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Dear Inkshedders: Like many of you, I have just had an e-mail from Tania Smith asking about my work in rhetoric; that, combined with a recent communication with Russ Hunt about adding my web site to his page on practical options for graduate study, has prompted me to send this post. Russ encouraged me to let the rest of you know about what I'm doing, since there's been so much talk lately about the state of things rhetorical in Canada. As some of you know I've been "lurking" on this list for several weeks now, and have felt a bit like the new inlaw at a family barbecue -- it's a little hard to break in on your friendly conversation. Nevertheless, I've had a chance to correspond individually with a few of you, and this sounds like a family I'd like to join, so I'm going to take the plunge and introduce myself to those I haven't had a chance to meet. Before moving to my current position (an endowed chair in communication in Engineering) I spent 6 years in the English department at the University of Lethbridge. While there I singlehandedly developed a whole rhetoric stream for my students, several of whom are now in graduate school in communication (or have completed MAs). During that six years, largely by teaching extra courses at the rate of (usually) 2/year, I developed a dozen new courses in rhetoric, some of them offered as special projects that involved the application of theory to practice. Among them were: Oratory (intensive public speaking course, taught as a *rhetoric* offeing); Rhetoric of Canadian Identity; Rhetoric and Popular Culture; Rhetorical Theory; Rhetorical Criticism; Rhetoric and Professioanl Communication; Rhetoric Classroom as Rhetorical Situation (this small group helped to teach the intro rhet class); Rhetoric as Social Imagination (4 students wrote a public speaking handbook in one semester); Rhetorical Foundations of Communication Practice (5 students designed and delivered 3 different workshops on communicatin topics); Conference Presentation (adapting course papers into conference papers and developing the oral version for presentation at the conference.) A large number of my students wrote papers so good that they were accepted for presentation to the conference of the Northwest Communication Association -- in fact, I'm taking the last group there this spring, and they bring the total number to 31 in five years, a record that exceeds that of any other participating institution and that represents a 100% acceptance rate. My students were the only undergraduates from my former dept (and I think from the university) to present conference papers. One even graduated with *three* conference papers under her belt; many more have two. [Incidentally, for those of you in the west, the NWCA is a wonderful group, who host a terrific little conference. They are very anxious to boost their Canadian participation, and would welcome participants from Canadian institutions. (So far as I know, I'm the only one from here who goes regularly, and since my first experience there in 1995 I have been going every year.) For those of you who have grad students or even strong undergrads, it's a great chance for students to get experience giving conference papers, because they make a concerted effort to include students in their programme. If anyone would like to be added to their mailing list, please contact Barbara Gayle at <[log in to unmask]>. Otherwise, let me know and I can send you some of their information.] Anyway, my years at Lethbridge were a very exciting time, but sadly the U of L won't be offering any more rhetoric now that I've gone, and the offerings in the department of English have shrunk back to the one course, which will be taught by people with no background at all in rhetoric. Rumour has it that U of C is hoping to take up the slack with some comm offerings through the Lethbridge Community College (Doug, is this correct?) However, as sad as that ending is, I think the opportunities for developing a specialization in rhetoric will be even greater in the position I have now. The dean and the admin are very supportive and friendly toward rhetoric and communication. It's an interesting change from Arts & Science (actually, I'm working on a paper on the subject for the NWCA conference, which is coming up next week.) As I'm sure many of you are more than aware, at times it's awfully uncomfortable being the only rhetorician in the lit department. I know that at least some of you are located in English departments, and I'm curious to know your experiences. Like many of the US rhetoricians I know who are in English, I found my situation in many respects unsuitable. I found a discouraging lack of understanding among my lit colleagues of what rhetoric is, or of what rhetoricians do, though they will often say things like "*we* are the ones with the expertise in communication." There seems a kind of snobbishness about what they see as the exalted status of literary studies and the perceived lowbrow concerns of rhetoric. I didn't find that my former colleagues understood rhetoric very much at all, but that didn't stop them from claiming expertise: I was told by one of my colleagues that she had once taught a single-semester course in rhetoric and therefore knew all about it (I deduced from her remarks that she had taught a very introductory course, borderline remedial, on basic writing and textual analysis). She was a drama specialist, and I know that she would have been offended if I had claimed a similar expertise in her area on the basis of a three undergraduate drama courses and some acting experience, which was at least as much experience as she had with rhetoric. Another told me that rhetoric was simply a quaint, even impoverished, form of literary criticism, now completely outdated. Yet another considered rhetoric merely a "subdiscipline" of literary study. I have to say that my reception in engineering has been much more congenial -- there is more respect for my expertise and a greater awareness of how my contributions can actually *enhance* the college's prestige and capability. I'm sorry this is so long, but I want to mention one more item: I am in the process of putting together two interdisciplinary MAs for students who studied with me at Lethbridge. (One of them has 11 previous courses in rhetoric and the other has 8.) We have yet to receive formal word of their acceptance, but when we do, I'll add a link on my web page to their programme proposals. I'll attach that page to this message so you can read them if you're interested in knowing more about what they will be doing. The rest of my web site, including some good comm and rhetoric links, can be accessed from the page that features their proposals. ---------------------------------------------- Dr. Jennifer MacLennan ([log in to unmask]) D.K. Seaman Chair, Technical and Professional Communication College of Engineering University of Saskatchewan 57 Campus Drive Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A9 (306) 966 5388 FAX: (306) 966 5205 (Dean's Office) ----------------------------------------------