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Rhetoric and the Scholarship of Engagement: Pragmatic, Professional, and Ethical Convergences

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Rhetoric and the Scholarship of Engagement: Pragmatic, Professional, and Ethical Convergences RHETORIC AND THE SCHOLARSHIP OF ENGAGEMENT: PRAGMATIC, PROFESSIONAL, AND ETHICAL CONVERGENCES Heather Fester A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2009 Committee: Dr. Richard C. Gebhardt, Advisor Dr. Michael B. Ellison Graduate Faculty Representative Dr. Kristine L. Blair Dr. Lance Massey © 2009 Heather Fester All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Richard C. Gebhardt, Advisor The scholarship of engagement, an effort to redefine faculty scholarship in ways that emphasize communal outreach, and rhetoric, which is epistemologically relevant to our modern academic lives, are both models for the future of higher education that are pragmatic, post-professional, and based on ethics. External pressures on the university make discussion of rhetoric and engagement, both of which deal directly with knowledge that grows out of scholarship as it guides practice and service, timely and necessary. Rhetoric and the Scholarship of Engagement examines the competing forces behind this scholarship reform, historicizing the trends and arguing that contradictions inherent in the reforms represent a rich dialogue about the future of academic life. Throughout, Rhetoric and the Scholarship of Engagement treats the space between the community and academy as a dialectical space—a space structured by tensions between opposing forces such as tensions between discipline/institution, theory/praxis, service/pure scholarship, traditional professionalized practices/changing models of professionalism, responsive faculty roles/isolated functions, foundational/antifoundational knowledge, and visible/invisible work carried out by faculty members. To suggest best practices for the transition to engaged scholarship, Rhetoric and the Scholarship of Engagement highlights scholarship and faculty roles in the field of iv rhetoric and composition, arguing that as an already engaged field, it offers a rich theoretical background and successful models for engagement rooted in its pragmatic orientation, struggles for disciplinary legitimation, and overt focus on postmodern ethics in research and institutional life. Through the presentation of rhetoric and composition research, these chapters offer a theoretical background for engagement by examining historical influences, various models of engagement, complications, and examples of application. In conclusion, the dissertation argues that dialectic spaces, such as exists between the academy and community, can be remediated, not by erasing the contradictions but by reconceiving faculty roles around them. By inhabiting a more robust role as an engaged, pragmatically savvy, post-professional, postmodern and ethical “Citizen Scholar,” the faculty member will be better able to adapt to changing demands throughout his/her academic career. v To my friends and family. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge the support, feedback, and encouragement of the members of my dissertation committee for their careful reading and thoughtful commenting on this dissertation. I would especially like to thank the committee chair, Dr. Richard Gebhardt, who suggested I investigate the scholarship of engagement as a topic dovetailing with my own interests in civic rhetoric and public discourse. He was able to point me toward several faculty-level scholarship of engagement developments on BGSU’s campus as I began the project, which helped develop my understanding of the material. He also helped me make many connections between engagement reforms and work on scholarship in the field of rhetoric and composition, both through discussion with him and as I read his publications. One of Rick’s strengths as a teacher, I have long felt, is the way he teaches through modeling, and my experience with him on this dissertation has been invaluable not only for his editorial acumen and willingness to wrestle with ideas, organization, or syntax to help me with clarity, but also for the ways he modeled professionalism and encouraged me when I struggled. Because of Rick’s careful attention to my dissertation and the time he took with it, I learned a great deal about academic writing and my own process, forms of knowledge that will serve me well in all future projects. I would also like to thank Dr. Kristine Blair, who is quite an inspiring engaged scholar and whose feedback on the chapters always challenged me to push intellectual and practical boundaries in my work. Kris provided multiple models, from her own work also, and asked some difficult questions, many of which I know I will be returning to for future projects that grow out of this dissertation. I always felt as if she valued the work; vii her willingness to take it seriously and provide supportive comments was another source of inspiration to me when I was laboring to complete a chapter or revision. It was a pleasure to work with Dr. Lance Massey as well, who was able to help me with some research “brush-clearing,” as he put it, while clarifying several directions for future projects that I had not been focused on. Dr. Michael Ellison was a very supportive outside committee member, and apart from posing helpful questions, his interactions with the text and his careful reading helped validate the dissertation and generate some potential new audiences for the future. Thanks also to Dr. Barbara Genelle Smith Gebhardt who took a personal interest in the success of the project, provided supportive commentary, and read the dissertation closely, which proved a great help as I was preparing the final copy for submission. I would like to thank all the faculty I’ve worked with in Bowling Green State University’s Rhetoric and Writing Ph.D. program. They’ve all contributed, whether directly or indirectly, to my success as a student and Ph.D. candidate. I’d especially like to thank Dr. Sue Carter Wood, whose courses on the history of rhetoric, advanced composition pedagogy, and women in the rhetorical tradition laid the foundation for my dissertation research. Last but definitely not least, I’d like to thank my parents, Dan and Rita Fester; grandmother, Joyce Corman; other family members; colleagues; and friends who supported me in multiple ways throughout this project, especially when I took my first tenure-line position while ABD and found my endurance and commitment to the dissertation flagging. I honestly could not have done it without them, and they have all viii provided me with many “graces” and much space, helping me see the importance of the work I was doing so I could accomplish this goal. Thank you all! ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. RHETORICAL ENGAGEMENT .................................................................. 1 Rhetoric and Composition as an Engaged Discipline ................................................ 4 Relevance vs. Isolation .................................................................................. 7 Theory vs. Practice......................................................................................... 9 Marginalized vs. Central ................................................................................ 13 Rationale: Why Engagement? Why Rhetoric? Why Now? ....................................... 15 Key Definitions .......................................................................................................... 18 The Research Gap: Rhetorical and Dialectical Engagement ..................................... 23 Limitations: Dissent in the Ranks .............................................................................. 29 Dissertation Overview ............................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER II. ACTION IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD .................................................... 43 The “Tacit Tradition” ................................................................................................. 45 The “Taint of Practice” .............................................................................................. 47 Rhetoric and the Pragmatic Tradition ........................................................................ 51 Domains of Pragmatism within Rhetoric and Composition .......................... 55 Neopragmatism in Rhetoric and Composition ................................... 55 Rhetorical Hermeneutics .................................................................... 60 The Pluralist Strand in Rhetoric and Composition ............................ 61 The Third Sophistic and Pragmatic Rhetoric ..................................... 62 Contextualism .................................................................................... 63 Constructive Postmodernism in Rhetorical Thought ......................... 64 Classical Pragmatism in Rhetoric and Composition .......................... 65 x Transactional Theory/Triangulation/Melioration .............................. 67 From Pragmatic to Engaged Practice ......................................................................... 71 The Divergence of Rhetoric and Pragmatism ................................................ 71 The Convergence of Pragmatic Philosophy and Engagement ....................... 80 Understanding the Scholarship of Engagement as Pragmatic Civic Service............................................................................................................ 82 CHAPTER III. UP THROUGH PROFESSIONALISM ...................................................... 86
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