Week 4: September 17, 2019

Topic: Making Knowledge

Read/skim for class: 

  • Massey, L., & Gebhardt, R. C. (Eds.). (2011). The changing of knowledge in composition: Contemporary perspectives. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.
    • go to the library website
    • go to databases: project muse (select ebooks)
    • search on the title

In this book, you will need to read (remember our discussion of reading versus skimming)

    • The introduction
    • North’s notes (pp.11-14)
    • North’s chapter 11
    • Pick one other of your choice to skim/scan (be prepared to give a short summary of the chapter you choose; half of you will do this)

Do for class: 

  • Finding a counter history to knowledge in composition that give a different view of the “changing of knowledge in composition.” Skim only so that you can start to see how these can and do provide a different view. Your job is to skim these and then find one of your own. That is, to seek out a piece of scholarship that challenges or presents a different way of viewing knowledge (which is simply a part of “composition theory.”)
    • Ruiz, Iris D., & Baca, Damian. (2017). Decolonial options and writing studies. Composition Studies, 45(2), 226-229.
    • Craig, Collin Lamont, & Perryman-Clark, Staci Maree. (2011). Troubling the boundaries: (De)constructing WPA identities at the intersections of race and gender. WPA: Writing Program Administration, 34(2), 37-58.
    • Martinez, Aja Y. (2019). Core-Coursing Counterstory: On Master Narrative Histories of Rhetorical Studies Curricula. Rhetoric Review, 38(4), 402-416.

In class: 

  • Be prepared to share what you chose as your counter history and why it unsettles or provides a different view.
  • Discussion of your chosen chapters
  • Begin to Figure out what making knowledge means to you and us collectively

**Remember that it’s all about conversations and engaging with each other and the material. It’s about learning and growing and there should be little that’s stressful about that.