Three ways that English department Web sites express, lost-island rhetoric, the rhetorical tropes on these sites, which express an ironic, dialogical tension between being lost and being found in the global economy is discussed. Lost-island rhetoric expresses the profession's own contradictory impulses considering the network, the desire to…

A discussion on creative writing's newly improved status in English departments and what its improved status can tell us about disciplinary matters as a whole is presented. There is a need to prepare creative writers not only for their careers as writers, but also for their careers as teachers of creative writing.

Syllabi from some 20 colleges and universities were reviewed with prominent English and literature departments and a discussion was held with a number of professors who teach literary theory. It is suggested that devolution and fragmentation of theory might be a survival strategy, an adaptation to the new realties of academic institutions.

The article is an exploration of current trends within, and the desired destiny of, the humanities discipline of English Studies in the context of calls for the "Africanization" of South African universities. The essay advocates the embrace of a non-universalist, emancipationist humanism. (Contains 8 notes.)

This article traces a decline in CCCC sessions on language along with a shift toward more reductive definitions. It analyzes early CCCC treatment of language issues, the Students' Right document, changes in demographics and linguistics, and shifts within English departments that have left us overdue for professional reexamination of our role as…

To help students meet the demands of society, the University of Houston is using the framework of learning communities and constructivism to create a cross-disciplinary approach to teaching to provide media-rich thematically linked courses to engage a diverse student population. A case study investigated three semesters of thematically linked…

A look at the problems of the English department chair, through a proposed curriculum containing such courses as Jargon for the English Administrator. (AA)

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…

Discusses Recommendation No. 20 of the report of the Commission on Academic Tenure headed by W. Rea Keast and John Macy. It recommends establishing ratios for tenured and nontenured faculty. (TO)

The author describes a study of student teachers and whether they changed their responses to selected English teaching practices or general education ideas at the end of any of the three phases of their education semester. (MR)

A brief report on the goals, activities, and organization of junior college English departments as established by a recent nationwide study. (JO)

One section of the special issue, Directory of Assistantships and Fellowships for Graduate Study in English and the Teaching of English: 1971-72 and Directory of the Chairmen of Freshman Composition Programs in the Nation's Colleges and Universities," which is available from the National Council of Teachers of English, 508 South 6th Street,…

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