September 18, 2009
A reminder of a few upcoming events.
Picnic on Saturday at Barbara Hamilton's. Family fun and general shenanigans.
First Year Writing Professional Development Meeting on Wednesday (9/23, 2:45 - 4:00, OC Gold A) and Thursday (9/24, 12:00 - 1:00, OC 129): Discussion of the first year curriculum and assignment sequences in preparation for roll-out of the first year experience initiative. If you have had successful assignments that you think would be worth sharing, get in touch with me.
Thursday, September 24, 9:00 pm - 1:00 am: two of our lecturers will be performing at The Belmont in Hamtramck. John Freeman's Celtic punk band, The Codgers, will take the stage at 9 pm and Stuart Tucker's folk/swing/blues band Jo Serrapere and the Willie Dunns will take the stage at 11:00.
Friday, September 25, 8:00 am - 9:00 am: Connections meeting for those teaching connections sections.
Friday, September 25, 8:00 pm: another of our lecturers will be performing at TNTs in Clinton Twp. Shaun Moore's punk rock band, Stroller Coaster, will take the stage at around 8 pm.
Other dates:
Wednesday/Thursday, November 4-5: First year writing staff meetings
Monday, November 9: Stephen Prothero campus visit
Monday, November 23: Festival of Writers
FALL 2009
August 31, 2009
Fall 2009 is starting off with a bang. Classes are filled to the brim with a record number of incoming first year students, we have double the number of projected majors in writing and rhetoric, and our general education course offerings are at capacity. We are well on our way to fulfilling our mission to support a culture of writing across contexts, genres, media, and disciplines at Oakland University, preparing students for the challenges of thinking and writing in the 21st century.
We are welcoming two new assistant professors to our department -- Dana Driscoll, PhD from Purdue University, and Betsy Allan, PhD from Temple University. Both Dana and Betsy will be active in developing curriculum and assessment for our first year writing program and upper level courses for our majors. Both have strong backgrounds in writing program theory, tutor training, and teaching with new media. Dana served for two years as administrator of the Purdue OWL and Betsy taught multimodal composition to architecture majors at Temple.
We are also increasing our service to national organizations in rhetoric and composition:
- Alice Horning has been named editor of the WPA Journal and Lori Ostergaard, Greg Giberson, and Jim Nugent have been named assistant editors.
- Dana Driscoll has been named CCCC MemberWeb editor, working with the CCCC website and social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter.
- I will continue to direct our local site of the National Writing Project, with Lori Ostergaard as our Tech Liaison. Cornelia Pokrzywa, Rebecca Rivard, and Laura Gabrion have been active on the leadership team for the Meadow Brook Writing Project helping to develop and implement a vision for the site to help improve the teaching and learning of writing at the local level.
- Kathy Skomski, Lisa Hine, Art Orme, and Shaun Moore joined the ranks of Teacher Consultants for the writing project after completing the 2009 Meadow Brook Writing Project invitational summer institute for teachers of writing.
- Cornelia, Rebecca, and Shaun attended a retreat for Writing In Digital Environments: Pedogagies and Theories (WIDE PATHS) at Red Cedar Writing Project in Lansing, participating in discussions of best practices in teaching with social media, collaborative writing tools, and visual media. Rebecca also attended the Sloan-C International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning in San Francisco in June.
- Timothy Briggs and Glen Armstrong attended the Digital Media and Composition 2009 summer institute at Ohio State University, participating in a community of scholars from across the country to examine issues in digital media and composition. Facilitators included Cindy and Dickie Selfe, Scott Dewitt, Cheryl Ball, and Kris Blair.
These are only a few of the initiatives that are happening this fall, with more than we can mention in a brief update. It's an exciting time to be a part of the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at Oakland University.
UPCOMING DATES
Thursday, September 3: First day of class
Wednesday, September 16: WRT full-time faculty meeting
Friday, September 18: WRT 1st annual Praxis and Allies competition (tentative)
Saturday, September 19: WRT 1st annual welcome back picnic (faculty, staff, spouses, children, and students welcome).
Wednesday/Thursday, September 23-24: First year writing staff meetings
Friday, September 25: Connections meeting
OTHER IMPORTANT DATES
Friday, October 30: Connections meeting
Wednesday/Thursday, November 4-5: First year writing staff meetings
Monday, November 9: Stephen Prothero campus visit
Monday, November 23: Festival of Writers
Welcome New Faculty
June 15, 2009
Join us in welcoming our two newest Assistant Professors, Dr. Elizabeth Allan and Dr. Dana Driscoll.
Dr. Allan's research examines the development of writing pedagogy to meet the challenges of 21st-century literacies. And Dr. Driscoll's work examines the role of student perceptions and attitudes in the transfer of knowledge.
Take a look at some of the exciting advanced writing and rhetoric courses we're offering this fall.
Join us in welcoming our two newest Assistant Professors, Dr. Elizabeth Allan and Dr. Dana Driscoll.
Dr. Allan's research examines the development of writing pedagogy to meet the challenges of 21st-century literacies. And Dr. Driscoll's work examines the role of student perceptions and attitudes in the transfer of knowledge.
Take a look at some of the exciting advanced writing and rhetoric courses we're offering this fall.
Festival of Writing Winter 2009
April 3, 2009
The 7th Annual Festival of Writing was held on Thursday, April 2, 2009 in the Oakland Center Banquet Rooms with more that 168 people sharing in the event. This year the cash awards were given in three categories: 1) individual projects, 2) group projects, and 3) oral presentations. Winners were selected through nominations made by faculty, administrators, and surveys filled out by both participants and visitors.
Festival Individual Winners
- First Place - Lisa Thomas - Tennis and Inner City Youth
- Second Place - Philip Matta - Digital Music Creation
- Third Place - Cinzia Caparso - Single Sex Schools
Festival Group Project Winners
- First Place – Michelle Siev, Caryn Rochfort, Nicole Hayes, Stephanie Smigiel, Lauren Patsarikas, Phillip Hall - Facebook
- Second Place – Kate Latham, Enduen Beleshi, Zack Hugg, Daniel Ring - The Truth About Marriage
- Third Place – Vodya Krishnamurthy, Emily Molczyk, Stephanie Montgomery, Dava Lor, Joe Reinhart, Dana Duvall, Katie Blackburn - International Child Marriage
Festival Oral Presentations
- First Place - Anetria Cole - Bronzeville Gold
- Second Place - Joseph Doss - FDA Protection
- Third Place - Ewald Dimo - Accuracy of Historical Films Michael Collins
CCCC 2009
March 31, 2009
A number of OU Writing faculty attended the 2009 Conference on College Composition and Communication in San Francisco, CA.
Walli Andersen, Marshall Kitchens, Greg Giberson, and Lori Ostergaard participated in a panel on the new department: Making Waves of Change: Creating a BA Degree in Writing and Rhetoric.
For a review of the conference, see Cornelia Pokrzywa's postings on Facebook.
A number of OU Writing faculty attended the 2009 Conference on College Composition and Communication in San Francisco, CA.
Walli Andersen, Marshall Kitchens, Greg Giberson, and Lori Ostergaard participated in a panel on the new department: Making Waves of Change: Creating a BA Degree in Writing and Rhetoric.
For a review of the conference, see Cornelia Pokrzywa's postings on Facebook.
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