The WAC Clearinghouse

Language and Learning Across the Disciplines: Special Issues Calls for Papers

Call for Papers: "Speak Up! Scholarship and Practice in Oral Communication Across the Curriculum"

Guest editor: Deanna Dannels, Campus Writing and Speaking Program, North Carolina State

University Communication Across the Curriculum (CAC) programs have, for quite some time, provided instructional support for teaching oral communication practices in non-communication classrooms. Recently, though, CAC programs have also become central in many national conversations. For example, one of the key recommendations in the 1998 Boyer Commission Report "Reinventing Undergraduate Education" was to "link communication skills and course work."

Additionally, the March 26, 1999 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education identifies the importance of "taking aim at student incoherence" and explores the extent to which communication across the curriculum programs address this issue. Also in 1999, the LA Times and the Boston Globe both issued articles claiming the horror of "mallspeak" in university settings and suggested that speaking across the curriculum programs play a central role in reducing inarticulate speech. In short, our public and educational discourse has placed the issue of oral communication skills at center stage.

Consequently, cross-curricular scholars in communication, composition, and other disciplines must be familiar with and prepared to address the role of oral communication in the disciplines. To this end, this special issue will focus on scholarship emerging out of the communication across the curriculum movement. Theoretical or empirical papers dealing with but not limited to the following topics are invited: orality in disciplinary discourse, assessment of oral competence, teaching and learning of oral communication in particular disciplines, theoretical complexities and outcomes of integrating writing and speaking, and the nature of interdisciplinary partnerships in CAC work.

Deadline for 2-Page Proposals: September 1, 2002

Notification: by November 15.

Electronic Submissions (preferred): deanna_dannels@ncsu.edu

Regular Mail: Deanna P. Dannels, Guest Editor, LLAD, Department of Communication, Campus Writing and Speaking Program, Box 8104, 201 Winston Hall, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8104

Call for Papers: "Cultural Studies and Writing in the Disciplines"

Guest Editor: Sharon Stockton, English Department, Dickinson College

We are seeking essays that explore connections between cultural criticism and the discourses of the academic disciplines. Articles may conduct historical investigations into the culturally-derived origins of specific disciplines, interdisciplines or sub-disciplines; explore the ways in which disciplinary rhetoric privileges certain voices; track alternative rhetorics surviving in the margins of mainstream academic discourse. We encourage writers to address these topics from diverse critical stances by employing theories including but not limited to those of class, gender, sexuality, diaspora, ethnicity, and new media. We welcome contributors who specialize in rhetoric and composition studies as well as those who teach in other disciplines and/or interdisciplines.

Deadline for 2-Page Proposals: October 1, 2002

Notification: by December 1

Electronic Submissions: stockton@dickinson.edu

Regular Mail: Sharon Stockton, Guest Editor, LLAD, English Department, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA 17013

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