-----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 >