Introduction

Welcome to the web site of Purdue University's Graduate Program in Rhetoric and Composition. The Department of English at Purdue University offers an M.A. and Ph.D. in English with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition for students pursuing the serious study of written discourse in academic, workplace, and public settings.

Begun in 1980, the graduate program in Rhetoric and Composition now enrolls approximately 50 students and has 213 graduates (142 Ph.D. and 71 M.A.). Our graduates hold positions as composition teachers, program and writing center administrators, graduate program faculty, department heads, editors, and professional and technical writers/managers.

Rhetoric and Composition participates in a large and diverse graduate program (67 faculty and almost 250 graduate students). The Department of English at Purdue offers Ph.D. concentrations in: English Language and Linguistics; ESL; Literature; Rhetoric and Composition; and Theory and Cultural Studies. It also grants an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. It further participates in interdisciplinary programs in: Women's Studies; Comparative Literature; Jewish Studies; American Studies; African American Studies; and Philosophy & Literature.

Community

The Rhetoric and Composition Program is proud of its sense of community. The program includes an energetic, intellectually stimulating, and diverse group of faculty, students, and graduates.

The program's faculty and students build community through coursework and programmatic events. The core courses build a space wherein students collaborate to explore the discipline of rhetoric and composition. Along with the core courses, students develop a strong community in their secondary area courses as they take many of the same classes, work on research projects, and gather to discuss current disciplinary issues. The biennial Hutton Lecture Series is yet another place where community is formed as all students and faculty gather to attend presentations by invited scholars in our field, ask questions about the presentations, and gather afterwards for refreshments and less formal discussion. Even after students have completed required coursework and when work on dissertations may become isolating, post-prelim meetings offer students time to discuss their dissertation projects with one another and a member of the faculty. Students working on their dissertations are also encouraged to form smaller writing groups in which they share drafts and discuss their projects.

With one of the largest rhetoric and composition program alumni populations in the country, Purdue graduates and students build a national sense of community through their ongoing interaction. A newsletter listing the accomplishments of alumni, faculty, and students is published several times a year and circulated across the community. At conferences around the country, graduate students within the program can count on meeting alumni. Each year, too, the Conference on College Composition and Communication is the site of a reunion event that draws together faculty, students, and alumni.