Postpostmodern Compositionist

While the focus of this blog is composition studies texts of yore, I thought I would dedicate today's post to my graduate carrel here at UC Davis' Shields Library. As graduate carrels seem like a relic of a university experience before computers and digitization, I feel that the "oldness" of this phenomenon fits well with the theme of this blog. I n my own anecdotal experience  it seems that these carrels are in high demand and I always see my neighbors working in them.  Over the past two quarters, while researching and writing my preliminary exam, I have repeatedly returned to the library to search through its vast collection of older rhetoric and composition texts.  For me, the carrel has served not only as place to store my checked out books, but also as a great occasional space for working on my writing projects.  With the door closed and sitting in my chair, I have just enough space to stretch out my legs, even with a few inches to spare!  An image of my gr...

First and foremost, I am a writing instructor before I am a researcher. A critical pedagogue at heart. To quote Ron Scapp from bell hooks' Teaching To Transgress , I strongly believe that "being a teacher is being with people" (p. 165). As the quality of course instruction relies on the sense of community that develops between classroom stakeholders, I always incorporate a few community building activities at the start of an academic term to strengthen stakeholder relationships. What could be a more appropriate first post for this project than the topic of new beginnings? Spring quarter starts on March 30th at UC Davis and I am currently thinking of new community building ideas for the first few class meetings. A great resource that I have consulted for years is the "Instructional Note" genre from the  Teaching English at the Two-Year College (TETYC) journal, which features pedagogical ideas like lessons, techniques, and strategies from instructors at community ...