Discusses faculty development and the role of the English department chairperson in that area. (FL)

Describes the author's own perceptions and experiences as a woman chair, claiming that having a feminist chair (male or female) makes a positive difference in a department, for both women and men. (JK)

In a response to the Minnesota Conference on the Future of Doctoral Study in English, argues that literary theory has redirected attention to the medieval liberal arts of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. (JK)

This paper is conceived as an extended reflection on what has passed for a materialist epistemology--which may be one way to understand cultural work--in English Studies. Rather than providing any final answers to the questions of what the praxis says about the theory, the paper first examines the origin of the humanistic literary text and then…

Suggests that verbal and visual literacy are interdependent and that English departments should take on the task of heightening visual literacy. (AEA)

A rhetorical analysis of the letter of application and the vita used in applying for a teaching job in language and literature is used to provide practical advice to applicants. Of the many components of a full rhetorical analysis, three receive special attention: the rhetorical situation, some characteristics of the audience, and several features…

Even a quick tour through the professional literature of composition and rhetoric reveals that the profession has failed to bring about any real change in first-year college composition. The truth is that today the political and material conditions of first-year composition programs are not much different from that they were over a half century…

An outside evaluator can help an institution open up dialogue and bring about change by focusing the attention of top administrators, faculty, and students on goals seen as important by groups within the institution. Bringing in an outside evaluator to colleges and universities, English departments and writing programs, can be a touchy, often…

Describes the changes and problems of the English department in adjusting to a new core curriculum at a liberal arts college. Discusses assumptions about planning, course requirements, and course content beneficial to the department. (EL)

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)

Presents a conversation that took place at the 2000 annual convention in Baltimore of the College Language Association, an organization founded in 1937 to provide support for English (and later foreign language) scholars at historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), in response both to the special problems that faced HBCUs and…

A graduate teaching assistant who lived through the Northridge quake in Los Angeles County reached some realizations about her habits of thinking in the wake of that experience. As students schooled or even trained in poststructuralist critical theory and/or protocols of postmodern cultural critique, this teaching assistant and some of her…

Two education professors conducting research on the curriculum planning at a high school near Boise (Idaho) found that their status as observer and/or participant in discussions among teachers, administrators and parents made things more difficult. Usually in ethnography it is assumed that the hard part is to achieve insider status--to be accepted…