Presents suggestions on how to talk about scholarship: (1) recall the history of the dissertation subject that was chosen; (2) review both areas of knowledge and ignorance; (3) find words to describe the direction of the dissertation; and (4) ruminate on what things are loved about the enterprise--defining the literary style of another, for…

Advocates the use of wide-area networking systems (WANS) by English departments to bring the whole world's public discourse into classrooms. Maintains English departments need people who speak the language of networking technology to understand how it can support or defeat pedagogical goals, and to garner computing resources. Offers a brief…

Makes the case for teacher research in the academy. Hopes that English department faculty will become willing and active coconstructors of connections between the work of sociolinguists and their own worlds. Suggests that teaching at any level is fundamentally about worlds and stories in contact--worlds which are made and remade through language.…

Defends literary education by describing what is distinctive and central and valuable about the collective enterprise. Offers some negative prescriptions--some important ways not to respond to the challenges facing the profession--and some positive suggestions as well. (SC)

Contends that the academy has forgotten the origin of the dissertation and has turned it from a substantive contribution of scholarship to an instrument of evaluation. Argues that continuing to treat the dissertation in this way maintains an unequal power hierarchy of "masters" and initiates--it should be seen as the first serious scholarly…

Argues that, in the Southwestern U.S. colonial domination continues, especially through exclusionary practices in educational institutions like departments of English. Shows the dynamics of exclusion historically existing for ethnic minority groups within the U.S.-Mexico contact zone; and how Texas Mexicans have responded in a transcultural manner…

Discusses how English departments, which employ a substantial number of teaching assistants and adjuncts, will make progress toward solving some of their problems by recognizing that students can major in English and the humanities as they have been traditionally conceived and find professionally and financially rewarding employment. Suggests that…

Notes the author's experiences that led him to gravitate toward educational partnerships. Notes that partnerships signal an answer to the discontinuities in curriculum planning and in general awareness within and among institutions; and hint at the absence of communication (let alone planning) between educators at the university and college level…

Suggests that when the university devotes itself to "excellence," it substitutes, for a vision of what should be taught, a contentless measure, a bureaucratic concept that extends the range of managerial control without presuming to make judgments about content. Suggests that English departments should try to design sequences of courses that are…

Questions the fragmentation of the teaching of English into such diverse subjects as reading, writing, speech, journalism, drama, and freshman composition, considering such divisions harmful to the purpose and future of English departments. (AEA)

Discusses the shortcomings of one college English department and suggests ways the department can be improved. (AEA)

Compares British and American higher educational systems and describes the benefits of a foreign exchange professorship program. (AEA)

Describes the joys and frustrations of serving as head of a university English department. (AEA)

Traces the history of the author's experience as the chair of an English department and discusses the leadership required of an effective chair. (DD)

Discusses the department head as an advocate for the department, a recruiter, and a human being; describes the relationship between department heads and faculty. (DD)