UC Berkeley Rhetoric

[sreyas27]

How is this program ? Supremely competitive everyone says .

But where does it figure in the job market ?

Some feedback will be helpful.

[RockDenali]

How is this program ? Supremely competitive everyone says .

But where does it figure in the job market ?

Some feedback will be helpful.

I don't know anyone in the general rhet/comp field who has anything to say about this program. It's not really part of rhet/comp, as far as I understand. I've only met one graduate of the program, and she taught film studies at my undergrad institute's film school. When I asked her, she had no input whatsoever about composition or "rhet/comp" as most of us understand it. For her, it was basically a film studies program.

I mean, just look at their dissertation list! It seems like a hodgepodge of Marxism, literature, and the occasional legal or film critique. It's one of those lists that just begs to be targeted for a Fox News report: "Tax-payer money funding students for bizzare research projects such as 'Subjectivity, Ethics and the Question of Survival in the work of Semprun, Levinas and Derrida'".

I suppose it's one of those "you're awesome because we accepted you, do whatever you want, and you'll get a job writing about obscure topics at another awesome school for the rest of your life" programs.

(Of course, there are some legit rhetoric dissertations on there, too.)

Edited March 31, 2011 by RockDenali