Ph.D. Program
Rhetoric
Writing
&
Blacksburg
Established in 1798, the town of Blacksburg is
located between the Blue Ridge and Alleghany
mountains of southwestern Virginia.
The largest town in the commonwealth, Blacksburg
is 38 miles from Roanoke, VA, 270 miles from
Washington, DC, and 170 miles from Charlotte,
NC.
Known for its reasonable cost of living, moderate
climate, natural beauty, and warm community,
Blacksburg has been recognized, among other
things, as the best college town in the South, the
best place to raise children in the country, and one
of the happiest small towns in America.
To Apply
http://graduateschool.vt.edu/
prospective
Program Director
Kelly Pender
pender@vt.edu
Department of English
323 Shanks Hall
181 Turner Street NW
Blacksburg, VA 24061
(540) 231-6501
www.graduate.english.vt.edu/PhD/index.html
Virginia Tech
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May
Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging
approach to education, preparing scholars to be
leaders in their fields and communities.
As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive
university and its leading research institution,
Virginia Tech offers more than 240 undergraduate
and graduate degree programs to 31,000 students
and manages a research portfolio of $494 million.
The university fulfills its land-grant mission of
transforming knowledge to practice through
technological leadership and by fueling economic
growth and job creation locally, regionally, and
across Virginia.
Program
Opportunities
Faculty
We study language use and rhetorical activity in public,
academic, corporate, and governmental settings, in a
collective effort to engage pressing social and cultural
issues from the perspective of rhetoric and writing
studies. This mission reflects the mission of a land-grant
university as well as faculty strengths and commitments.
Centers
• Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society (CSRS):
Our thirteen faculty members have far-ranging,
diverse research interests, from traditional rhetoric to
composition and cultural studies, from medical and
professional rhetoric to digital humanities. For more
information about publications, please visit our web
site.
We seek students who want to research how rhetoric
and writing can contribute to social progress, how
literate practices create, circulate and prioritize societal
values and the public policies based on those values,
and how rhetoric and writing empower and control
access to power in these social systems.
• Writing Center: http://www.composition.english.
Our program requires 60 hours beyond the MA,
including a dissertation, and allows up to 30 transfer
hours from relevant graduate work.
Courses
• Foundation, 12 hours: Classical Rhetoric in Written
Communication, Modern Rhetoric, Research
Design in Rhetoric and Writing Studies, Theories
of Written Communication
• Rhetoric in Society, 12 hours: Rhetoric in Society,
Studies in Rhetoric (e.g., Rhetoric and the Law,
Rhetoric of Medicine, etc.), Rhetoric in Digital
Environments, Visual Rhetoric, Rhetoric of Science
and Technology
• Studies in Writing and Communication, 12
hours: Composition Theory, Professional Writing
Pedagogy, Genres of Professional Practice,
Intercultural Communication, Field Methods of
Research in Rhetoric and Writing
• Electives and Cognate Area, 24 hours
Professional mentoring is one of
the program’s greatest strengths:
I received tremendous guidance
in . . . understanding the norms
and expectations of professional
work in rhetoric and writing. I draw
on these lessons and experiences
each time I revise a report, draft
a literature review, or submit a
proposal for funding.
—Tim Lockridge, Assistant Professor
Miami University
http://www.rhetoric.english.vt.edu/
• Center for Applied Technology in the Humanities
(CATH): http://wiz2.cath.vt.edu/
• Vaccination Research Group (VRG): http://www.
vaccination.english.vt.edu/
vt.edu/writing-center/index.html
Graduate Program Certificates
• http://graduateschool.vt.edu/graduate_catalog/
certificates.htm
• ASPECT (Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical and
Cultural Thought)
• Human Computer Interaction
• Material Culture and Public Humanities
• Nonprofit and Nongovernmental Organization
Management
• Public History
• Science and Technology Studies
• Women’s and Gender Studies
Graduate Teaching Assistantships
• Teaching Assistant in Composition, Instructor of
ENGL 1105, 1106, H1204, or 3754: http://www.
composition.english.vt.edu/index.html
• Teaching Assistant in Professional Writing
• Research Assistant in the CSRS
• Assistant Editor of the Minnesota Review
• Writing Center Tutor
• Assistant to the Director of the Writing Center
• Assistant to the Director of Composition
• Teaching Assistant in Engineering Communication
• Teaching Assistant in Civil and Environmental
Engineering
• Research Assistant in CATH
• Kelly
Belanger — Rhetoric of social and
organizational change, literacy studies, medical
communication, research methods and cultures
• Sheila Carter-Tod — composition pedagogy and
practice, student voice and identity in writing,
rhetorical strategies for racial identity and racial
identity development
• Jim Dubinsky — professional writing pedagogy,
history of professional communication, rhetoric
and the military, civic engagement in higher
education (community/university partnerships)
• Carlos Evia — workplace communication, interface
design, technical documentation, international
and multicultural audiences
• Shelli Fowler — critical pedagogy, African American
literature and theory, race and the rhetoric of
resistance
• Diana George — composition and cultural studies,
composition pedagogy, studies in rhetoric and
writing, theories of visual representation, public
writing
• Bernice Hausman — cultural studies of medicine
and medical rhetoric, feminist theory, critical
theory, medical humanities and bioethics
• Paul Heilker — rhetorical theory, the essay, writing
and nonviolence • Kelly Pender — history and theory of rhetoric,
critical theory, and medical rhetoric
In my years at VT, I taught several
different courses, wrote grants,
wrote collaborative articles,
developed public programs, served
on program committees, and
helped manage a journal. I had
the opportunity to work with and
learn from remarkable scholars and
teachers at VT.
The program helped me to find
my niche, both as a teacher and a
researcher, but it also prepared me
to be a competitive candidate on
the job market by allowing me to
teach a number of different courses
and study rhetoric from several
perspectives. As much as we want
to specialize, many jobs still need
faculty who can wear multiple hats.
—Ashley Patriarca, Assistant Professor
West Chester University (PA)
—Matthew Sharp, Assisant Professor
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Katrina
Powell — narratives of displacement,
human rights rhetorics, research methodologies,
genre theory, literacy studies, contemporary
rhetorical theory, feminist autobiography
• Jennifer Sano-Franchini — cultural rhetorics,
digital rhetoric, Asian-American rhetoric,
information design, and technical communication
• Quinn Warnick — rhetoric in online environments,
particularly identity-based arguments, or ethos;
computational rhetoric; and digital humanities
Department
Through its teaching, research, service, and outreach
missions, the Virginia Tech English Department
promotes the study of language and literature in all its
forms.
Through this study, our goal is to give voice to our
students, our communities, and the people and
organizations we study—to help them be heard.
Underlying our mission is the recognition that individuals
and societies create and transform themselves in and
through language—that language is the primary means
by which all people express themselves, make sense
of the world, frame questions, deepen understanding,
cultivate aesthetic awareness, solve problems, and take
action.
Recognizing the power of language in this way allows
us to recognize the individual and collective power of
people through their use of language. That is why our
mission--our calling--is Giving Voice.
I had the opportunity to support
faculty research projects, where
I participated in all stages of
their research, from compiling
literature reviews, to participating
in the conduct of field studies,
to writing grant proposals. All of
these experiences were incredibly
influential in my own research
trajectory.
—Heidi Lawrence, Assistant Professor
George Mason University