DePalma, Ringer and Webber

"(Re)Charting the (Dis)Courses of Faith and Politics, or Rhetoric and Democracy in the Burkean Barnyard," an article co-authored by three of my former students at the University of New Hampshire, just appeared in the latest issue of Rhetoric Society Quarterly (38.3).

Congratulations to Mike DePalma, Jeff Ringer and Jim Webber!

Christina's CCC Article

Christina Ortmeier-Hooper's article, “English May Be My Second Language, but I’m Not ‘ESL,’” appears in the most recent issue of College Composition and Communication (59.3).

Here is the abstract: "In this essay, I present three case studies of immigrant, first-year students, as they negotiate their identities as second language writers in mainstream composition classrooms. I argue that such terms as “ESL” and “Generation 1.5” are often problematic for students and mask a wide range of student experiences and expectations."

Congratulations, Christina! Excellent job!

Publication by DePalma, Ringer and Webber

A collaborative article by Michael-Jon DePalma, Jeffrey Ringer, and James D. Webber has been accepted for publication in Rhetoric Society Quarterly. Congratulations, Mike, Jeff and Jim! Way to go!

Christina Ortmeier-Hooper's New Job

Christina Ortmeier-Hooper has just accepted the position of Assistant Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire, Durham. She will be working with doctoral students in Composition Studies, some of whom are intereted in her expertise in second language writing, among other things.

I'm really happy for Christina and especially for UNH!

Steve Simpson's Publication

The chapter on mentoring that Steve Simpson and I wrote together just came out:

Simpson, S., & Matsuda, P. K. (2008). Mentoring as a long-term relationship: Situated learning in a doctoral program. In C. P. Casanave & X. Li (Eds.), Learning the literacy practices of graduate school: Insiders' reflections on academic enculturation (pp. 90-104). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

It provides an overview of my approach to mentoring as well as Steve's perspective on how it worked for him during the first few years of doctoral studies.

It's been fun working with you on this project, Steve!

New position for Abby Knoblauch!

A. Abby Knoblauch, my former student at UNH and co-author of the forthcoming chapter on the history of composition, has just accepted a job offer from Kansas State University. Congratulations, Abby! Well deserved!

Kate Tirabassi is the recipient of the 2008 Berlin Award!

Kate Tirabassi, Assistant Professor English at Keene State College and one of my former doctoral students at the University of New Hampshire, is the recipient of 2008 James A. Berlin Memorial Outstanding Dissertation Award.

The award ceremony will be on Friday, April 4 from 5:00-6:30pm at the Conference on College Composition and Communication in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Congratulations, Kate!

Mike DePalma's Publication

Mike DePalma, one of my former doctoral students at UNH, just emailed me to let me know that his manuscript on Austin Phelps, a nineteenth-century preacher and professor of sacred rhetoric from Andover Theological Seminary, has been accepted in Rhetoric Review.

Congratulations, Mike! Well done!

Carnegie Foundation Creates New 'Owner's Manual' for Doctoral Programs - Chronicle.com

Here is some news about a publication that looks seriously at the need for improving the preparation of future researchers in doctoral programs. (I personally think the Chronicle headline misses the point, though.)

According to the Chronicle article, the report (rightly, I think) criticizes the (historical) master-apprentice model that relies on accidental match of personalities. (The model of apprenticeship being discussed here seems to be the historical apprenticeship, rather than apprenticeship in situated learning.) It uses the term mentoring instead:

The study recommends that doctoral programs adopt new structures that allow students to have several intellectual mentors and come to think of mentorship as less an accident of interpersonal chemistry and as more a set of techniques that can be learned, assessed, and rewarded.

Some of these efforts are already in place, as we will see in Chris Casanave and Xiaoming Li's forth coming book. But it's true that it has depended more on individual initiatives rather than institutionalized practices. The good news is that ASU is being mentioned as one of the model institutions for encouraging successful mentoring at the doctoral level.

The challenge, of course, is to institutionalize these practices without falling into the trap of believing that successful mentoring relationships can be mass-produced. As Steve Simpson and I tried to articulate in our chapter on mentoring (to appear in Casanave and Li), this is something mentors and mentees have to work out as they develop their relationships.

What worries me about this report, as represented by the Chronicle article, is that it seems to reduce mentoring into a set of skills that can be prescribed to anyone. Well, it's not that simple.

While I agree that part of the problem is the heavy reliance on "accidental match of personalities," prescribing techniques seems limited as a solution. For mentoring to really work, both mentors and mentees need to recognize the need to make concerted and ongoing efforts to develop a productive relationship. And that, IMHO, takes much more than just "a set of techniques."

2007 Symposium on Second Language Writing

This year's Symposium on Second Language Writing was a huge success. About 340 people from 26 countries participated in the three-day event that took place at Nagoya Gakuin University, home of Miyuki Sasaki, one of the leading L2 writing researchers.

Many people told me that they were impressed by the quality of presentations (as was I) and that they enjoyed meeting people from variuos parts of the Pacific Rim and beyond.

More photos are available here.

The Symposium has now become an annual event, and the next Symposium will take place on June 5-7, 2008, at Purdue University. Tony and his staff will be organizing the 2008 Symposium (including the website), and I'll be working on the 2009 Symposium.

Congratulations, Christina!

Christina Ortmeier-Hooper, one of my doctoral students at UNH, has just informed me that her manuscript, "'English is My Second Language, but I'm Not ESL'" has been accepted for publication in College Composition and Communication.

Congratulations, Christina! Well done!

Dissertation Defense

Michelle Cox, one of my doctoral students, successfully defended her dissertation--a qualitative study of clinical writing at an on-campus speech clinic. Her work usefully complicates the binary distinction between classroom and workplace writing by examining the writing practice at a site where two activity systems--those of school and workplace--overlap.

The defense went smoothly. It was more a conversation than a defense--as it should be with a quality dissertation. Everyone on the committee--Tom Newkirk, Jess Enoch, Cindy Gannett and John Brereton--seemed to think highly of Michelle's work. She worked really hard in developing her understanding of various theories--situated learning, activity theories, rhetorical genre theories--and in synthesizing them as she prepared for her project. I hope she will continue to pursue this project.

Congratulations, Michelle. Well done!