Mission and Goals

Our aim is to prepare students to be culturally and technologically engaged thinkers, writers, researchers, teachers, and citizens. To meet this goal, we work to provide a humane educational experience informed by rigorous intellectual and ethical practices. Because our program emphasizes rhetoric not only as theoretical engagement but also as productive action, we envision many sites of practice as appropriate for “doing rhetoric”: communities, classrooms, workplaces, cultures, and texts (print, digital, and non-alphabetic). Our sense of professional identity extends to a commitment to service to our department, institutions, professional organizations, and communities. Students in our program are encouraged to envision their work as taking place at the intersections of scholarship, teaching, and service within a range of linguistically and culturally diverse contexts.

The goal of the MA in Critical Studies in Literacy Pedagogy (CSLP) is to prepare scholars and teachers in the field of English education through its emphasis in the teaching and learning of language and literacy in multiple contexts and multiple modes, including print, digital, and visual. Central to the program's emphasis is the critical examination of ethnicity and multiculturalism as they apply to the teaching of literacy; the democratization of the classroom; the role of language and schooling in society at large; and the politics of language, literacy and culture.

The College concentration is specifically designed for individuals who wish to teach in English or writing departments at the college level with a principle focus on writing, literacy, and language.

Core courses
AL 833 Composition Pedagogies
AL 842 Writing Workshop for Teachers
AL 862 Approaches to Teaching Texts
AL 875 Theories of Reading and Critical Literacy

The Middle/Secondary English Language Arts concentration is specifically designed for recently certified teachers who wish to pursue their continuing certification coursework in a Master's degree focusing on issues of disciplinary knowledge, methodology, and pedagogy.

Core courses
AL 872 Methods of Research into Language Learning and Literacy
AL 842 Writing Workshop for Teachers

For additional information, descriptions and course requirements in the MA in CSLP see section 2.0 of the latest handbook.

The MA in Digital Rhetoric & Professional Writing (DRPW) serves both as a professional degree for students interested in a technical/professional writing career track and as a preparatory degree for PhD-level work in rhetoric, writing, communication studies, media studies, or technical communication. Designed for completion in a minimum of two years, this program provides students with a theoretically grounded yet practical experience in technical/professional writing, with a special focus on designing writing for digital environments.

Core courses
WRA 415 Digital Rhetoric
WRA 420 Advanced Technical Writing
AL 841 Professional Writing Theory and Research
AL 805 Rhetoric Theory and History

For additional information, descriptions and course requirements in the MA in DRPW see section 3.0 of the current handbook.

The PhD in Rhetoric & Writing prepares students to study writing as situated practice and to research, develop, and administer a variety of academic, workplace, civic, government, nonprofit, publishing, and digital writing projects. Designed for completion in four or five years, the degree promotes the critical skills necessary for students to be productive scholars and researchers in rhetoric and writing, and prepares students for faculty and administrative positions in college writing programs.

Core courses
AL 805 Rhetoric Theory and History
AL 833 Composition Pedagogies
AL 870 Research Methodologies in Rhetoric & Writing
AL 878 Composition Studies: Issues, Theory, and Research
AL 882 Contemporary Theories of Rhetoric
AL 885 Research Colloquium

PhD concentrations

Community Literacies - designed for students who want to study language and literacy in settings outside of schools and universities (e.g., workplaces, neighborhood organizations, non-profits, after-school programs, etc.). Theories of and research on democratic participation, phronesis, outreach, and activism are explored in light of everyday lives and literacy practices.

Critical Studies in Literacy and Pedagogy -- puts coursework in language and literacy, teaching and learning with technology, and research methodology at its center. Each student in CSLP creates a curricular experience that builds from the Rhetoric & Writing core in its requirements, and allows students to carefully choose elective courses relevant to her/his professional goals.

Cultural Rhetorics -- places rhetoric at the epistemological center of inquiries into specific cultural, economic and historical contexts. This concentration is distinctive both in its emphasis on located practices and in its methodological flexibility, it requires students to receive formal training in rhetorical methodologies (ranging from critical textual analysis to phenomenological and naturalistic studies of rhetorical practices) and it encourages students to develop a specific cultural focus through consultation with their guidance committees.

Digital Rhetoric and Professional Writing -- intended for students who want to teach and do research in rhetoric and technology, computers and composition, digital media arts and writing, visual rhetoric, technical communication, or professional writing.

Nonfiction Writing -- intended for writers and teachers who find the many forms of literary and creative nonfiction, lyric, narrative, digital, and hybrid genres including personal cultural criticism, central to their study of rhetoric, literacy, and culture.

Self-designed concentration (with guidance committee approval) -- the student can design a concentration in areas as diverse as Literary/Creative Nonfiction, Humanities Computing, American Indian Studies, American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Theory and Cultural Studies, Women's Studies, Art and Graphic Design, Film Studies, English, Philosophy, Literacy, or Digital Media Arts and Technology.

For additional information, descriptions and course requirements in the PhD in R&W see section 4.0 of the current handbook.