I'm curious why Berkeley applicants decided to apply to Berkeley . . . . Their rhetoric program seems to have nothing (or very little) in common with the greater "rhet/comp" community. In fact, I didn't meet one Berkeley student or professor at last year's RSA conference. Nor have I met any at regional MLAs. And when I read their dissertation list, I just think, "Huh?" Some interesting classical rhetoric faculty, but otherwise, their understanding of "rhetoric" seems quite different from the one I've developed. More like critical cultural theory than rhetoric. Thoughts? Reasons for applying?
My hopefuls are listed in my signature. Brown, Vandy, and Columbia were "why the hell not" literature applications. The rest are rhet/comp or rhetoric and technical writing PhD programs. I'm counting Duke's as a rhetoric program because it has several faculty members who work with (vaguely) rhetorical approaches to literature. Probably won't commit even if I get accepted, but I'm curious to see if the rhetoric angle has any weight for lit applications. I also really, really, really want to say to a top-10 literature program, "No thanks, I'm gonna do some rhet/comp work . . ."