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-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Irish <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: May 25, 1999 12:51 PM
Subject: Re: brash thoughts


Just to let everyone know that one of our graduate students, John Killoran,
who completed his dissertation on the subject of home pages on the internet
did land a tenure track job designing a writing program at Brock.  so there
is some hope out there.


>>  I'll
>> even go so far as to say that I'm not sure if my academic accomplishments
>> and credentials would be fully recognized by Canadian institutions.  Why
is
>> that? A pointed queery, I know, but one I think worth making.
>Christine, I'll go so far as to say I AM sure your academic
>accomplishments will NOT be fully recognized by most Canadian
>institutions.  Even for someone like me who has a traditional lit.
>degree, I'm aware that my experience with WAC is not going to be
>recognized most places that I look in this country.  The oddest thing is
>that it is well recognized in Engineering (as it might be in business
>school) but certainly disregarded by "English" departments.  I felt this
>acutely at ACCUTE last year where I was asked to speak about Teaching
>Writing on a panel somewhat self-indulgently titled "The Future of
>English Studies and the Public Good".  That panel presentation was
>singularly the most depressing presentation I've ever done.  The climate
>in the room was antarctic. The traditionalists and theoretical
>obscurantists were out in full force.  I had to conclude that English
>studies had no future, or at least that it was irrelevant to the public
>good.
>
>I hope the climate is changing.  I see the words "rhetoric and
>composition" appear in more ads for jobs, but I'm not convinced that
>most departments would recognize what those terms meant if they stumbled
>over them in the dictionary.
>
>Now that you're thoroughly depressed ....
>
>regards,
>Rob
>