Department accepting PhD applications in Composition and Rhetoric for Fall 2021: An Interview with Professor Crystal Colombini

Professor Crystal Colombini

By Elizabeth Bolger

The English Department is now accepting PhD applications in the field of Composition and Rhetoric for the Fall 2021 academic year. To learn more about this development, I spoke with Professor Crystal Colombini, the director of the writing and composition program at the Lincoln Center campus.

EB: Thank you so much for joining me today! The department is now accepting PhD applications in the field of Composition and Rhetoric. I was wondering if you could tell me what led to this change.

CC: It is definitely exciting that the English Department will start welcoming PhD applications in the field of Composition and Rhetoric this year! This possibility is opening up because Fordham is adding more faculty who work in this area: I’ve joined the department as of this year as a primary specialist in this field, and we hope to welcome another faculty member as Kavanagh Chair of Rhetoric in the future (that search started last year, but had to be paused because of Covid). Expanding the faculty who work in rhetoric and writing will mean that we can offer a broader range of graduate seminars as well as more intensive mentoring to support students who want to focus in this area.

EB: That’s very exciting! Can you tell me a bit more about what you hope will develop from this addition?

CC: My hope is that our department will continue to develop and strengthen its capacity to attract and train students in Comp/Rhet, adding to the already vibrant and exciting range of possibilities for English studies here at Fordham! In addition to adding new course offerings and hopefully additional professional development opportunities as well, I would also love to see communities of graduate students form around interests in Comp/Rhet—communities that can support each other to present, publish, and professionalize in this area. In my experience, these kinds of networks can be really valuable in helping students and faculty with shared interests foster generative possibilities for disciplinary engagement in their context. Toward that end, I’m in the process of starting a listserv for students with interests in rhetoric and writing—please contact me if you’re interested!

EB: Academic communities are definitely an important part of the graduate experience, and it sounds like this will be a valuable addition. I am curious to hear more about the changes we can expect to see in the department. Will there be new course offerings that relate specifically to this field?

CC: Our doctoral students are already fortunate to get a great introduction to composition pedagogy via the required two-semester pedagogy training sequence. We’re in the process of reviewing a department proposal to make both semesters credit-bearing courses (previously, graduate students earned credit only for one of the two semesters), which means that two of the required ten courses for doctoral students will be in Comp/Rhet. I’m hoping that this will be the foundation for a more clearly articulated path of study for students who want to cultivate a specialty or subspeciality in this area. More specifically, I’m very much hoping that we can implement a Graduate Certificate in Rhetoric and Writing, offering a legible professional credential to students who are interested. I’m at the very beginning of this process, which will require department, university, and New York State approval, so it may be a way off—but I think there’s a lot of interest in this possibility, so I’m hopeful!

EB: Yes, fingers crossed! So, will Composition and Rhetoric candidates have different course requirements than English PhD students? If so, how will they differ?

CC: I think right now, the question of whether grad students who wish to study Comp/Rhet will have distinctive course requirements is kind of a long way off—this will really depend on how we develop the emphasis and other factors in the future. For now, all PhD students will continue to take the two-semester practicum in composition pedagogy, which builds a great foundation of knowledge in this area, and as we add faculty, those who wish to emphasize Comp/Rhet will have more options to fulfill electives in that area.

EB: Since I’ve entered the program, there have been numerous events focused on potential career paths for PhD students after graduate school. What kind of job opportunities does a PhD in Composition and Rhetoric prepare students for?

CC: Studying Comp/Rhet prepares grad students for a range of professional possibilities! Foremost, of course, it helps them professionalize for research and teaching careers that emphasize the theory and practice of writing and rhetoric. For PhD students aiming to enter the professoriate, writing and rhetoric is usually one of the more vibrant areas of the English academic job market. This is because nearly all universities have first-year writing programs, and many also have other kinds of writing or writing-related programs as well—for instance, professional writing and rhetoric, technical communication, interdisciplinary writing, English education, etc. So, Comp/Rhet has historically been a good source of tenure-track jobs as well as lectureships and adjunct opportunities, and since many jobs in literature also involve teaching writing, candidates often benefit from curating a visible competency in that area. Of course, it’s still a very competitive market, which is why we want to keep developing options that will help us sustain Fordham’s strong record of helping students find good job placement. I would say that coursework and experience in writing program leadership is especially important—most years, there tends to be a clear demand for candidates who are capable of running Writing Programs, directing Writing Centers, leading Writing Across the Curriculum  (WAC) initiatives, developing writing and rhetoric majors or minors, etc. I’d also say that a Graduate Certificate in Rhetoric and Writing, which we hope to develop, is often very attractive to English Language Arts teachers working in the K-12 system, and that coursework in Comp/Rhet can be great preparation for careers outside of the academy, too, including in nonprofit and communications-based work.

EB: Thank you so much taking the time to speak with me!