UK's College of A&S Gets Cutting Edge

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 20, 2010) — We live in an age of communication. From writing to speaking to texting to social networking, we are constantly communicating with others. The way that we communicate — the words that we use, the style with which we deliver them and the mode of delivery— determines the impact and effectiveness of our messages.

Realizing the importance of training students to be skilled writers and communicators, educators across the country are beginning to place a top priority on the study of written and spoken language. At the forefront of this movement, the University of Kentucky's College of Arts & Sciences has launched the Division of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Media.

"Rhetoric," said WRDM Director Roxanne Mountford, "is a term that encompasses all forms of communication."

Departments that specialize in the study of writing and rhetoric understand that the ability to use language effectively gives people a competitive advantage in all aspects of life.

"When surveyed, most businesses and organizations place communication (in writing) as their top priority for new hires," said incoming professor of writing and digital media Jeff Rice. “This is the information age. We hope to work with students so that they will be prepared for the communicative challenges they will face in their future, whether they stay in Kentucky or move elsewhere."

WRDM will be offering traditional writing courses, but also many new classes. "Writing is no longer considered to be just a flat print medium," said Mountford. "It also includes visuals, design and audio essays. We will develop all these areas across the spectrum of the curriculum."

Students can expect to see classes like Writing for the World Wide Web, African-American Rhetoric and Writing for Documentary Film as the program gets underway.

In keeping with the research interests of its faculty, the division will also have a community focus. New faculty members Vershawn Ashanti Young and Adam Banks have led free seminars for community members, and Mountford has been involved in community writing projects for low-income youth.

WRDM will be co-leading the new Composition and Communication General Education curriculum with the new Division for Instructional Communication in the College of Communications and Information Studies, offering 20 of 35 pilot sections of the new courses this fall and next.

While the IC will still be responsible for speech and public-speaking courses, WRDM will collaborate with the new division to find ways to reconnect the study of rhetoric across the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Communications and Information Studies. This means that courses could eventually be cross-listed between the two disciplines, according to Mountford.

Five distinguished faculty, three distinguished lecturers and a remarkable postdoctoral scholar have already been hired, an achievement that has drawn national attention. Typically, it can take years to build such a critical mass of new faculty, but with the support of Dean of Arts and Sciences Mark Kornbluh and Provost Kumble Subbaswamy, UK has managed to make this important change occur within one year.

The five new professors will join Mountford, assistant professor Bill Endres; long-standing Writing Program faculty Janet Eldred and Randall Roorda; and full-time lecturers Tom Marksbury, Judith Gatton Prats, Erik Reece, Katherine Rogers-Carpenter and Mary Katherine Tri to create this forward-looking division. 

Banks, Janice Fernheimer and Young will start this fall, while professors Jeff Rice and Jenny Edbauer Rice will join UK in fall 2011. New full-time lecturers include: Beth Connors Manke, Amanda Moulder and Kelly Jacob Rawson.

“The people we hired, they’re all top in their field,” Mountford said. “They’re trendsetters.”

Banks' work combines the study of African-American rhetoric and new media. Both he and Young, who specializes in black performance studies and African-American communication, go outside of the ivory tower of academia to offer free community education classes to the public.

Jenny Edbauer Rice deals with public controversies, particularly the ways in which people discuss changes in urban space. Inspired by changes she saw occurring in Austin, TX, Rice pursues ethnographic work that engages in how issues such as neighborhood gentrification and urban use are debated in the public sphere.

Fernheimer’s groundbreaking work on Judaic rhetoric contemplates how issues of authenticity and identity collude within a community of black Jews in New York.

Jeff Rice’s career focuses on new media, pedagogy and rhetoric. Rice's expertise in digital literacy has taken him from the university classroom to the urban landscape as he engages in the research of communications and networking.

"The one area of study that unites all areas of study is writing," he said. "Rhetoric teaches us the ways to communicate via writing (as well as how to communicate visually and orally). We live in the age of communication. Consider the impact of the Internet, and more recently social networking, on communicative practices. What changes? What stays the same? What do we need to learn how to do? Our challenge is to understand how to prepare students for this age of communication."

Ultimately, the division plans to offer both an undergraduate and doctoral degree in Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Media. "I think it will be enormously popular because it will help students develop expertise in an area that they can take out into a career," Mountford said. "It’s a humanities degree with a practical application."

WRDM is on track to become nationally recognized among rhetoric and composition programs. "With the quality of the faculty that we have and are bringing in, we’re poised to surpass many longstanding programs in rhetoric and composition," Mountford said. "And it’s because we have top faculty that we are able to draw a very exciting pool of students."

The new division has an enormous potential for growth and collaboration across UK.

"UK's program offers an exciting opportunity to develop a curriculum in line with the kinds of writing we do daily, professionally and personally in the 21st century," said Jeff Rice.