Prof. Lucia Dura from the University of Texas at El Paso addressed the CDE Talk series on Friday, held at the Central Department of English, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur.
Moderating the event, coordinator of the CDE Talk Series Bal Bahadur Thapa, who is also an Assistant Professor at the Central Department of English, shed light on the different courses that CDE has been offering related to Rhetoric and Writing Studies, including Academic Writing, Creative Non-Fiction: Voices of the Margins, Stylistics, and Language and Communication, among others. Thapa said that the department also aptly realizes that such courses related to rhetoric and writing studies have the potential to connect English Studies to the job market as well as to different domains of entrepreneurship.
In her presentation on “Current Trends in Graduate Education in Rhetoric and Writing Studies,” keynote speaker Prof. Dura highlighted the significance and need for rhetoric and writing studies in the present context. She discussed the ‘Genealogy of English,’ tracing the development of English Studies in America along with rhetoric and writing studies from the eighteenth century to World War II. Prof. Dura pointed out that Rhetoric and Writing Studies used to be treated as a supporting portion of English Literary Studies, which, after much struggle, established itself as a distinct field of knowledge with its own methodologies and study areas in the 1980s. Prof. Dura observed that Rhetoric and Writing Studies has excelled beyond its parent discipline, English Literary Studies, as it addresses the needs of the current job market, especially the tenured jobs across universities in the US.
Prof. Dura also shared her ideas about the recent trends in Graduate Education in Rhetoric and Writing Studies with two types of examples: different conferences in the US focused on specific areas of study, such as CCCC for rhetoric and composition studies, and MLA for literary studies; and the programs of UTEP, including IT and Communication Skills, Antiracism, and Justice. Responding to audience questions, Prof. Dura insisted on the need to find the explicit connection between literature and jobs, and to modify rhetoric/composition studies to deal with present challenges.
The CDE Talk Series was presided over by Prof. Jiblal Sapkota, the Head of the English Department, who concluded the session with words of praise for Prof. Dura. The event was attended by the faculty members of the CDE, Ph.D. scholars, M.Phil., and MA students, including the special guest Prof. Arun Gupto.
The CDE organizes a faculty talk once every month, featuring a scholar who speaks on an issue of interest and general public concern from an academic perspective.
