As a recent addition to the RWS department, Professor Edwards was well positioned to organize SDSU’s most recent Landmark Lecture. Edwards, with the help of Karen Keene, Glen McClish, and Matt Gantos, chose the theme “Violence, Precarity, and Doing Rhetoric Otherwise in the Borderland.” After strategically selecting participants to lead the various discussions surrounding the issues that come with San Diego being a border city, Edwards landed on Sonia Arellano and Kenneth Walker. 

The Landmark Lecture, for those unfamiliar, is “an opportunity for faculty, students, staff and scholars from outside the university to converse and engage in pressing issues that are circulating in the fields of writing studies, rhetoric, and composition.” Although this was the 22nd event, the Landmark Lecture is praised for keeping originality and relevance through every event. In the past, subjects addressed have ranged from ancient rhetorics, to online pedagogy, to linguistic justice. These lectures allow “us to get keyed-into the broader conversations happening in the discipline, and it’s a way for graduate and undergraduate students to get one-on-one time with academic leaders in our discipline,” Edwards says. 

This year, Arellano and Walker gave a presentation together that focused on rhetoric in the borderlands. Each spoke on their own research projects relating to the matter. Walker presented his book project, “Climate Politics on the Border: Environmental Justice Rhetorics,” in addition to a community project about bird migration, extinction and Indigenous knowledge practices. Arellano spoke about her work with the Migrant Quilt Project, which touched on how quilting can honor those who have died while attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

Arellano and Walker both presented important insights that reflected in the discussion afterwards. Edwards states, “Moving back and forth between Dr. Walker and Dr. Arellano, we saw an accumulation of stories about border crossings, about violence, and about art-based projects that imagined this violent world otherwise.” Both speakers intentionally separated their viewpoints on the matter and drew a careful line between opinion and fact; clear steps were given to how they approached their work while also staying rather humble. Something that was done notably well was their ability to highlight the work of the community and participants alike. Edwards reflects on his appreciation for how the talk concluded, “Dr. Arellano ended on a hopeful note — that there are small, potent gestures we can make to change our worlds, to make them otherwise.”

Overall, Edwards notes that our perception of rhetoric contributes to our understanding of “language, frameworks, and practices related to living and negotiating our often-messy everyday lives.” Rhetoric “forms our relationships, our ways of understanding the world, and our ways of being in the world.”

After reflecting on the Landmark Lecture, Edwards suggests the following to any students seeking advice:

“I think it’s important to make things. Make things that matter to you and challenge yourself with finding creative forms that open you up to new experiences. Rhetoric can take you in so many different directions. There is certainly beauty in that, but it can be overwhelming too. Find what holds you, what keeps you invested and wanting to know more about.

I also think it’s important to be practical. What are your long-term goals and how can you get there? How can you interact with people who are in roles you desire and learn more about how they got there? How can you get experiences in your university years that will propel you into where do you want to go? Of course, that path may well change, but getting a wealth of experiences and talking to lots of different people might make the horizon on that path a little clearer.”

The period during which writing studies was growing and blossoming was an exciting time and also a frustrating one, since as it was emerging as a discipline in its own right, it was also growing apart from literature studies. Across the country writing programs began to separate from English departments, as linguistics had done before. As the developer of a Writing Across the Curriculum program at SDSU, I was part of a core group of writing faculty in the English department, all of us women, who were doing research in this new field. It was a time when academe was still very male-dominated; women were not always taken seriously as scholars. 

As both a female lecturer and a faculty wife, I could see no future for me in the English department, so in 1986 I left to take a tenure-track position elsewhere. I remained good friends with Sherry Little (who had been my office mate) and Shirley Rose, who were two of the prime movers in the creation of the new SDSU Department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies. In 1990 the three of us got together one long afternoon at the Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference in Oregon to discuss their proposal for the break with English. My role was to respond to their draft proposal, to discuss the name for this new department, and to help them strategize about how to present the final proposal to the Faculty Senate (many members of the Senate had been in my WAC [Writing Across the Curriculum] Faculty Seminars). We then went out for a celebratory drink. The Senate passed their proposal in 1993, and the rest is history.

A word on the name of the new department. At the time there were several different names for the new discipline that was developing, none of them quite right. “Composition” was a difficulty because that term belongs to the Music Department; Google it and you will see. “Writing” was also problematic, since students assumed a writing department taught creative writing, and those classes were usually retained by English departments. It was Shirley Rose who came up with “Rhetoric and Writing Studies,” which I think perfectly captures the nature of our discipline. Some new departments/programs followed suit, for example the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR, pronounced — I love it — “power”) at Stanford.

When thinking back to when she was writing her thesis, Flewelling describes her experience as both rewarding and challenging: “I think I've never worked so hard on a project in my life. The research part was nothing but fun, asking questions and then just exploring random connections in order to develop cohesive claims. But organizing those claims into some cogent piece of writing that made sense to someone who wasn't me was like twisting a Rubik’s Cube.” 

Flewelling goes on to describe the difficulty that comes with writing a thesis, but also the amount of support that the RWS department gave her, which ultimately provided the motivation to finish it. “I kept giving myself the same good advice that I was giving my students. Reminding myself that I should just write a bad paper, that I could revise later, that it didn't matter if it didn't make sense immediately,” she said. “Drs. McClish and Werry were incredibly helpful, asking questions that helped me figure out how to approach the various chapters. They were also very encouraging, reminding me that the ideas were there, and they mostly made sense. That encouragement kept me going.” 

Flewelling also reflects on how grateful she is to have gotten to know the people within the RWS department. “Our support staff in RWS is amazing, and I love sharing reading ideas and creative ways to adapt essay prompts with colleagues,” she said. “I keep meeting really lovely students, people who want to learn, want to grow, want to be challenged. And I feel super connected to our writing center community, the directors and tutors I spend a lot of time with.  We get to play around with ideas, with texts, with how to communicate, and how to convey ideas effectively.” 

She goes on to describe just how much she has learned from this department and the people in it, and she mentions that there is one thing that has stuck with her the most: “I think perhaps the thing that I think about most is the construction of ethos, this idea that the way I communicate my ideas can determine whether or not people take my and my ideas seriously. And this influences the way I teach, the way I write, the way I interact with people outside of an educational environment. In particular, this was useful as I started teaching online asynchronous classes: I think about how I demonstrate shared values, concern, knowledgeability, fairness . . . and although I always want to convey my authentic self, I am mindful that different groups of people will value different aspects of myself.”

Jenkins reflects on his time working on his MFA while simultaneously working as a TA in the department — he describes this period of his life to be incredibly impactful when it comes to both his education and his career: “I particularly loved the TA training program the RWS department offered. The community of instructors, mentors, and fellow TAs created an enlightening space to work through some of the struggles that come with teaching a class for the first time. I’m honored to now work with the TA training program, and I really enjoy working with our TAs as they develop their teaching skills.” 

When it comes to critical topics such as inclusivity, Jenkins mentions how grateful he is to work at both SDSU and with the RWS program: “Being a border community, and a region filled with a vibrant Indigenous presence, I’m glad to work at a place that respects those attributes, and strives to create a more inclusive learning environment.” 

Jenkins aims to place an emphasis on inclusivity within the department, and he has been able to intertwine inclusivity into his courses in a way that is incredibly admirable. “Currently I’m working with our Global Rhetorics group,” he reveals, “and with the help of that community and our work, I’m able to develop more inclusive teaching practices and varying methods of rhetorical analysis for my classes.”

Thinking back to his time as a student, Jenkins offers some thoughtful insights: “The time management part of being a student is a skill that we don’t often learn about in a dedicated class, but it’s a huge part of successfully navigating academic life. Take the time to manage your school, personal, and social schedule, and try to find a balance that works for you.” Jenkins then concludes his valuable advice by emphasizing just how important it is for students to reach out and form connections with their instructors: “I wish I’d known how open and willing all the instructors are at SDSU. I haven’t met anyone teaching at the university that hasn’t put students first. When I was a student, I was a little intimidated to approach instructors to talk about my interests and research. Now that I’m a faculty member, I try to encourage students to take advantage of the opportunities they have while studying at SDSU.” 

Quandahl’s contribution to the development of the RWS program at SDSU has made a big impact on making the program what it is today. “Coming to the Department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies in the second year of its existence offered the opportunity to help build a new department, and that was tremendously exciting,” she notes. “The collaborative work of envisioning a writing program with colleagues from rhetoric, linguistics, academic skills, and composition was challenging and intense. I look back with some pride on working with those people to create a writing program, and then a master’s degree, and then an undergraduate major during a time when there were fewer rhetoric departments in the country. I vividly recall representing the department at the SDSU Academic Senate on the day it approved the M.A. program. It was thrilling.”

Thinking back to her graduate work at the University of Iowa, Quandahl reflects on the many people that made an impact on her career: “My graduate school mentor, Richard Lloyd-Jones, who authored benchmark work in composition and developed the doctoral specialization in rhetoric at the University of Iowa; Kenneth Burke, the great 20th-century theorist of rhetoric whom I had the privilege of meeting several times; and, I suppose, Aristotle. Scarcely a day goes by when my reading doesn’t call to mind an idea from Kenneth Burke. Despite recent and important critiques, Aristotle’s works on emotion, happiness, virtue, and language are still anchors. During my first academic job — at UCLA writing programs — I was fortunate to work with Mike Rose, who taught us so much about the cultural competence and insights of non-traditional students, and I was greatly influenced by Mike’s friend David Bartholomae and his colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh. Their textbook ‘Ways of Reading,’ which has gone through so many editions, is still fantastic. It sounds like my influences were all men! But I had an undergraduate teacher, a woman and a feminist, who really introduced me to the whole concept of rhetoric. I don’t think I would have had a career without the work of feminist scholars like Pat Bizzell, Susan Jarratt, Lisa Ede, Cheryl Glenn, and many others.”    

When discussing rhetoric, Quandahl describes her personal philosophy in the following words: “Rhetoric is everywhere! Watching how language (spoken, written, visual, musical) achieves effects and how rhetorical pedagogy embraces private and civic life are endlessly fascinating and important. Rhetoric bridges public address, poetics, psychology, politics, and a long teaching tradition. Just last week I listened to a podcast by southern California earthquake guru Lucy Jones, who has begun composing music to help people engage with climate change! She’s thinking about how it is that humans are moved, the emotional component that often engages us more deeply than information — and that is rhetoric.”

Quandahl goes on to describe one of her favorite writing projects that she has worked on, as well as her favorite courses that she has taught: “When I began studying ancient Greek, I met with a small study group of colleagues. Through various turns, we discovered and worked on the Byzantine historian Anna Komnene. It was breathtaking to see in her history comments about and evidence of a rhetorical training that was familiar from our work in ancient rhetoric. Over the years, I worked on Anna and wrote several pieces. The most recent, in Hawhee and Valiavitcharska, ‘The Practice of Rhetoric’ (University of Alabama Press, 2022), concerns history as a compositional and argumentative resource. The project encapsulates many of my interests: rhetorical theory and pedagogy, women rhetors, the persistence of the ancient rhetorical tradition.” 

When asked about her favorite courses to teach, Quandahl could not pick just one. “In my early years in RWS I often taught Theory and Practice of Teaching Composition,” she says. “I enjoyed the challenging doubleness of it — watching my own practice and interaction with students even as we read about and discussed theory and practice, engaging in the kinds of pedagogy that I was encouraging students to try out.”

“The class is always intense and emotional, as everyone has strong ideas about what writing is and how to teach it, and strongly imagined ideas about what it is that students need to know. I admired the students, their intense efforts, and their writing. Many I now consider friends and colleagues. I also taught the history of rhetoric course almost every year, in a time when the narrative of rhetoric’s history was changing and the scope of ‘antiquity’ and ‘the classical’ morphed from ‘western’ to a rich crossroads of cultures. So there was always new material to learn and share, and there was the challenge of showing the ongoing relevance of ideas from a cultural past very different from our own situation. Just last week The Washington Post published an article called ‘As Black Educators, We Endorse Classical Studies,’ both acknowledging the oppressive dimensions of past practices and embracing the long conversation about what it is to be human, to communicate, to live well. What could be more engaging?”

Lastly, Quandahl shares two pieces of incredibly valuable advice for current students: 

1. Seek out mentors whose work intrigues you. Use writing to figure out what you think and what you need to know. Practice trying on the methods and approaches of various scholars. Attend conferences. If you’re interested in the history of rhetoric, don’t be afraid to learn Greek and/or Latin — they are still relevant!
   
   
2. Mentors and colleagues are profoundly important. I was a shy student, shy about asking for help and about asking how to shape a research agenda. Now I know that people in our field are generally kind folks who welcome any and all questions.

In addition to her underlying interests in this field, Benitez mentions how the pandemic also played a significant role in determining her next move. As a sophomore during the peak of the pandemic, Benitez was frequently worried that attending nursing clinicals would put her health at risk. Though she had a hard time giving it up, she remembers thinking to herself during her final decision to switch majors, “I am trading one passion for another.” After taking a leap of faith, hoping that the major would “improve and provide [her] with the skills to formulate better arguments,” Benitez can confidently say that she feels prepared and has learned to do just that. 

She specifically thanks the program for teaching her how to “analyze a rhetorical situation” — a skill Benitez thought was only implied in writing spaces, but has come to learn that it is recognizable everywhere. Her now trained eye has not only learned how to observe this in everyday life, but also how to use it to her advantage in situations like job interviews. Benitez directly thanks Dr. Salas for fostering her ability to continue perfecting her research skills, as well as allowing her to be creative and pick her own subject to do a research paper on. When Benitez wrote about her chosen topic of “The Rhetoric of Tattoos,” she mentions that she was able to “apply the skills and knowledge that [she] learned in previous RWS courses.” 

If Benitez could go back in time and tell her freshman-year self what to expect when joining the RWS program, she wishes that she knew about all of the opportunities the major entails. From the RWS 506 internship course, employment options at the writing center, as well as being able to become an RWS writing mentor, she would encourage any undeclared freshman to look into the program and consider majoring in it. Benitez’s final thoughts on RWS are concluded positively by the following statement: “The material one learns in RWS classes can be both practical and philosophical. Rhetoric pushes students to explore perspectives that they may have not otherwise considered. Yes, RWS students learn to be better writers, but also better critical thinkers and analysts.” 

Louie’s favorite course at SDSU thus far is one that has “played the largest role in [his] studies and beyond.” RWS 596: Decolonial Rhetorics, with Consuelo Salas, helped Louie “bridge some of the conversations [he] had outside of the university (regarding decolonization on [his] home island of Guam) to academia.” Louie is thankful that he got to experience how rhetoric is theorized and discussed with regard to decolonization, in addition to being able to contribute to the conversation with matters from his personal life and as a Chamorro (the Indigenous people of Guam). He adds that the seminar paper he wrote for this class was “one of my favorite papers that I have written.” 

Building on his cultural history, Louie attended the Conference on College Composition and Communication on February 17, 2023, to speak about his research relating to incorporating food into the classroom environment; he hopes to show students that “the knowledge they have from their home (or cultures) — like food — is something that can be utilized to understand and participate in conversations in academia.” Louie hopes to tie together food and rhetoric to showcase discussions in topics like translanguaging — utilizing a person’s multiple dialects and creating a way to view them as “fluid and interconnected” — and also showing that “elements of culture — like food and language — don’t exist in a singular/standard way but, rather, can take multiple forms or styles to fit the needs of different people.”

Louie is incredibly grateful for both the structure and freedom that the RWS master’s program has given him. He has enjoyed his time here so much that he is planning on pursuing a Ph.D. in rhetoric and  composition. He will be attending University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall and is confident that his M.A. in RWS from SDSU “will serve as the foundation for [his] future coursework, teaching, and scholarship within the field of rhetoric and composition.” 

Though I (Celia) knew that adjusting to a different culture would be somewhat shocking, I figured that being in a country that spoke English would be relatively simple. Little did I know that the Glaswegian accent is one of the most difficult ones to understand; even as I write this at the end of my term, I’m still never positive I can understand their phrases on my first try. Nonetheless, the charming people really do make Glasgow, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

At my host university, I was able to enroll in several courses that would allow me to further my understanding of rhetoric. My favorite class was a third-year course titled “Gender and Celebrity Culture.” In both a small and large lecture, we met twice a week to discuss the ways that gender plays a significant role in the media and how certain language enforced by society can carry both negative and positive connotations depending on the target audience. We looked at a variety of examples of celebrity behavior and learned that oftentimes a man will receive less backlash than a woman in the same position; the rhetoric associated with him is light-hearted and forgiving, whereas the rhetoric characterizing the woman is shameful and manipulative. Examining the different sides to this only reminded me that written, spoken, and visual language will always be able to consciously and subconsciously persuade any given audience. It is a true skill and is something that will always interest me about RWS. 

Outside of class, I met other exchange students in the same position, and we took on everything that came with moving to a new country together. While I learned how to do so many things abroad like figure out the public transit, the Scottish grading system, currency conversion, and memorizing my UK phone number, the one thing I never understood, despite my trying, was the Scottish love for beans on toast and why there needs to be mayonnaise on everything. Though I like to think of myself as open minded, I have yet to find a reason that makes sense for this. 

But in all seriousness, studying abroad in Scotland has been the best experience of my life. Though leaving home was hard and not seeing my family for quite some time was an adjustment, gaining this much independence is something that I will be forever grateful for. I was able to explore all of Scotland and see so many parts of their beautiful country. From the Highlands, to the Isle of Skye, to the Harry Potter Bridge, the only flaw I can find is the gloomy weather, and yet I was still able to appreciate that too. In my spare time, I discovered cheap flights via the infamous RyanAir, did a two-and-a-half-week backpacking trip through Europe, met people from all over the world, and found myself trying to savor the moments I knew would soon be fleeting.

Just like Celia, in January of 2023, I (Noelle) packed up all of my belongings and moved to the United Kingdom for four months. I was going to be attending the University of Kent in the small town of Canterbury, England. Studying abroad had always been a dream of mine, so landing at the London Heathrow airport was one of the most exciting moments of my life. I felt as if I was constantly learning fundamental life lessons while I was abroad — I was able to gain so much confidence and independence which has helped me in so many ways already. Over the past few months, I am so fortunate to have been able to have gotten to see so many beautiful and historic cities in the UK and Europe, while also meeting so many incredible people along the way. I even got to meet up with Celia in one of my now favorite cities, Edinburgh, Scotland!

Throughout my time studying at the University of Kent, I found myself constantly finding new ways to deepen my knowledge of and understanding of rhetoric. Specifically, one of my favorite courses was Reading Victorian Literature, which focused on a different novel, poem, or short story from the Victorian Era each week. With both a lecture and seminar on each text, I was able to develop a deep understanding of the forms of rhetoric that the Victorians interacted with. It was through this course that I found myself analyzing the many ways in which rhetoric has been used in the past, as well as how these forms of rhetoric still impact us today. I loved looking at rhetoric through a historical lens like this — I found myself constantly coming back to this idea that rhetoric is used to construct identity (which I found to be incredibly prevalent in novels we read such as “Middlemarch” and “Oliver Twist”). This course just continued to further my passion for RWS, and I greatly enjoyed discussing the many different perspectives my peers and lecturers had on the different forms of rhetoric we analyzed throughout my term. 

This was the first time I had ever left the United States, and I remember being incredibly apprehensive to go completely alone. Little did I know that that would be the best decision of my life. Canterbury is such a charming city, and naturally I fell in love with it immediately. It was the perfect home away from home for me, and it was in such close proximity to the bustling city of London. For me, traveling to different cities and countries was a goal, but it was also incredibly important to me that I immerse myself into the city I was studying in. 

It was such an indescribable and fulfilling experience to build a life in a completely new country. Whether it was through befriending other study abroad students from all across the world, getting to know the locals (people like my flatmates, service workers, and classmates), or simply picking up some of the British dialect, I never expected to feel as connected to the city and people I met as much as I did. I am so thankful to both SDSU and the RWS program for giving me the opportunity to have an experience of a lifetime and memories that I will cherish forever. 

As we reflect on our time abroad, we are both so grateful that our involvement in the RWS department allowed us to have these unforgettable experiences. Rhetoric is truly everywhere, and it was such a blessing to be able to interact with and interpret the many different forms of rhetoric that we came across in our travels. 

Linfor describes how deeply she is interested in equity and making the RWS department more equitable. As a co-founder of the Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group, Linfor expresses that she sits on the RWS Diversity Committee and works to implement the department’s diversity plan. Linfor explains that she wrote a global rhetorics grant with her colleagues Karen Koss and Consuelo Salas, who are working to “shift the fundamental ideas of what we teach away from Eurocentric and Greek rhetorics into a global perspective of rhetorical concepts.” 

Linfor explains how the department’s Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group began as a movement within the department when several members of the department decided that they “wanted a space to reckon with the policies and look at the department and [their] experiences through the lens of what it would mean to be anti-racist, equitable, and inclusive.” And that is exactly what they did. Linfor mentions how the field of rhetoric stems from a “normative understanding of the world, and since rhetoric is about communicative acts, it’s given power to those normatives and there’s a reckoning around that. At the same time, rhetoric is the key to opening [equity] up. And we can do so by honoring the communicative acts of our own communities.” 

When it comes to the term “diversity,” Linfor expresses how it “really means to create a culture and change basic policies and paradigms to where all different ways of existence are valued as resources.” In fact, she expressed a dislike for the term in general. “Diversity tends to have to do with numbers, right? Meaning that one measure of a department’s diversity is the ability to quantify a range of membership in that department. Whether that’s from gender lines, or ability lines, or ethnic lines, or schools of thoughts lines, or class status lines. Those things as quantifiable measures are important, but I’m more interested in issues of equity.” 

At present, Linfor is working on revising a book she wrote titled “I Animal.” The book aims to look at “what happens when we cut ourselves off from identifying as human animals. It’s an interesting book rhetorically because a lot of times poetry is seen as very inaccessible. If you’re reading electronically and you take the cursor, you can scroll over the words and it will connect to allusions I’m making.” Along with this project, as a professor of equity at SDSU, Linfor is especially interested in creating safe spaces, “celebrating the rhetorical traditions of people, and concentrating on futurity — what we call the elsewhere and the otherwise.” 

Linfor shared some incredibly valuable and impactful advice for current students. “I think that staying intellectually curious, having specialized interests (in equity or whatever it is), and a passion about that is really important,” she says. “It’s also important to embrace the diversity of our field in terms of how we get here, and be joyous for however you arrived here, whether that's as a journalist or a technical writer. Because each one of those fields has enormous things to add to our discipline. Just like me as a poet. Everyone has room in this department.”

One could argue that Johns is self-taught, as she talks about never having taken a teaching of writing course; which makes her accomplishments all the more impressive. She gives credit to “some of the great names in second language writing: John Swales, Ken Hyland, Vijay Bhatia, Chris Feak, and Chris Tardy” for mentoring her and allowing her to read their brilliant work, some of which inspired her to complete research with students from her classroom as participants. This prompted one of her questions in her best-known paper in Written Composition that deals with how “a Vietnamese-speaking SDSU student continued to fail our timed essay-writing exams but made ‘A’ grades on his short-answer tests in biology,” which led Johns to ask, “How could that be? Perhaps we should reconsider what we are teaching in academic writing classes.”

As an avid traveler with a goal of writing curricula for composition classes, Johns acknowledges how different academic writing is in different parts of the world, which is why during her Fulbrights in Lebanon and South Africa she specifically made a point to “develop courses for local college students.” In China, she worked with a “fine rhetorician, Rick Coe, in programs for experienced language teachers.”

Throughout her life, Johns has placed an emphasis on the value of being able to write and teach curricula. After some time, she decided to shift her main focus from strictly research to teaching. After being “promoted to full professor” and then retiring, Johns states that she is “free to write what [she] believe[s] is much more useful to teachers: a textbook based on genre theory.” She was incredibly passionate about writing this textbook, and when a colleague from the University of Delaware, Nigel Caplan, approached her with an idea to collaborate on the book, Johns was thrilled. “We worked together for more than five years on this book, agreeing on most points but disagreeing on others, writing, revising, and writing again, until we came up with the publishable volume, ‘Essential Actions for Academic Writing: A Genre-Based Approach’ (University of Michigan Press, 2021).” Johns mentions how much she learned from co-writing this text and credits Nigel Caplan as the “first author.” She has worked on and written three different volumes for Michigan.

Out of her numerous rhetorical accomplishments, Johns discusses that some of the most interesting projects that she has worked on took place in South Africa and Lebanon while she was a Fulbright scholar. While she was there, Johns was fortunate to be able to work “closely with local faculty and administrators and their students to produce academic English curricula that were appropriate for the context in which [they] were working.” She worked diligently on this project, as it “involved interviews with various stakeholders, analyses of student writing and university textbooks, testing materials, and LOTS of meetings,” while also making wonderful friendships along the way. 

Johns offers some incredibly relevant advice for current students who are looking to further their education in the field of rhetoric and writing. She emphasizes the following: 

• Take every opportunity to learn that you can. For example, your instructors are experts — ask them questions. Your fellow students have interesting lives. How can you work with them to gain knowledge and become better teachers and researchers? Become involved. Create communities.
• Despite its dangers (and they were present, even when we traveled), see the world.  And, more importantly, live and work in different parts of this shrinking globe. Apply for a Fulbright, for example.
• Enjoy! My family and I (husband and three kids) had a wonderful time traveling, meeting people, expanding our horizons, studying the local languages, etc.      
• And analyze texts from the genres in your worlds. It's fun.

Teaching these courses has allowed Bekins to engage with students of all interests. She values the interaction with the science-focused students, how to tie in rhetorical emphasis, as well as how to bring in a linguistic approach. She values the diversity in the course and how science and writing are combined flawlessly in an environment that encourages students not to limit themselves. As for RWS 607, Bekins’ primary role is to engage with students in the transition between academia to the professional world. She brings in speakers, as well as alumni who offer their insights on the world of writing which also contributes to her appreciation for the varied nature of the two topics.

If Bekins could go back in time, she would tell her younger self and those like her to “be surrounded by people that challenge you, be proactive in sharing, expanding, and co-creating knowledge, and learn how to apply what you are learning in the classroom to the world outside academia: you are learning the tools to enact the change you’d like to see in the world.” Bekins will follow her own advice as she continues to teach at SDSU while taking on new consulting experiences. She has recently been working with an international user/experience design group that works on the topic of gendered financial literacy in the workplace. Balancing her work life with her family/social life, Bekins is looking forward to spending time with her three sons, cooking her favorite Spanish tapas, and training for long distance stand up paddle board competitions. 

Through his research of the rhetoric of standard time from the 19th Century, De los Santos learned about the different cases and systems that were being made for standardized time. “I really wanted to understand the questions–how did we get there and how did we come to adopt these time systems that we now take for granted. It was fun for me because…I never really thought about the confluence of rhetoric and technology and science.” He mentions that the SDSU library publishes student’s theses and his thesis can be found in the bookstacks there. 

During his time as a student, De los Santos found studying rhetoric to be incredibly beneficial and educational. “I think it's really the idea of being exposed to things that I had never really been exposed to before, especially the idea of rhetoric and how it functions and the dynamic aspects of it. We take a lot of things for granted and we don’t really think about it. What was really eye-opening for me was the idea that language and how we use images… can be a very powerful force in our society.” From his time as both a student and as a teacher, De los Santos was fortunate to have been able to establish his passions and incorporate them into his studies and courses. He mentions how he has loved being able to include his passion for history into rhetoric courses that he has taught and projects that he has worked on. De los Santos discussed how he incorporated both of these passions within his doctoral dissertation that he wrote about the Mexican ministry of finance, which covered “their rhetoric in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.” 

In terms of his more current research since obtaining his Ph.D., De los Santos has had many exciting projects and continues to have even more in store. He mentions the importance of Latin American rhetorics throughout his career and how he has spent much time bringing awareness to it. During one of the Rhetoric Society of America conferences a few years ago, he states that he was “able to get the first panel ever dedicated to Latin American rhetorics,” which is an incredibly huge accomplishment within the field. He has also spent time furthering a previous project on the “Dreamer” population returning to schools in Mexico. “The whole point of the project was to try to use data that we were getting about their educational needs and experiences to try to reevaluate the curriculum that the university has there.” With that previous project in mind, De los Santos is furthering his work by researching how the “dynamics of education is changing because of this influx of new immigrants” and how rhetoric plays a role in that. He and his colleagues are working toward creating a “broader… binational understanding of how education works.” 

Reflecting on his time as a student, De los Santos expresses incredibly beneficial advice to current students. “It’s important to really understand the discipline that you are in, but also be open to what other disciplines offer you — what other lenses you can use to approach a certain topic” He explains how valuable it is to explore different worldviews and perspectives, because it holds us accountable and “keeps us honest.” De los Santos adds that with the perspective of both a student and a teacher, RWS at San Diego State University is an admirable program and especially notes the excellence of Glen McClish. “You can compare it to other programs, and I have, and I think Dr. McClish has done an excellent job… really creating a program that I believe has” been able to get “students prepared for whatever future that they desire to pursue.”

One of the beautiful things about learning how to write professionally is being able to tailor the style of writing to the type of career you want. Bardin seems to have mastered this skill since switching trajectories in her path in life several times since graduating as she now writes “everything science.” From website copy to case studies, leadership bios, awards submissions, thought leadership articles, blogs, conference materials, press releases, and scripts for crowdfunding videos, Bardin has used her skills from the RWS department to leverage her rhetorical training to craft content for a variety of audiences. 

Bardin recalls the most interesting project she worked on thus far was drafting a case study for the biotech company Metabolon. She was able to dig deep into scientific articles and find peer-reviewed journals in order to craft multiple case studies. However, because she was left on her own to do the research without much communication from a scientist to ask questions, she “had to leverage [her] rhetorical training to comb the article for key takeaways and then employ the domain-specific vocabulary (most of which [she] had not studied previously) to craft a case study for an audience of researchers.” Because of her foundations in rhetoric at SDSU and her ability to dissect the rhetorical situation, she was able to make what would normally be unfamiliar information to the public eye both comprehensive and compelling. She joyfully mentioned that “it’s projects like this where I get to be a full-fledged rhetorician that I enjoy most.”

From teaching, to college counseling, to scientific writing, Emma leaves us with the reminder that when looking at life through the lens of a rhetorician, it is important to remember that everyone perceives things differently. No matter what profession she is in, Bardin remembers to always reflect on a few key strategies when it comes to analyzing her next work: “take inventory of the rhetorical situation and draft content accordingly. Who is the audience, and what do they care about, what matters to them? What is the desired ethos of the author? And then draft the argument accordingly. So often writing falls short because we write for ourselves instead of the actual audience.” 

Learn more at bardin-consulting.com.

“I recall fondly learning about and applying rhetorical analysis to research articles in Professor Glen McClish’s Reading & Writing Rhetorically course; contemplating “truth” in Professor Ellen Quandahl’s History of Rhetoric course; challenging notions of “otherness” and “right/wrong” binaries in Professor Richard Boyd’s Modern Rhetoric and Composition Studies course; and learning about and evaluating research methods in Professor Ornatowski’s Research Methods in Rhetoric and Writing Studies course. These courses were all so welcoming, meaningful, and intellectually stimulating to me. And I still have all my papers that I wrote for each of these classes!”

Watson mentions how incredibly thankful she is to have been able to work with Professor Ann Johns. “What an honor it was to work with such an influential scholar in the field of Second Language Writing. Professor Johns helped me to design and implement several case studies of multilingual scholars, to make connections with potential candidates to interview, and to complete a thesis I was proud of. I ended up presenting my findings at my first major academic conference and later publishing a version of the thesis as my first solo-authored publication.”

Watson also reminisces about her time studying and tutoring under Professor Michael Underwood. “This position allowed me to immerse myself in my studies, craft, and academic community at SDSU in ways I had never experienced. Indeed, as an undergraduate at SDSU, I struggled to build community and feel a sense of belonging being a transfer student new to the area and college. But because of Professor Underwood’s welcoming and collegial approach, I quickly made connections with him, with peers, and with undergraduate students.” Watson’s passion for both composition and research is evident throughout all of her educational and professional endeavors, especially when it comes to teaching. 

“I can still recall vividly the very first day I taught composition at SDSU. The spring of 2008. The class was across the bridge over College Avenue, in what’s now called College Square. I opened the classroom door with my left hand, my heart pounding, as I was presented with what seemed at the time to be a sea of seated students. I saw only the back of their heads as I squeezed through a tight aisle toward the front of the class, my brand new fancy briefcase in my right hand. As I made my way and faced my students for the first time, I felt absolutely horrified that they’d know that instant that I had never done this before and didn’t quite know what the hell I was doing. This spring it’ll be 15 years since that first semester, and I can still remember some of their faces.”

Watson describes how the lessons she learned while in the RWS program have shaped her into the teacher and researcher that she is today. She mentions that while in the M.A. program, she learned “an invaluable lesson about embracing and facing your academic fears.” As a student, Watson found herself turning down teaching and tutoring opportunities — she would ignore calls looking for “tutors in the ESL composition sections” simply because she did not think it was for her. After pausing to reflect and think about why exactly she was turning down these opportunities, she realized it was because she was scared. Instead of shying away from it, she embraced her fears and volunteered to teach two ESL writing sections, ultimately falling in love with the field. “This moment of fearing unfamiliar territory, leaning into and exploring that feeling, and then facing it head on proved to be one of the most pivotal moments of my academic career.” Looking back on that period of time in her life where she was filled with both curiosity and uncertainty, Watson shares three pieces of advice:

• Rest assured that this program will prepare you well for your professional goals! I have heard over the years just how often students in M.A. programs gain exposure to a field’s content but not experience with its practices. The RWS M.A. program provides both and really sets graduates up to succeed in their professions.
• To all RWS students, not just those pursuing the teaching of writing specialization, I would recommend taking the RWS 796A: Teaching Internship course and, if possible, teaching a composition course or two. I get that teaching is not for everyone, but I also believe many professional writers would enjoy this gig. It’s so engaging and rewarding! I was the only student in my cohort to specialize in the teaching of writing, and I would have so enjoyed having more colleagues in RWS join me and help provide some mentorship to other graduate teachers coming from English.  
• Consider getting a TESOL Certificate! I pursued this certificate and used the courses as my electives. It looks great on your resume, but more so, I’ve found the expertise I gained to have been incredibly useful to me as an instructor given that most students I work with are linguistically diverse.

Since completing her Ph.D. in composition and cultural rhetoric at Syracuse University, Watson has incorporated writing through her research and teaching in many ways. She is currently a tenured associate professor of English at the City College of New York, as well as a teacher of composition, and has many academic publications with “more than 15 articles in print and one edited collection, ‘Literacy and Learning in Times of Crisis.’” Watson expresses that she enjoys working with colleagues on publications — one example being an article explaining personal experiences from teachers who are pursuing “raciolinguistic justice.” 

Currently, she is working on a “student handbook titled ‘Not Your Mom’s Handbook on Your Language and Writing,’ an edited collection on social justice approaches to addressing language in teaching college composition, and a book chapter on the connections between basic writing and translingual writing.” 

He recalls how “the term rhetoric also piqued [his] interest because at one point [he] only thought of it within the political realm and as a negative connotation”; however, “after reading the course list, [he] became drawn to the flexibility of the courses, from digital rhetoric to professional writing and editing.” 

When asked about his favorite RWS course over the duration of his time at SDSU, he jokingly replied, “I can’t pick, that’s like picking a favorite kid!” Nonetheless, he made a point to mention how grateful he was for the smaller class sizes that created “riveting group discussions that [he] found very enlightening.” In addition to how useful he found the class structures to be, he reflects on the most useful skills he picked up from his professors — one being how he learned how to “separate [himself] from [his] writing,” and how “shifting perspectives helped [him] recontextualilze [his] own writing and refine [his] work.” 

Berry’s advice to anyone looking to join the program is to not feel intimidated by the unfamiliar name: “the most exciting thing about the program is how approachable it is. I’ve never felt scared to reach out to a professor for help and from the start they were always helpful.” He adds that, “even if it’s not a major for you, the classes you take could help you figure out what you really want to pursue. Learning about Plato and Pepsi could make you realize you want to go into philosophy or business marketing.” 

Varrichio explains that throughout her time in the RWS master’s program, her perception of writing was constantly changing. Thanks to one of Glen McClish’s classes, she was able to learn about different approaches to writing. After an activity that included reading a piece by Daniel Chandler, she describes how “the article introduced different perspectives that individuals might have when approaching a writing project. Some tended to approach writing like a bricklayer. Others could approach writing like an oil painter. The characteristics did not bind one person to a specific strategy, but explored different perspectives and approaches that may be taken. It was a great read not only to use for self-reflection, but also to open my mind and learn more about how others may perceive and address something simple like writing and editing a prompt.” 

Giving thanks to another instructor who she thought made an impact on her understanding of rhetoric, Varrichio recalls Cezar Ornatowski’s philosophy on how visual rhetoric is just as important as the written component alongside it. She mentions how “in his class we learned how to examine spaces, design, and things like propaganda to determine what rhetorical tools are being used. After the program, I went on to develop elearning materials and I am now using visual rhetoric in my courses all the time!” Not only was this course a standout in her memory during her time at SDSU, but it also was able to help her decide what to do with her career path. 

Varrichio jokes that aside from “constant emails and instant messaging communications,” she consults on process documentation for the business and writes a lot of different learning materials. Outside of her main career, Varrichio serves as a board member for the Federal Government Distance Learning Association with her role being digital communication management. She designs and writes newsletters that go out multiple times a month. Most often promoting webinars, but sometimes including learning resources for those looking to enhance or strengthen their elearning approaches. Had Varrichio not discovered the RWS program, she might have not fallen down this rabbit hole of opportunities. 

When asked about her most interesting project, she pokes fun at her writing saying that “while [her] dissertation was the most interesting project, the dissertation itself is super dry.” However, Varrichio speaks with great interest of the current work she is doing along with everything that went into her accomplishments. The preparation focused on qualitative studies that explore the experiences of instructional designers from around the world who employ formative assessment activities within game-based learning courses. She talks about how gauging the audience's intrinsic and extrinsic motivations was essential to the design of the game and how the learning elements that included a narrative of some sort was the most effective, allowing researchers like herself to peer into the process of learning through the lives of adult gamers.

Nonetheless, she reflects proudly on her work and chooses to focus on what the dissertation symbolized and how the action of completing it “represented a life milestone.” Jenny realizes that it was essentially a culmination of everything she learned in her writing career — from essays, technical papers, summaries, newsletter articles, job aids, etc., that made it worth every demand and time-consuming effort as in the end it was incredibly rewarding.

Grateful for her time at SDSU, advice Varrichio would like to pass to any other future and/or current M.A. students includes:

• Read everything.
• Support others.
• Work in time for peace and reflection — really think about how your learning materials are impacting you. You might learn more about yourself, your passions, what really inspires you and where you want to go next. 
• Keep learning — seeking opportunities to learn does not have to stop when you finish the program. You finish this program as a professional writer and academic with more tools to use to keep building knowledge and skill. It would be silly to box up all these new tools you have and not use them just because you finished a degree. Enjoy what you have accomplished and have fun learning more!

Suzanne Bordelon published an essay in Rhetoric Review titled “Motherhood, Saliency and Flattening Effects: World War I and the ‘The Greatest Mother in the World’.” The essay aims to rhetorically analyze the “Greatest Mother in the World” poster created by Alonzo Earl Foringer, arguing “that the poster and magazine image deploys rhetorics of motherhood and saliency to foster ‘flattening effects’ that not only erase other maternal figures but also elevate ideologies of white supremacy.” 

Bordelon’s essay titled “The 1931 Lemon Grove Case and Segregation Arguments: Learning from a Multilayer, Cross-Border Rhetorical Endeavor” was published in Rhetoric Society Quarterly. This piece examines the strategies that were utilized for the success of the Alvarez v. Lemon Grove case, while also commenting on the need for a multidimensional analysis for future cases like this.

In 2021, Suzanne Bordelon and her colleague Elizabethada A. Wright worked on the book chapter, “Crypto-Feminist Enthymemes in the Periodical Texts of Louise Clappe and Fanny Fern,” which focuses on both reform and activism seen in the nineteenth century. The chapter relates today’s social conflicts to those of the nineteenth century, allowing for a deeper understanding of the activism at the time. 

Suzanne Bordelon, “Motherhood, Saliency, and Flattening Effects: World War I and the ‘The Greatest Mother in the World.” Rhetoric Review, vol. 41, no. 2, 2022.

Suzanne Bordelon, “The 1931 Lemon Grove Case and Segregation Arguments: Learning from a Multilayer, Cross-Border Rhetorical Endeavor.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 1, 2022, pp. 32–46.

Suzanne Bordelon and Elizabethada A. Wright, “Crypto-Feminist Enthymemes in the Periodical Texts of Louise Clappe and Fanny Fern.” Nineteenth-Century American Activist Rhetorics. Edited by Patricia Bizzell and Lisa Zimmerelli, MLA, 2021, pp. 265–276.

Recently, Dustin Edwards published the article “Critical infrastructure literacies and/as ways of relating in big data ecologies” in Computers and Composition. In the publication, Edwards focuses on the ethical issues regarding the infrastructural dynamics of big data storage. Using a cultural rhetorics lens, the article centers around practices focusing on how big data storage affects society. 

Dustin Edwards, “Critical infrastructure literacies and/as ways of relating in big data ecologies.” Computers and Composition, vol. 61, no. 1, 2021.

RWS instructor and alumnus Jacob Hubbard was recently featured on ABC 10 News San Diego. Hubbard discusses the advantages of utilizing social media to develop certain skills that help him connect with his students. Taking neurodiversity into account when communicating with students is something that instructors should be aware of, and implementing the use of social media in the classroom can foster communication between those instructors and students on the autism spectrum and those that are not.

Congratulations to Ann Johns, RWS professor emerita, on her recent publication. John’s textbook, “Essential Actions” has been published by the University of Michigan Press. She focuses on educating all potential academic students and preparing them for a successful career in whatever field they choose. Featuring rhetoric, short readings, pedagogical practices, and other academic related assignments, she helps students grow their skills in all aspects of writing. 

Ann Johns, “Essential Actions.” University of Michigan Press, 2022.

Congratulations to Anthony Lince, RWS lecturer, on his recent publication. Lince's article "Stepping Back to Step Forward: A Tribute to Mike Rose" has been published in the Journal of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. His detailed piece pays tribute to Mike Rose, an influential leader in academia, and how he was able to pave the way for his successful teaching career. 

Anthony Lince, “Stepping Back to Step Forward: A Tribute to Mike Rose.” Journal of the Council of Writing Program Administrators, vol. 45, no. 2, 2022, pp. 81–84.

RWS graduate student Matthew Louie has published a piece in Praxis: A Writing Center Journal that investigates the subject of decolonizing writing centers and how it directly impacts the land of Indigenous people that we occupy. He discusses how we must be mindful of those around us and remember to take the steps necessary to respect people’s fight for sovereignty. 

Matthew Louie, “Mindful Language-Use: Recognizing Indigenous Peoples when ‘Decolonizing Writing Centers’.” Axis Special Edition: Imagining the Decolonizing Writing Center: From Standard Edited English to Returning the Land, Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, 2022.

Glen McClish’s publication titled “‘The very breath of life’: The Conversational Rhetoric of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South” brought out in the Journal for the History of Rhetoric, aims to dissect and analyze the conversational rhetoric found in Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel “North and South.” McClish argues the importance of Gaskell’s work in relation to the field of rhetoric.

Congratulations to McClish for the recent publication of his chapter in “The Practice of Rhetoric [Poetics, Performance, Philosophy]: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey Walker.” This book seeks to “demonstrate the continued need to attend carefully to the cooperation of descriptive language and normative reality, conceptual vocabulary and material practice, public speech and moral self-shaping.”

In 2021, McClish published his essay “‘Gems of Negro Eloquence’: Memorializing the African American Rhetoric of the 1895 South Carolina Constitutional Covention” in New North Star: A Journal of the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, which seeks to “investigate how collections of discursive texts produced by understudied marginalized figures can function as sophisticated sites of public memory, transforming stinging deliberative defeat into consolation, productive defiance, race pride, and dedication to a more egalitarian future.”

Glen McClish, “‘The very breath of life’: The Conversational Rhetoric of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South.” Journal for the History of Rhetoric, vol. 25, no. 3, 2022, pp. 279–302. 

Glen McClish, “‘Gems of Negro Eloquence’: Memorializing the African American Rhetoric of the 1895 South Carolina Constitutional Convention.” New North Star: A Journal of the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, vol. 3, 2021, pp. 29–44.

Glen McClish, “Exploring the Performed Argument: Teaching Poetry Rhetorically.” “The Practice of Rhetoric [Poetics, Performance, Philosophy]: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey Walker.” Edited by Debra Hawhee and Vessela Valiavitcharska, U of Alabama P, 2022, pp. 67–89.

Kellie Miller’s publication in the peer reviewed online journal Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies focuses on English literature and art, reflecting her studies on Victorian-era women writers. Her piece explores the way women of the time were confined to a specific writing style and explains how they should be able to push the boundaries of gender expectations. 

Kellie Miller, “Representations of Identity and Agency in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette.” Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, 2022.

Congratulations to Cezar Ornatowski, RWS professor emeritus, on his recent publication! Ornatowski’s article "Weaponized Rhetoric: Cognitive Struggle in the Contemporary Media Space" has been published in Contemporary Rhetorical Theories. He prefaces his piece by stating the significance of weaponized rhetoric and how it goes beyond traditional understanding. His piece analyzes rhetoric in politics, education, and its overall reputation. 

Cezar Ornatowski, “Weaponized Rhetoric: Cognitive Struggle in the Contemporary Media Space.” Contemporary Rhetorical Theories, vol. 8, no. 4, 2022. 

In her article “Pandemic Pedagogy: What We Learned from the Sudden Transition to Online Teaching and How it Can Help Us Prepare to Teach Writing in an Uncertain Future,” published in Composition Studies, Sheppard reports on her findings about the difficult transition to online teaching and learning during the pandemic. After conducting surveys with writing instructors, she discusses a number of difficulties experienced by those involved and offers pedagogical and professional advice for the future. 

Jennifer Sheppard, “Pandemic Pedagogy: What We Learned from the Sudden Transition to Online Teaching and How it Can Help Us Prepare to Teach Writing in an Uncertain Future.” Composition Studies, vol. 49, no. 1, 2021, pp. 60–83.

In her recent publication “How the Ideology of Monolingualism Drives Us to Monolingual Interaction,” published in Community and Culture Forum, Professor Consuelo Salas and her colleagues discuss the need for inclusivity within the computing field. The piece examines the damaging effects of monolingualism in society and concludes “that more attention to bilingualism is needed to make Hispanics/Latinx feel welcome in the field.” 

Manual Perez-Quiñones and Consuelo Salas, “How the Ideology of Monolingualism Drives Us to Monolingual Interaction.” Community and Culture Forum, ACM Interactions, vol. 28, no. 3, 2021.

Professor Kathryn Valentine has published “Listening to the Friction: An Exploration of a Tutor’s Listening to the Community and Academy” in Praxis: A Writing Center Journal from the University of Texas at Austin. Valentine shares her findings from a qualitative study she conducted on how tutors listen to what “haunts” writing center work and work in the academy. 

Kathryn Valentine, "Listening to the Friction: An Exploration of a Tutor’s Listening to the Community and Academy." Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, vol. 19, no. 1, 2022.

Our 2022 graduates, whom we honored at our department graduation celebration on May 13th (our first in-person graduation this decade), deserve special recognition for persevering to degree through four (and in many cases five) unsettling semesters. I list them here:  

Bachelor’s Degree recipients:  Erik Acosta, Lindsey Anderson, Kassandra Beltran, John Berry, Meghan Ellis, Noah Goldbloom, William Hale, Justin Kim, Fangchuan Liu, Chelsea Nunez-Tello, Agnes Szakacs (co-editor of this Newsletter issue!), and Summer Ycasas.  (For more on Summer, see the spotlight, below.)

Master’s Degree recipients:  Jennifer Davis, Nicole Golden (a former Newsletter co-editor!), Eirein Gaile Harn, Alicia Leon, Jennifer Lavasseur (Ponce), Daniel Rodriguez, and Anthony Toledo.  

I’d like to take some space to honor three colleagues about to retire from RWS: Robin Avner, Carl Fielden, and Rhonne Goodman. Robin, whose dissertation work at Johns Hopkins University investigated the great nineteenth-century British novelist George Eliot, began teaching for RWS in 2005. Over the years, she has taught RWS 100, RWS 200, RWS 280, and RWS 305W. Her courses are distinguished by sophisticated critical inquiry. Robin has quietly and expertly gone about her work, diligently teaching decades of students how to both interrogate and produce a wide variety of texts.  

Carl’s long career as a San Diego State writing instructor began with Academic Skills, the department that preceded RWS, in the 1980s. Since coming over to the new RWS Department in 1993, he has taught a wide range of classes, from developmental writing to the 500 level, and has held several important administrative positions, including assessment coordinator of the old developmental writing exam/portfolio and most recently WPA coordinator. One of our dedicated evening instructors, Carl comes to campus when most of us have called it a day. Over the years, he has acquired Master’s Degrees in Linguistics and Education, and has just completed a third in Rehabilitation Counseling, all from SDSU. (For more about Carl, see the spotlight, below.)

Having completed her Master’s Degree in English at SDSU, Rhonne joined us as a lecturer in 2001. Like Carl, she was a stalwart developmental writing instructor, but she has also taught the standard lower- and upper-division courses for us. Shouldering five classes per semester for many years, Rhonne has taught thousands of students to read, think, and write more effectively.  Her teaching style has been distinguished by her unique brand of tough love, supportive but clearly structured and firm. Long a member of the department’s early bird club, Rhonne has roamed the halls when many of us are still waking up.  

As I close this message—as well as my twenty-third year at SDSU and twentieth as your chair—I want to express my gratitude for Robin, Carl, Rhonne, and the many many colleagues and students I have had the opportunity to work beside, teach, and learn from. I wish all our readers a summer of good health, renewal, recreation, and reengagement.  

Carl has been teaching writing at SDSU since 1985. While working on his graduate degree in linguistics, he taught his first class as a teaching assistant through the Academic Skills Center. This center was used for “teaching developmental courses in writing, reading, and mathematics” and was later integrated into the newly formed RWS Department in 1993. Fielden has also worked at what is now known as the Student Ability Success Center. 

As part of his work, Carl has explored the integration of technology in the teaching of writing. In the last 10 years, he has focused on principles of universal design for learning, commonly known as UDL. In the future, he plans to conduct research on “designing inclusive, engaging environments that enhance the learning, retention, and graduation of students with disabilities” at Grossmont College.

Fielden understands that for many students writing can be an obstacle, sometimes even a traumatic one. In his teaching, he works to break down these barriers and “help students develop their own natural composing styles and practices” that they will be able to work with after graduating. Students know that Fielden wants what is best for them as many have written in their course evaluations that Fielden is approachable, encouraging, and that he cares deeply about them. He has also received a comment frequently: “Finally, a writing course that is useful!” In 2021, Fielden received the Teaching Excellence Award from the College of Arts and Letters. However, he sees his students’ successes as writers as an even greater reward:  “I could have never planned a more satisfying career. I will miss teaching at SDSU very much.” Carl Fielden will be retiring in June of 2022. 

We wish you the best of luck and a happy retirement! The RWS Department and the students of SDSU will miss you very much and thank you for your work!

In discussing the annual RWS Landmark Lecture, Salas eagerly explained that the lecture has been occurring since 2003 and it “invites prominent scholars in Rhetoric and Writing Studies to discuss research and pedagogy in this field.” The Landmark Lecture allows for those within the field of rhetoric who are doing “interesting and important work” to share their current research, which creates a strong learning environment for those who are in attendance. 

When asked about her involvement in this year’s lecture, Salas explained that as members of the anti-racist working group within the department, she and Karen Koss began discussing Dr. April Baker-Bell’s book, Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy, released in 2020. Both Koss and Salas found Baker-Bell’s work to be incredibly inspiring and decided that they would like to not only read her work but try to bring her to speak at the annual Landmark Lecture. Through these efforts, Salas and Koss applied and were awarded three internal grants: a College of Arts and Letters Instructional Related Activities grant, a Dean’s Excellent Endowment Wendelmoot Memorial grant, and a Justice Equity and Inclusion mini grant. It was through the support of these grants that Salas and Koss were able to bring Dr. Baker-Bell to speak. 

In the lecture itself, Salas explains that Dr. Baker-Bell “advocates for critical linguistic awareness of black language” and that her research is “pushing us, as writing instructors, to interrogate our own relationships with language and position ourselves as learners.” Dr. Baker-Bell’s work within her text, as well as in the Landmark Lecture, “works on educating us on what black language history is,” and it allows for the audience to ask the important questions “about the conditions of which it was created, how it has moved over the last centuries to now, and how we teach our writing classes today.” Salas mentions that this lecture inspired her to make tangible changes within her classroom. “I think that is maybe the key takeaway, that as an instructor, even though I already have my doctorate and I am already teaching, I still have room to continue to learn so that I can continue to be an effective instructor of writing.” If any readers are interested in learning more about these concepts, you can find an electronic copy of Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy in the SDSU library.

In regard to the lecture, Salas mentions that it was incredibly impactful to have Dr. Baker-Bell share the concepts that she discussed within her book. Salas expresses that the talk was very “informative and groundbreaking in that [Baker-Bell] is really talking about black language and giving us the ability to see how black language is already a part of culture, even though we did not previously have the framework to be able to name it as such.” Salas states that Dr. Baker Bell ended her lecture on a series of provocative questions, and she recalls a moment where she, as host of the meeting, was at a loss for words as she was just “sitting with what she was asking of [them].” The valuable lessons learned within the lecture served as great inspiration for the future of the RWS program as a whole. 

In addition to the work bringing Dr. Baker-Bell, Salas explained that she and her colleagues were also awarded an NEH grant, “Creating Expansive Approaches to Teaching Writing in a Southern California Border Region.” As part of the work of this grant, more speakers will be invited to share with the SDSU community “their own research and how we might apply it to what we are already doing in our teaching of writing.” 

In concluding the interview, Dr. Salas offers some incredibly valuable advice. She states that “if you are interested in the field of Rhetoric and Writing Studies, my advice would be to think about the idea that all groups around us have created communication practices which are already unfolding or already occurring, and to take a look at what those are for yourself, take a look at what those are for the communities that you are in, and then acknowledge that the field of rhetoric can continue to expand when you think about our own communication practices and those of our communities.” For current RWS students, Salas encourages students to reach out to their professors and let them know their career goals and interests and “for anybody else reading the newsletter” she would like to encourage them “to take a look at Dr. April Baker-Bell’s book.”

The Writing Mentor Program is a chance for “students to become critical and reflective writers through an enriched collaborative experience.” Open to both undergraduate and graduate writing students, the Writing Mentor Program embeds students within a classroom so that they can be mentored by instructors and improve their pedagogy by working with students one-on-one. Baker mentions that the overall goal is to “have instructors and students all work together to learn communication skills, pedagogy skills and learn how to mentor as well as tutor—something everyone can benefit from.” She thinks of it as “the best job ever! You get paid to attend class and then you get paid to tutor people after!” Not only are you enriching your knowledge of writing, but you are also gaining in-person experience that cannot be taught elsewhere.

Despite her love for teaching, at one point in her career, Baker admits to being nervous about taking on such a big role as “[she] liked writing, but [she] didn’t necessarily like standing in front of a classroom.” However, Baker recalls, “This program gave me that confidence and it also got my foot in the door.” The embedded tutoring program at one of the San Diego Community Colleges was actually Baker’s first job after graduating, which assisted her into the position she has now. She describes the opportunity as benefiting both graduate students as well as undergraduate students who are looking for a way to start building their resume and gaining experience. 

While discussing how hard it was to get a job somewhere that specializes in writing, Lea took another approach and spoke about how her time in the medical field actually aided in her work experience. “I worked at a physical therapy office because I struggled a lot to get hired at the local library, but I got accepted at a lot of medical facilities because they need people to do the documentation. I was assigned with a physical therapist and I would write what they were doing and check off lists because it all has to be noted. I think writing majors have a big advantage because no matter what field you go into you need to be able to express whatever you're doing to someone else.” The Writing Mentor Program allows for students to gain writing skills like this and teaches them how to apply them anywhere, which actively broadens the workplaces in which they can be accepted into. 

Lea, like many other English majors, recalls being frequently asked if she was going to be a teacher because of the uncertainty of finding a job with the major. Her answer was the same every time: “No!” However, she speaks so positively of her experience and transition in becoming a core part of the embedded tutor program that now she “can’t imagine doing anything else.” She concludes, “Any student, whether they are graduate or undergraduate, can apply for this program. While it is very helpful for students who want to go into teaching, it isn't exclusively for that. We also have Econ majors who worked with us to be a mentor; essentially anyone who has passed an undergraduate college writing course can apply to be a mentor.”

Lea thanks SDSU for taking her under their wing and always encouraging her to push herself in her career. With countless pieces of advice given to her over the years, Lea hopes to give some tips back and urges those who may feel conflicted about the program to “just give it a try” as “everyone benefits from this.” Anyone interested can apply for this program.

In thinking about her favorite RWS classes, Summer notes, “Any and every course that Jenny Sheppard has taught!” Those courses include RWS 250, 543, and 504. She is especially appreciative of the design skills she has learned as a part of studying both rhetoric and writing. These principles have made it easier for her to use and navigate her notes, essays, proposals and other projects. One thing Ycasas wished people and other students knew about the RWS Program is that it is more than just writing essays for classes. She acknowledges there is a lot of writing involved, of course, but also sees the major as engaging students in useful genres such writing reports, proposals, infographics and emails. Ycasas ends by saying, “The RWS program really lets you stretch your wings as a writer and shows you just how instrumental writing is in so many places.”

Garcia earned her BA in Literature and Writing along with History as her minor from California State University San Marcos. Through her undergraduate studies, she obtained skills from the Literature and Writing Department that allowed her to have the opportunity to work and tutor for three years at CSUSM’s Writing Center.  The students whom she tutored used skills similar to those taught in RWS courses. As for her time with RWS, Garcia thinks it is “great to be involved in a department dedicated to helping students better understand rhetoric and the writing process.” 

Thanks to a caring professor, Harn remembers her self-confidence as a writer finally beginning to blossom. While she still had moments of self doubt, sometimes questioning why he believed in her, she took his advice to consider further studying RWS. His kind words meant so much to her that she ultimately took a leap of faith and decided to pick it up as her second major. 

When once again asked to make a decision furthering her education, Harn thanks Dr. McClish for being a deciding factor in joining the master’s program. With her focus on high school teaching during her undergraduate years, Harn was almost ready to go down that path had she not felt as if she needed more time to prepare. She remembers feeling like she “wasn’t ready to be done learning.” She then turned to Dr. McClish and was encouraged to take the graduate-level RWS 601 class to see how she felt about potential grad study. Harn mentions that it was a turning point for her and that she realized that “there was more to learn and do in the MA and [she’s] honestly so grateful for the opportunity.”

Moving forward with her work, Harn has decided to share some current research topics she is pursuing, the first being the study of names (onomastics). She mentions in her thesis titled “‘That Doesn't Strike Me As Filipino’: Navigating Names, Cultural Identity, and Rhetorical Onomastics” that she “called on the field of rhetoric to formally acknowledge rhetorical onomastics. There is so much scholarship around the significance of names in other fields, but I hope to shepherd those discussions into the field of rhetoric with a cultural/decolonial rhetorics lens.” Her second project is relating to her current job as a writing instructor that involves trauma-informed approaches to writing pedagogy. She is also “always looking for opportunities to visibilize Filipino and Filipino-American culture, and to share [her] experience as a Filipino person living in the United States.”

With regard to her future and applying everything she has learned here at SDSU, she hopes to continue teaching composition at the collegiate level. While reflecting on her journey, Harn humbly states, “I’ve had the opportunity to teach in the RWS department for three semesters during my MA, and it has been the most challenging and rewarding thing I’ve ever done. I love teaching writing and working with students, and I hope to do that for a very long time.”

As a longtime lover of writing, Tanori is glad that she found guidance at SDSU through the RWS program. The course offerings are so broad that they allowed her to experiment with subjects that she might have never learned she enjoyed—teaching being at the top of this list. She mentions—with a special shout out to a particularly exceptional lecturer, Jamie Madden—that it is because of the fantastic mentors, faculty, and staff within RWS that she was able to thrive and be guided in the field of academia that is not always so forgiving. A fear of hers was that because of “the westernized and white hegemonic framework applied to mainstream professionalism,” the professional world would feel depersonalized. However, thanks to the caring souls she met on her journey at SDSU, she never felt the pressure of trying to find her way in a professional environment. 

Like many, Sarita was initially unfamiliar with how widely applicable rhetoric is when she first joined the RWS department. However, through the teachings of one of her favorite professors, Jenny Sheppard, she has come to recognize that “everything is rhetorical.” A couple of Tanori’s favorite courses while in the SDSU graduate program included History of Rhetoric with Dr. Glen McClish and Writing Center Practice Theory with Dr. Kathryn Valentine. While she was fascinated with the material from the History of Rhetoric course, describing it as “interesting and arduous,” it was the Writing Center course that particularly stood out to her and ultimately “helped define [my] pedagogy.” Tanori mentions that a major takeaway from the RWS department is that she has learned how to “analyze [her] decisions while navigating adulthood and a professional career.”

As Tanori looks back on her time before earning her MA, her work as a newly employed Teaching Assistant is what most fondly stands out in her memory. She recalls that this particular experience is what made her switch her focal point from professional writing to teaching—an experience she positively refers to as “a distinct adrenaline rush.” Tanori speaks about how this was a time of growth for her and how she relished in the opportunity to not only teach for the first time, but learn how to make mistakes in a forgiving environment. Her frequent feelings of understandable anxiety were mitigated through the bonds she made with fellow instructors who ranged from newbies like herself, to veteran instructors who graciously shared their words of wisdom. Sarita is grateful for this experience and thanks the community she built with these people that “made the experience easier, and helped me parse out and process all of the emotions that came with this first.” 

While earning her MA, Tanori notes that her thesis was a very “challenging and rewarding” aspect of her experience in the RWS department. Sarita mentions how grateful she is for her thesis chair, Dr. Katheryn Valentine, and that she was a great support system for her as she was writing her thesis on emotions and vulnerability in rhetoric. Unfortunately, Tanori’s work on her thesis was stunted due to the start of the pandemic back in March of 2020. “The overwhelming grief of the pandemic made it difficult to write or think, so I took extra time in graduate school to focus on finishing my thesis,” states Sarita. However, all of the unknowns in the world during that time allowed Tanori to gain more patience when it came to her thesis, and ultimately “see [her] vision through and do [her] participants justice.” 

When asked if she had any advice to give to younger students or anyone pursuing a career in the field of rhetorical writing, she humbly stated that while she thinks doesn’t have a whole lot of wisdom to share, she does believe that “you should always try to tie in your interests and hobbies into your rhetoric work.” Tanori expressed this core idea in a story dear to her heart about her most interesting writing project. Sarita explained her archival zine project that was based on her mother’s migration story from Sonora, Mexico. She expressed how important writing this piece was to her, and that she learned so much from her mother’s story. Tanori cherishes this writing project, which taught her “about the value of oral traditions and archiving the narratives of our loved ones,” and how rhetoric has the power to tie together universal cultural, personal, and educational values.

She describes it as “by far the most helpful [skill] as [she’s] transitioned from being a writing tutor, to a career coach/program coordinator, to now a marketing manager.” She shouts out one of her favorite professors, Dr. Jenny Sheppard, for showing her how to think outside of the box in addition to challenging her in classes that she wouldn’t have normally taken. Mosley mentions that because of one of Dr. Sheppard’s courses, she was able to experiment in graphic design that ultimately led her to grasp the concepts that would lead her to her current job. She describes this favorite course of hers as “challenging . . . but extremely practical and useful.” 

Professionally, Mosley is proudest of her work that included “writing 100 days worth of emails that would convince corporate executives to center racial equity at the core of their business strategies.” Mosley’s rich background in rhetoric aided in her ability to use the art of persuasion to her advantage. Personally, though, she hints that her proudest moment was her project that entailed a 15-page analysis on a single song by hit singer, SZA—an assignment she described as “daunting, but very rewarding.” 

Looking back at her time here at SDSU, Erica has nothing but positive impressions to share. With gratitude towards the professors at the university as well as the Department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies, she reflects fondly on the connections she made in addition to the opportunities she had to follow her passions. When asked if she had any advice to give to current students, she confidently said to “trust your instincts and stand firm in your power. You’re gaining invaluable, applicable, and transferable skills in this program that can take you a long way.”

Gantos has been drawn to writing ever since he was young, especially when music was involved because he “liked listening to song lyrics and figuring out what they meant.” Later on, he would think critically about what made someone choose certain words and why they would choose that instead of something else. In addition to seeing rhetoric in songwriting, Gantos also sees it in screenwriting, because every film has an argument or message behind it.

Speaking of the challenges that come with trying to balance work, classes and life, Gantos is optimistic: “The university and our department staff are all incredibly accommodating when it comes to supporting further education.” Along these lines, something Gantos has observed working in RWS and wished he knew earlier as a student is how human instructors are. He mentions that especially with a department filled with writers, “you can find a group of well-spoken and intelligent people, that are also . . . just people.” Sometimes when he was an undergraduate student, Gantos viewed instructors as detached. However, after working with the department, it reminded him they are people who may be “accomplished and intimidating” at times, but at the “end of the day they are good people.”

I’m also heartened by the support we provided for one another. Many faculty and staff found themselves in the nearly impossible bind of having to fulfill their formidable RWS responsibilities while simultaneously taking care of infants and toddlers, supervising their children’s online schooling, and tending to their own physical and mental wellbeing. Finding creative ways to help these colleagues manage their competing responsibilities was one of the unexpected pleasures of the semester.

In addition to the pandemic, the surging Black Lives Matter movement that shook the country in 2020 sent needed shockwaves through RWS, and in Fall 2020 we seriously reflected on ways to establish a more consciously focused anti-racist culture in our department. These cultural changes will positively affect our teaching and our grading, as well as our hiring and retention of people of color. We are committed to the goal of establishing a faculty and staff that more closely align with the identities and life experiences of our students. We will reduce race-specific equity gaps—lower grades in writing classes for students of color—that limit the success of the students we should be most concerned with helping. And we will bring down the percentage of students who are earning Ds, Fs, and Withdrawals in our courses, since these low grades take a psychological toll and slow students’ pace toward graduation.

Finally, RWS felt the trauma of an election season like no other, followed by a post-election period unlike any we have experienced in the US since Reconstruction. We have been continually reminded of the role rhetoric plays in the ongoing political drama, both to bring us together and to drive us apart. In their recent “Statement Condemning Insurrectional Rhetoric and Resulting Violence 1/6/21” (for the full statement, see link on our website homepage), the Board of Directors of the Rhetoric Society of America declared,

Words matter, and when they are used they have material consequences. Being with others requires that we use our words, our language. Admittedly, language is unstable and uncertain, but that is precisely why we need rhetoric: to grapple, collectively, with such instability and uncertainty, to make the best cases for our behaviors, actions, institutions, laws, and judgments. Otherwise there is simply violence.

The fact that “words matter” reaffirms the mission of our department. Given the political world we inhabit, teaching and studying rhetoric and writing cannot be more important in 2021. So despite the very real, significant challenges we face, I’m optimistic about RWS’s future teaching, research, and service. Through this newsletter and accompanying podcast, I hope you enjoy learning more about the people who make our departmental mission possible, as well as our inspiring students and alumni.

A somewhat lesser known but growing field, food studies is quite a broad area of study that follows food within society, including its production, consumption, distribution, and other practices as well as cultural aspects. Dr. Salas explained that food studies involves “looking at this very micro moment in our daily lives, and then trying to understand how it became the practice that it is.” Once she learned about food studies, Dr. Salas realized that it was “a kind of an ontological lens through which [she] saw a lot of different things.” Bridging rhetoric and food studies in her ongoing project, Dr. Salas is currently working on a monograph that examines how food and identity become apparent through Mexican cultural imagery. According to Dr. Salas, the book is “looking at what visuals are paired with Mexican food stuffs and how and why have those images become markers of Mexican and/or Mexican foods.” 

Dr. Salas is looking forward to her second semester in the RWS department. “I feel just very fortunate that I'm joining the department at such a serendipitous moment. I welcome the opportunity to be involved in a variety of different changes to kind of help better address the needs of our students,” she said. She also expressed deep appreciation for the effort her students put into her course during the Fall 2020 semester despite the continued challenges of learning online and the political tumult that the election presented. She awaits teaching in-person at SDSU but is excited to continue learning how to teach more effectively throughout the Spring. Although Dr. Salas shared that she was not entirely new to teaching online—having taught entirely asynchronous courses during graduate school in El Paso—she still felt quite unfamiliar with online teaching. She stated, “That's just the nature of teaching. You continuously improve . . . each semester that you go.” In addition to teaching, Dr. Salas has also partnered with Dr. Shepherd as co-faculty advisor for the student chapter of the Rhetoric Society of America. Just last December, she and Dr. Shepherd led a workshop for graduate students to learn more about PhDs in rhetoric and composition.

As a scholar of border regions who grew up one herself, Dr. Salas is deeply familiar with the uniqueness of border regions from not only other spaces but each other. She says there is a “knowing and being that is specific to border regions.” She describes it as “kind of this two worlds space.” As she thinks about eventually making the move from her current home-base in North Carolina to San Diego, Dr. Salas shared, “I'm very much looking forward to just getting to know the community in San Diego. I know that there is a history of doing really good work there with border issues.” She also noted, “I think it's important for folks who teach in a community to be of the community and that can look a number of different ways, but I very much welcome that.” Thus, with a new and an old border region in mind, Dr. Salas is excited to immerse herself in the unique space and community that San Diego and SDSU have to offer. 

Before beginning their journey as a PhD candidate, Ruby earned a BA in English Studies from California State University, Chico and their MA in Rhetoric and Writing Studies (Specialization in the Teaching of Writing) from San Diego State University. When asked about their experience at SDSU, Ruby admitted, “I feel like I was a pain in the ass.” However comical this may seem, as they explained, it became clear that Ruby truly meant it but did not regret it. 

They described how the predominantly white faculty made suggestions and provided advice centered around the typical path that students take, but Ruby went into graduate school with a different mindset than most students. Instead of entering graduate school to discover who they are, as many students have done, Ruby shared, “I kind of had a sense of who I was because I was approaching 30. I knew that I wanted to teach, and I knew I wanted to do things that intersected with my life.” With this conviction in mind, Ruby forged a path for themself that met their needs and interests while at SDSU. 

Before beginning their journey as a PhD candidate, Ruby earned a BA in English Studies from California State University, Chico and their MA in Rhetoric and Writing Studies (Specialization in the Teaching of Writing) from San Diego State University. When asked about their experience at SDSU, Ruby admitted, “I feel like I was a pain in the ass.” However comical this may seem, as they explained, it became clear that Ruby truly meant it but did not regret it. They described how the predominantly white faculty made suggestions and provided advice centered around the typical path that students take, but Ruby went into graduate school with a different mindset than most students. Instead of entering graduate school to discover who they are, as many students have done, Ruby shared, “I kind of had a sense of who I was because I was approaching 30. I knew that I wanted to teach, and I knew I wanted to do things that intersected with my life.” With this conviction in mind, Ruby forged a path for themself that met their needs and interests while at SDSU. 

Rather than simply following the conventional route, Ruby challenged the curriculum taught to undergraduates and discovered that faculty were incredibly supportive of their individual pursuits. According to Ruby, the outcome of their firm resolve in the things they believed altered the course of their life: at SDSU, “I really was able to realize how to take charge of my academic career and my choices. And, I do the same thing here at MSU.” Ruby continued, “if I hold back, I'm risking someone's life and their educational career, and I'm not going to have these inequalities and gaps where students of color are quitting--and especially LGBTQ students--because we failed to incorporate things that are literally life-saving.” Speaking from their lived experience, Ruby added, “I have to do this work because I don't want someone who, like me, has to struggle just to get here . . . thinking that school is going to be the way to escape homelessness and drug abuse.” 

Ruby holds their personal experiences close to their heart. However difficult life has been at times, Ruby is grateful for the resilience they learned and the many support systems and resources that helped them get to where they are now. They strive to continue in academia in order to show others across the gender and identity spectrums that there is space for people who feel uninvited by the hegemonic groups and identities we traditionally see in academia. “I'm here to fill those gaps,” they said. And, as they look forward to publishing in Dr. Jacqueline Rhodes’ upcoming book The Queer Handbook, Ruby is already “fill[ing] those gaps” as they make room for academia to better reflect what the rest of the world really looks like. Ruby said, “I get to do work that I believe in. I'm so excited.”

After completing her undergraduate degree in English, Clara spent a few years teaching and working before she decided to pursue a master’s degree. She taught English in the Czech Republic for a year as well as worked various internships, including communications and magazine writing in Washington, DC. Following a writing-oriented career post-undergrad, Clara said, “I had two years of . . . other jobs where I wasn't writing as much and I really wanted to go back.” Gradually, Clara’s time away from writing showed her that she wanted to return to school and that SDSU’s RWS program would allow her to begin working in the field at the same time that she learned more about professional writing. She said that she hoped to “break into professional writing” but expressed how the paradox of having experience to get experience makes it “kind of hard to break into certain professional writing.” 

Clara chose San Diego State’s RWS program specifically because it focuses on the nexus of academia and industry. She sought this degree in order to improve her writing skills and give her an edge into professional writing. Her biggest takeaway from the degree was improving her writing through rigorous practice and great feedback from her professors. Moreover, she appreciates how a degree in rhetoric allowed her to gain a different awareness of the audience than she thinks that the study of English alone provided her. Instead of deciding on one track versus the other, Clara created a schedule centered around her interests and chose the general MA route in RWS. One of her favorite courses from her time at SDSU, Professor Ornatowski’s Homeland Security class focused on ideology, discourse, and conflict within different cultures. Clara remembers how this course recontextualized her sense of rhetoric thanks to the topics and what Ornatowski himself brings to light: “It was just really interesting to see the theories that we were talking about and how rhetoric works. I thought that the rhetoric of conflict was super fascinating to learn about and he has really, really interesting perspectives too.” For Clara, the insights and conversations she shared with faculty were the best moments. She recalls beginning her thesis and realizing she didn’t know how to combine her four interests until working with Dr. Kathryn Valentine, who helped Clara figure out how all four ideas intersected. 

Clara is very grateful for her time at SDSU because of the relationships she made, the real-world experience she gained, and the versatility of the degree. For current and future students alike, Clara shares a helpful bit of advice, “Take advantage of relationships with the faculty because they're all really knowledgeable. They all really care about students. And, I think that's really special about the program.” Especially in our current economic environment, Clara expressed how rhetoric in general opens doors for many careers. “You don't need to know necessarily exactly what you want to do,” she began, “there's so many different directions you can go with [rhetoric]. And, I think that the program really sets you up to go in a lot of those different directions.” 

Earning her teaching credential in 2009 from Biola University, Catherine majored in liberal studies so that she could teach elementary education. Fresh out of college during a deep economic crisis, Catherine explained, “It was 2009. It was the middle of the recession. You couldn't even get a substitute teaching job.” Instead, Catherine found herself moving to Cameroon for two years. While living there, Catherine worked as a private tutor for a missionary family. She remembered, “that was my first experience full-time teaching. . . . It just kind of fell in my lap, and I went for it.” Recalling her time in Central Africa, she reiterated how grateful she felt for the family she lived with, the teaching experience she gained, and her discoveries about language and communication while inhabiting such a culturally and linguistically diverse space. In fact, although Cameroon’s official languages are English and French, many other languages are regionally recognized, including Cameroonian Pidgin English and Camfranglais, a portmanteau blending the French adjectives camerounais, français, and anglais. Speaking from experience, Catherine chuckled, half-joking and half-serious, “because people who speak 200 different languages need to find some kind of common communication style and grammatical English,” new languages were born out of necessity. 

In 2011, Catherine returned to the U.S. and began a full-time teaching position at a small private elementary school in Orange County that utilized a classical approach to education using the progymnasmata method. Created by the ancient rhetoricians such as Aphthonius, the progymnasmata consists of a thoughtfully ordered pedagogical design that teaches writing and speaking through a series of increasingly complex exercises. For Catherine, the progymnasmata was mostly a mystery until she moved to San Diego to teach at another classical school; it was there that she truly understood the efficacy of the progymnasmata method. A colleague who had worked his way through the RWS Master Program himself showed Catherine the way: “He saw it from beginning to end, and he really actually saw how teaching it with fidelity through the whole program, it teaches everyone . . . the communication and writing skills they need to be effective communicators.” It was then that she sought to join SDSU’s RWS program.

Catherine taught 6th grade using the progymnasmata for several years but eventually settled into her current role as a curriculum educator for the “progym method,” as her workplaces have coined it. As a mentor teacher at John Adams Academy, a group of charter schools that teaches from the progym method, Catherine explained her duties: “I get to coach and train teachers, and examine our curriculum, and train teachers in curriculum.” Having taken RWS 601: The History of Rhetoric with Professor McClish in Fall 2020, Catherine expressed how much she benefited from the program: “I get a fuller view of how the progym developed, where it came from. Reading Apththonius in context is super helpful.” She relates with the teachers she mentors who don’t yet understand the rewards of the progym method, having been in their shoes. But, thanks to her coursework at SDSU, she expressed contentment toward being able to better equip teachers; to “just have faith in it,” Catherine said, is the first necessary step. 

In the years leading to joining the RWS Department, Claudia’s mother was struggling with cancer while Claudia balanced a new position in a local school district and the 24/7 caregiver to her mother. Unfortunately, Claudia’s mother passed away in 2017. That same year, Claudia was let go due to the additional time-off that came with caring for her mother as well as because her probationary period drew to a close. In what Claudia described as “the lowest point in [my] life,” a spur-of-the-moment decision to apply to SDSU served as a pivotal shift in the seemingly downward trajectory of Claudia’s life. “It was one of the best things that happened to me that year,” she says about getting hired by the department. Since that especially tough year, Claudia has enjoyed the friendly and motivated environment within the department. She admires the people she works with because of their commitment to the students and their needs. Claudia said, “It's always about the student. And, I see that. I genuinely see that with the people I work with; it's not just a job.” The dedicated staff and students around her encourage Claudia to do her best to help the department run as smoothly as possible each semester. 

Since shifting to working from home during the pandemic, Claudia sees the change as both a benefit and a drawback. Claudia mentioned one aspect of in-person that she longs for. “I do miss walking to Starbucks,” she said as she laughed that it’s only a few feet away from her desk. Other than this, she said that she misses “walking into people's offices and people walking into our office and having that one-on-one, having that human connection.” Although working from home removes the crucial one-on-one conversations Claudia enjoys, she also admits, “the flexibility's been kind of nice,” especially since Claudia and her husband welcomed a baby boy in 2020. She and her husband, who also works full-time, have been balancing the care of their newborn as well as Claudia’s aging father. Claudia recalls “juggling [a] crying baby and having to be in a meeting” many times, sometimes having her son attend meetings with her. Luckily, working from home has also meant that Claudia and her husband are both able to share their son’s milestones, including his first steps. Aside from her duties for the department and her busy home life, Claudia has also found time to take a sociology course at SDSU and still have time to cook, one of her favorite activities. 

One of the most formative parts of finding her career interests, Rebecca had the opportunity to serve as a writing fellow for the Office of Educational Opportunity Programs & Ethnic Affairs’ (EOP) Summer Bridge Program in 2019. This five-week transitional program aims to provide a select group of incoming SDSU first-years a glimpse into college education. According to Rebecca, a majority of the students were first-generation as well as Latinx. But there was one person in particular who showed Rebecca why she enjoys tutoring and working with Latinx students. This student approached Rebecca for support after expressing discomfort with writing in English. Rebecca recalled how she reacted to the situation: she admitted that she is not fully bilingual herself but worked with the student to translate from Spanish to English. Reflecting on this experience, Rebecca said that the student knew much more than they expected and this moment led Rebecca toward an important realization: “I want students to stop second guessing themselves and feel like they are confident writers” who have support from the people around them. 

Rebecca admires her parents deeply: her father teaches American literature through the lens of a Latino man and her mother teaches preschool “because she didn't want the students to go through what she went through.” Rebecca grew up hearing stories about her parents’ linguistic oppression growing up in San Diego; “[it] really affected me,” she said. Rebecca shared a telling example: her mother told her stories about attending SDSU in the early 1970s where she was often the only Hispanic student in a class. “Seeing that shift from just my mother’s generation to my generation now is just incredible,” Rebecca said. Currently, SDSU is a Hispanic serving institution. Despite adversity they faced as first-generation, bilingual students, Rebecca’s parents graduated with honors and successfully stayed on the Dean’s List every semester of their undergraduate careers. Her parents’ and her students’ powerful stories and diversity help Rebecca see that she can and will make a difference through teaching. In Rebecca’s words, “Representation matters.”