Suggests that genre and time-line college literature courses give way to thematic courses and cooperative courses within other departments. (FL)

Satirizes college English instruction, specifically "catchy" composition programs and the relevant grant awards and job placement of graduate students. (JM)

Tells about leaving graduate school at Columbia University for a tenure-track position at Rocky Mountain College in Montana, where the English department had three members, and the library had only 63,000 volumes as opposed to Columbia's 6.5 million. Discusses trying to adjust professional aims. (PA)

Examines a now common situation in which faculty members, in taking early retirement, create a pressing need for new faculty, which, in some cases, inflames long-standing disagreements among the department's current faculty. Explains how to negotiate the complexities of retirement in a way that minimizes tensions within a department. (TB)

States that although internships are routine components of technical communication programs, they can offer excellent professional opportunities to English majors who do not plan academic careers. Finds that internships can enhance enrollments and retention in the English program; build credibility of the English curriculum in the nonacademic…

Suggests that successful strategies for retaining faculty lines will vary widely according to local circumstances. Discusses the cases of the University of Oregon and the State University of New York Stony Brook, which suggest that English departments stand to gain if they can demonstrate that adding faculty lines will help overcome the split…

Describes how members of the English Department at Texas Tech University redesigned their site as an open system in which control is distributed among department members. Describes the conversational approach they used to redesign the site, applies it to a critique of the original web site, then describes changes they implemented to remake the…

Offers a case study in curriculum change that reveals a very different experience--one that demonstrates a discipline more alive than ever. Presents a story of how the lively canon debates prompted the English department at Montclair State University to restructure the English major. Finds that the culture wars, critical theory, poststructuralism,…

Argues that scholarship, broadly defined, is essential to effective teaching and to a satisfying professional life in the humanities. Defines good teaching, and discusses ways to evaluate and encourage good teaching as well as ways to integrate teaching and scholarship. (SG)

Surveys the types of support and compensation that chairs in the Association of Departments of English (ADE) community receive. Notes that in the survey larger institutions and those granting advanced degrees are overrepresented, as they are in the ADE membership. Presents results of the surveys in 17 different tables. (SG)

Argues that composition is at risk of losing its "disciplinarity." Grounds this argument in Jacques Derrida's notion that whatever counts as the condition for achieving certain identity becomes the very condition of its failure. Argues that in a Derridean reading, composition will cease to be as it is now known. (RS)

Discusses the state of English studies, focusing on the literary canon, literature and other disciplines, the function of theory, and the politics of literature. (MM)

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…

Describes how college instructors might make the move toward building community and fostering collaboration rather than working in isolation. Provides an autobiographical account of how two English teachers began such a journey. (HB)