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Access Type
WSU Access
Date of Award
January 2023
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
English
First Advisor
Richard C. Marback
Abstract
In the past two decades, scholars in Rhetoric and Writing Studies have reimagined the historiography of our field, arguing in many cases that the counter-hegemonic social movements of the 1960s and 1970s laid the groundwork for some of our most important contemporary discussions, such as linguistic justice, the role of social justice issues in the classroom, and the larger question how how Rhetoric and Writing Studies itself can fully realize its potential as an intellectual enterprise by examining its radical roots and influence. Simultaneously, the discipline of Rhetoric and Writing Studies has found itself in the center of larger public discourse about the teaching of writing and literacy and the central purpose of United States higher education, particularly in terms of how it mediates access to other areas of public life. Thus, right wing attacks on “Remedial English”, “African American Studies”, “Gender Studies”, “woke ideology”, and “Critical Race Theory” all attack the notion that the university system can be an engine for equity-focused social projects. This dissertation reads the internal conversation in RWS alongside and against the public discussion of its core issues, arguing that the correct posture for RWS going forward is to make sustained and engaged interventions in public discourse and political action around access to higher education.
Recommended Citation
Lucken Iv, Walter Anthony, "I Am Because We Are: Freedom Dreams In Rhetoric And Writing Studies" (2023). Wayne State University Dissertations. 3833.
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/3833