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DKScully

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Everything posted by DKScully

  1. In general, I agree with the other posters' trepidations about low-res programs and questions about prestige. But as a RhetComp Assistant Professor who dabbles in tech comm, I'll also say that I know multiple graduates of Texas Tech's low-res PhD who are active and serious scholars in the field. Those people have stayed in positions that they had prior to doing the PhD (one in information science, another at a CC). But Texas Tech has a lot of big name faculty and a competitive reputation in the field, so the program offers good opportunities for networking and I also think the potential for mobility into other positions.
  2. You should look into the University of Washington's "Language and Rhetoric" program, which might be a good fit because of its emphasis on linguistics as well as rhet/comp. They have a MATESOL program and a number of those faculty also teach PhD level courses. Plus, Bawarshi (genre scholar extraordinaire) is there, which aligns with your thesis project well. And yes, I think a Rhet/Comp PhD is definitely suitable for someone with your interests! There is a lot of demand for Rhet/Comp scholars with TESOL training and expertise in working with multilingual writers right now.
  3. Former UW student here. It used to be true that funding was easy to secure beyond the contracted years and practically a guarantee. That is no longer the case. They now have a complicated system for ranking students for additional years of funding based on everything from progress on dissertation to teaching evaluation scores. Ask a lot of questions of the DGS, talk to some current students, but I would be wary if the four years doesn't feel like enough (which its not for most people).
  4. I agree with everything that's been said so far about considering your ultimate goals for the degree and how much mentor reputation, having a cohort with shared interests, relevant coursework, etc. matters to you. I'd also suggest looking into how flexible the department is about cross-disciplinary work. How many courses can you take in other departments? How many of your committee members can be from other departments? If the school has a Communication PhD with a rhetoric track, there might be good options there. If they have Linguistics graduate program, ditto. I also came from a graduate program with a limited Rhet/Comp faculty (more like 4 or 5 faculty, many in partially administrative roles) and a lot of us took classes in Education, Gender and Women's Studies, Tech Comm in the Engineering School... My friend who did her dissertation on legal rhetoric ultimately had a rhetorician, a linguist, a law scholar, and GWS scholar on her committee (though its worth saying that she was not aiming for academic employment). I found this interdisciplinary background served me well, since Rhet/Comp is such an interdisciplinary field, but the posters above have identified a lot of the potential risks of having such a limited faculty. And 2 (or none) does seem scary-small. In addition to following up with the DGS, I'd also ask if there are current Rhet/Comp students that you can be in touch with to find out how they're approaching their coursework and what the ethos is like.
  5. This information has been circulating on the WPA listserve comparing the Survey of Earned Doctorates for the 2016 calendar year and MLA’s report on the Job Information List for 2015-2016. Just on sheer numbers, it is much easier to get hired with a rhet/comp PhD... at least for now. And what the piece of paper says will actually matter a great deal on the job market. I would go as far as to wager that almost none of those tenure track RhetComp positions will interview someone with a PhD in English literature, regardless of their research focus. Interdisciplinary degrees are challenging for the same reason -- committees will often use the name of a degree to weed candidates out from that pile of 400+ applications. There's more flexibility with the NTT jobs, but I have a number of colleagues with PhD's in Rhetcomp who took NTT lectureships (many are good pay and good teaching loads so they are quite competitive). These things change; rhet/comp continues to be a more competitive job market every year. But I thought I'd share the numbers, in case they help with your decision-making. Doctorates EarnedAmerica Lit 342British Lit 414RhetComp 212JIL Ads for 2015-2016Am Lit 107 tenure track (184 total)Brit Lit 120 tenure track (197 total)RhetComp 159 tenure track, (249 total) Technical Writing 49 tenure track (90 total)
  6. This is a great question and unfortunately, one that's really hard to answer. In my view, I do see the solo perspective as old-fashioned and a detriment to our field, which like the social sciences benefits from the larger scope of projects that can really only be undertaken by a team. However, that doesn't make this view any less important, especially when we're still participating in English departments where the norm is solo publication. I think choosing between a program that values the solo model but is clearly supporting students in getting their work published and one that values collaborative publication with faculty is a tough choice. On the market, all other things being equal, the solo publication will clearly have more weight. The problem is that oftentimes all other things aren't equal. I saw a lot of graduate students in my program squander work on mediocre publications early on, that if they'd given themselves a couple of years to develop as scholars could have packed a lot more punch in a top journal. So its not just about whether students are publishing but where. The co-authored pub with a faculty member in a top journal is going to help a student much more both in terms of professionalization and on the job market than the mediocre pub in a journal that doesn't have a very rigorous review process. Just to offer my own experience, in case its helpful. I came from an old-fashioned graduate program in an English department where faculty didn't publish with grad students. I was pro-active in the last years of my program in getting faculty support to publish and had one solo pub in a top-tier journal when I went on the market. At least for now, this seemed like the threshold for me to at least be considered for research-intensive positions, one of which I landed, but I have no doubt it wasn't enough to get me an interview at a lot of R1's. In my current Rhet/Comp job in an English department, collaboratively authored articles are given the same weight as single authored pubs for tenure. This is apparently something the Rhet/Comp faculty have had to fight to maintain, however, and was not a given. This is why I started by saying old-fashioned or not, we can't ignore the valuing of solo pubs, because it may have a roll not just as you're applying for jobs, but also in the way your work is counted once you move into a position.
  7. As someone who recently survived the job market, I'd second the sentiment that ranking plays less of a roll in job placement and also that the R/C job market is tightening. As such, I'm going to offer the pragmatic things to look for that will help you succeed x many years down the line. Areas that are currently most in demand on the market are technical/professional communication, digital rhetoric, and multilingual support. Obviously, demand shifts but I don't see any of there three areas falling out of favor any time soon. If one or more of these areas interest you, prioritize programs that have opportunities to get coursework and/or teaching experience (or even a concentration) in them. Also consider whether there are opportunities for administrative experience and how competitive they will be. Other considerations: - How many R/C courses are offered a semester? Many R/C faculty are in administrative positions that keep them from teaching much and they are often a smaller cohort within the department, so some programs might be limited in course offerings. Take a close look at the class schedules from the last few years. - Do faculty seem to be publishing with their graduate students? If you can look at profiles of current students, see if there is a trend towards publication with advisers. My sense is that some schools have more of a culture for this than others and it will make a very big difference in your professionalization and preparation for the market. Also, of course, see if graduate students are publishing on their own, as an indication of how well they're being professionalized. - Will you get a variety of teaching/administrative experience? Prioritize programs that will have opportunities to teach beyond first year composition, ideally (again) in a technical communication/digital rhetoric/or multilingual context. Bonus points for programs that will provide an opportunity to teach upper level courses in your areas of interest by the end of the program or that will give you teaching releases for administrative positions in FYC, the writing center, the WAC program, etc.
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