draft of queer rhetorics bibliography
I’ve created a draft of a bibliography titled “Articles, Books, and Book Chapters about Gay, Lesbian, Trans, and Queer Rhetorics, Queering Rhetoric, Literacy and Sexuality, and the Queer in Composition,” encompassing all the stuff I’ve managed to find regarding those topics. I’m attaching a word document to this post in case you want to download it, and please let me know if there’s anything I’ve left off! queer-rhetorics EDIT: I should note that I didn’t include scholarship from outside rhetoric (like Butler, queer theory out of literat

updates and notes
Wow, it’s really been a month and a half since my last post. I guest that’s a testament to how busy I’ve felt. I’ve had moments where I’ve wanted to write here, but I’ve felt so exhausted or need to work on something else. It’s a busy term. Nothing new there, though oddly this term seems to be even busier than others. It also seems like I say that every term. So, what’s new? Last time I wrote I had quit smoking. I failed. I was sick. I got over that, and the migraines stopped, though they’ve returned again. Nothing major — they’re not as debilitating as they have been in the past, but it’s still annoying and preve

changes and such
Wow, I can’t believe how quickly time is passing. I guess that’s cliché, and I’ve written something along those lines various times. I’ve been meaning to write here more often, but it just seems like I am always reading or writing for something else, and when I’m not, I don’t want to be writing more (unless it’s stupid Facebook, which is more just phatic). But there have been important changes recently: This is day 12 of having cold symptoms. At this point, it’s just the occasional cough, but man, it has sucked. Especially as I’ve found I just want to rest more and I really need to be writing more. But health first, I guess.

happy in happy valley
Last spring I wrote here about feeling isolated in my academic pursuits, largely because I was taking two classes outside of English and wasn’t in as much contact with many of my English rhetoric colleagues as I would have liked. But this term: wow, things are going quite well. I’m in three seminars that seem to be going swimmingly. I especially love my Kenneth Burke seminar, which is getting me some dirty responses from some of my post-structuralist literature folks—largely, I think, because Burke isn’t the most exciting writer at times. But I’m enjoying most of what I read (he can be so Marcusean at times, which is what’s interesting me), and the convers

State of the University Address
This morning, PSU President Graham Spanier delivered the State of the University Address via video. It’s a rather powerful piece of epideictic rhetoric, and I’m glad that Spanier is in touch with media production that allow for broader audiences than a traditional address would have had. I’ll set my cynicism aside (I do have some ethical qualms with some of the claims and logics behind those claims) and simply share the video: