This essay argues that a trend in histories of literary and writing studies is to bifurcate the origins of the fields and so engage in those modernist narrative fallacies described by Jean-Francois Lyotard. Such works limit our understanding of past practices and the longstanding connections between disciplinarity and labor. (Contains 2 notes.)

As part of the development of a Department of Writing Studies in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, the 99-year-old Department of Rhetoric in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences was dismantled. The bulk of Rhetoric faculty have been shifted to this new department of Writing Studies. The…

This book recounts the story of the rise and fall of an all-women's department (home economics) at the University of California, Berkeley. Emphasis is on the connection between gender and status in an academic department and the life of one woman scientist, Agnes Fay Morgan, who was instrumental in the department's development. Analysis considers…

This paper speaks to the question of just what people in a human communication studies department do. The paper traces the study of communication historically, beginning with classical times in Greece and "impersonal communication," when the first formal education in communication was not theoretical, but applied. The paper points out…

Discusses the role of ideology in discourse theory. Suggests that an informed self-consciousness about the complex sources of thinking and writing can inspire involvement and willingness to share discursive power in the English department's conversation. (MS)

Discusses problems with first-year composition in higher education, primarily the marginality and the tenuous hold writing maintains within the academy. Reconsiders the English department's role in serving the general curriculum. (SR)

Peter Blake reports on new legislations and reforms in Virginia that provide colleges and universities more operational and administrative autonomy in return for their commitment to public goals for higher education. He traces the history and context of privatization in Virgina from 1988. During this time, the legislatively mandated Virginia…

Discusses "new rhetoric" within the context of the modern English department. Presents a brief history of the development of the traditional English curriculum through the 18th and 19th century. (JD)

In the summer of 1983, Commissioner Lutjeharms authorized the appointment of a committee to study kindergarten programs in Nebraska schools and to formulate recommendations for needed improvements. The committee, in the course of its work, examined pertinent current professional literature and, with the assistance of Department of Education staff,…

Discusses the teaching of literature in an instrumentalist or bureaucratic culture. Gives examples of instrumentalist influence in the English department at the University of Iowa: changes in department offerings, the emergence of a new departmental coherence, and the concentration of literary theory in the program of comparative literature. (EL)

The accomplishments of Janet Emig constitute perhaps the most influential contribution to the study of how humans compose discourse and how teachers should help them. Her background prepared her for her initial goal of becoming a medical doctor, but she determined to study literature because of its enduring interest to her. As a graduate student…

Describes the change in Duke's English department and departments in general by using historical examples that reflect then current attitudes towards the humanities and scholarship. (CRH)

In January 1986, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) issued several recommendations with far-reaching implications for Virginia's colleges and universities, namely, "that all state-supported institutions of higher education establish procedures and programs to measure student achievement." By all accounts the…

Presents an address by the chairman of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, which reflects on the changing state of composition teaching and how it compares to the 1960s, an era when many composition teachers came of age with the discipline of composition and rhetoric. (TB)

College summer sessions, and specifically the summer program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison between 1885-1985 are discussed in two papers and a conference summary. In "History of Summer School at the University of Wisconsin," John W. Jenkins and Barry J. Teicher examine the emergence and nature of summer programs in the context of the…