Major+Exam

Janell Haynes Major Exam—The Political, the Pedagogical: A History of Modern Composition Studies Examiners: Steve Parks, Eileen Schell

In Terms of Work for Composition, Bruce Horner describes the multiple, and often conflicting, ways that the term “politics” is invoked within Composition scholarship and the confusion these conflicts create. However, this confusion, Horner suggests, “is not readily subject to simple resolution through a more precise definition of terms” (74), and must instead involve an understanding of the material conditions of “specific sites and in relation to the conditions of the larger spheres encompassing those sites” (75). This exam seeks to take up the call issued by Horner's work to examine the sites, scholars, and practices that have worked to define the “politics” of Composition, as a field, and composition pedagogy, as a practice, in relation to the larger historical, social, and political spheres. I wish to historicize and contextualize one of the central tropes of the field – “teaching writing is a political act” through addressing the following questions: How did the “political” enter into disciplinary discussions of modern Composition studies and its teaching practices? How has 'the political' been defined and redefined throughout Comp's history? Where has the field engaged with social, cultural, political movements, and how have these engagements allowed for a framing or reframing of Composition? And how have these various identifications with political aims influenced our pedagogies?

To do this work, I will define modern composition studies as occurring post-World War II, and will examine the field’s relationship to larger political arguments, particularly the social movements of the 1960’s-1990s, inclusive. To do so I will read widely across books and essays in Composition studies from the time period, as well as NCTE/CCCC policy statements. In the process, I will also explore the political theorists who are consistently cited in the development of this political framework.

Within this larger context, I will also conduct a more specific case study examining the intersections and uptakes of feminism(s) within Composition. How have Compositionists engaged with feminism, both as a popular political movement and as a theoretical movement? Which practices and pedagogical techniques emerging from this complex context were popularized and/or institutionalized within Composition scholarship? Which were rejected? And how were these decisions influenced by both disciplinary and larger cultural or political conditions? How did the interplays between feminism(s) and Composition impact the field's discussion of itself as a political field? How did the introduction of Feminism offer new alternatives to the political framework for Composition that had previously been developed?

By undertaking this exam, I expect to be able to speak to historical, social, and political context of current debates over public writing, cultural pedagogies, and the role that the Composition classroom can play in social justice. Further, this exam provides a disciplinary foundation for my dissertation, which will explores the role that pedagogy, administration, and professionalization can play on educational policy debates concerning the place of sexuality in the academy.

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Major Response Paper 1