Social engagement and transformation through writing, rhetoric and literacy
For Undergraduate StudentsFor Graduate Students
Our composition and rhetoric program is committed to writing as an expression of social justice, civic engagement and community partnership. We frame this work as “imaginative reasoning,” a deeply complex intellectual, creative, and political act. We use the phrase “imaginative reasoning” to capture all the ways we come to know our place, identities, and positions in the world through writing. Reasoning expresses the writer’s ability to understand the complex interplay of logical, emotional, and ethical approaches to literacy, composition, and pedagogy. Toward this end, our undergraduate and graduate students are invited to engage in the radical work of revision, of reframing again and again how we look at the world, at texts, and at ourselves.
Our Core Principles
Writing is a meaningful, purposeful practice.
The strongest writing emerges from writers who are invested in their projects, so we regularly invite students to develop their own purposes for composing. We view writing as valuable not only during college, but also throughout one’s personal, professional, social, and civic life.
Writing, reading, and teaching are transformative processes.
These processes allow us to create knowledge with others, engage new perspectives, rethink our own, and ultimately, to discover new possibilities for understanding, imagining, and acting in the world.
How we define “good writing” is shaped by culture and dependent upon context.
We analyze with students how ideas of “good” and “correct” writing are shaped by culture, and we consider what kinds of writing, and which writers, may be excluded by those standards in order to question these practices and enter longstanding conversations in composition. As we move into an increasingly digital world, we also aim to develop students’ facilities to compose and critically analyze online texts.
Reflection is key to both writing and learning.
Students regularly reflect on their writing choices and their intended effects. Reflection is a key component of revision; as we understand the choices we’ve made, we can imagine new ways of creating texts and to see and re-see the world we live in and the world we want to live in.
Writing and the teaching of writing are collaborative processes.
At all levels of our program, writers and teachers work together across boundaries and through community engagement to create effective texts for a variety of purposes and communities. Our teachers develop their classes in collaboration with other teachers (often across grade levels), and our program’s many research projects involve collaborative inquiry.
Responsible, ethical inquiry and argument occur when differences are respectfully engaged.
We are committed to fostering learning that encourages students to partake in the important civic process of recognizing the complexity and richness of human difference as they read, write, and converse with one another. Our diversity statement articulates this commitment.
Community Engagement and Writing Programs
Husker Writers
Opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students — Available all year
Husker Writers is a network of secondary teachers, college instructors, and community partners who collaborate to sponsor critical and creative literacies, public writing, and meaningful community action beyond the classroom. Teachers selected for the program collaboratively plan curriculum with a local non-profit partner or an instructor at a different institution to create opportunities for students to write for and with public audiences. With grant support from the Coordinating Commission on Postsecondary Education, the program officially launched in the 2017-2018 school year.
Nebraska Writing Project
Opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students
The Nebraska Writing Project (NeWP) works to invigorate, enrich, and educate by connecting educators, scholars, and writers across disciplines and at all levels. NeWP offers programs for teachers and students alike from writing marathons, retreats, and youth camps to teacher institutes and inservice programs.
Writing Center
Employment opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students — Available in fall and spring
Located in Andrews Hall, the Writing Center offers workshops and free one-on-one consulting to all members of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln community. Undergraduate and graduate consultants work one-on-one with writers at all levels and from all disciplines, assist with outreach workshops and presentations, and participate in ongoing staff education. The Writing Center also hosts writing retreats and sponsors a Writing Fellows program for undergraduates.
Debbie Minter
Associate Professor and Director of Composition and Rhetoric
Composition, rhetoric, and literacy studies, teacher research and faculty development, pedagogy, digital learning environments, and writing development
Rachel Azima
Associate Professor of Practice and Writing Center Director
Writing center studies, writing across the curriculum, teaching of writing, faculty development, and ecocriticism and place-conscious pedagogy
Robert Brooke
John E. Weaver Professor
Composition and rhetoric, critical theory, english education, rural education, and creative nonfiction
Amy Goodburn
Professor, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor, and Dean of Undergraduate Education
Composition, rhetoric, literacy studies, critical and multicultural pedagogies, ethnographic and teacher research, community/school literacy practices, and documenting and assessing teaching and learning in postsecondary education
Nicole Green
Lecturer
Composition and rhetoric, education policy advocacy, teacher development, disability studies, writing center studies, literacy studies
June Griffin
Professor of Practice and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education
Pedagogy, basic writing and college access, teaching with technology, learning transfer, and digital rhetoric
Scott Guild
Lecturer
Creative writing (fiction), novel writing, composition and rhetoric, literary and cultural studies, and anti-racist pedagogy
Jason McCormick
Lecturer
Composition and rhetoric, composition assessment practices, remedial education pedagogy, zombies, young adult literature, pop culture, and creative writing
Rachael W. Shah
Assistant Professor
Composition and rhetoric, community-based pedagogies, public rhetorics, professional writing, action research, and teaching of writing
Shari Stenberg
Professor and Director of Women's and Gender Studies
Composition and rhetoric, critical and feminist pedagogies, feminist rhetorics, and teaching and writing development
Stacey Waite
Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor and Chair of the Graduate Program
Composition, rhetoric, and literacy, queer theory/queer pedagogies, teaching of writing, feminist and gender studies, and creative writing/poetry
Matt Whitaker
Lecturer
Composition and rhetoric, Great Plains studies, critical geography, spatial theory, ecocriticism, animal studies, and material rhetorics