most relevant to them, do further study on the one or two most interesting or do the Fish thing and walk away from the theory game.

In “advertising” itself, the English department describes the changes it has undergone in the last few years and the new direction it sees itself taking. From the web page, “The department has embraced the expansion of what is read, studied, and discussed, so that a wide range of written texts is brought into creative tension with the traditional canon, and with extra-literary discourses such as popular culture, film, electronic media, legal documents, and the visual and musical arts. The department has also explored and opened up different approaches to those texts and discourses. Contemporary theories and fresh views of traditional rhetoric and criticism provide dynamic ways to read and interpret, as do the lenses which emerge from cultural, social, political, and economic contexts. Needless to say, the result is not a uniform or monolithic consensus on what to study or how to study it. Through all three phases, you are encouraged and even required to see your research in a multi-disciplinary perspective. This might include becoming familiar with theories from such disciplines as philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and cultural studies, or immersing yourself in the history and ideas of the culture in which your primary texts reside.” Whew! Breaking it down to the topic at hand, this reinforces the above sentiment, that there is no one theory that guides the curriculum. I do think that the U of M has the liberal sentiment and economic resources to experiment with/embrace technology and cultural issues more so than a school like NDSU. I did attend the U for two years as an undergrad, and I know from experience that they stress not only the liberal arts but also a multicultural awareness that seems to be lacking here. On the other end of that, though, is an at-times intimidating pressure to ALWAYS be politically correct and liberally open minded.

Perhaps most important of all is the required multidisciplinary approach. Students don’t just study English, they minor in another filed, such as cultural studies, ESL, feminist studies, history—anything really. It is self-designed, which opens the door for other theories as well; perhaps feminist theories, psych theories, whatever.
As for lower-level introductory first year comp theory, here is parts of the description of the course: “Freshman composition helps students make the transition between high school and college by introducing them to academic writing. The freshman writing instructor guides students to communicate clearly, effectively, and creatively in a university setting and other communities. Emphasizing critical reading, writing, and thinking, the course teaches students how to discover and create knowledge by generating questions, investigating issues, and forming their own opinions. Although sections will differ according to the instructor's individual approach, students will receive a lot of feedback on their writing through writing workshops, instructor comments, and conferences.” Again, they are acknowledging that instructors have individual approaches, and one would assume a variety of theories/no theory guiding those approaches.

Blah, blah, blah. In a way, it comes back to the question posed before—does it really MATTER what theory guides one’s practice if the end goal is to turn out students who can communicate clearly and effectively?

Posted 4:49 PM by Sybil
Newly loved "theorist": Natalie Goldberg.
So for once I actually took someone's name out of an essay that we were reading.. Lad Tobin's... and researched 'em.... rrr.... Her. Natalie that is. And she puts Zen Meditation, etc into her writing process. Went online to good old Amazon and purchased used books of hers. They are fantastic. I decided to make that my assignment to myself this week (to read her stuff a little) besides researching Ph.D. programs (because, to be honest, I don't think I want to move onto the Ph.D. region... scares me). Here's a tidbit: "This book (Writing Down the Bones) is about writing. It is also about using writing as your practice, as a way to help you penetrate your life and become sane. What is said here about writing can be applied to running, painting, anything you love and have chosen to work with in your life." A friend once told her to "Trust in what you love and it will take you where you need to go". She added "Trust in WHAT you love, CONTINUE TO DO IT, and it will take you where you need to go". This is my new chant.