Rhetoric and Writing Studies

Oklahoma’s graduate program in Rhetoric and Writing Studies (RWS) prepares students to become scholar-practitioners who analyze rhetoric, writing, media, and making across a range of cultural and historical contexts. Our professors represent the diversity of the field, researching rhetorical history and theory, women’s rhetorics, indigenous and de-colonial studies, composition theory, technical writing and scientific communication, multimodal production, religious rhetoric, digital humanities, cross-curricular literacy, memory studies, and writing program administration. Recent courses demonstrating this breadth, include:

• Intro to Disability Studies
• Contemporary Rhetorical Theory
• The Rhetoric of Women Writers 
• Intro to Technology Studies in Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy
• Indigenous Rhetorics
• The Digital Humanities

RWS faculty serve as editors of 3 academic journals:

• Dr. Sandy Tarabochia edits: Writers: Craft & Context;
• Dr. Kim Wieser edits: Constellations: A Cultural Rhetorics Publishing Space;
• Dr. Jim Zeigler edits: Genre: Forms of Discourse and Culture.

Of course, in addition to taking an intensive array of courses, at OU you will be supported financially by teaching and learning in our in our award-winning First-Year Composition program and/or working in our world-renowned Writing Center. Many students also take advantage of unique funding opportunities including research assistantships and working in our composition office.

New graduate students work closely with their faculty advisors to develop a unique program of study, resulting in projects and publications like:

Bill Endres: Digital humanities, medieval manuscripts, and visual rhetoric. 

• Check out Professor Endres’s recent chapter on building as a vital humanistic literacy in Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities. https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/making-things-and-drawing-boundaries

Rachel C. Jackson: Native American and Indigenous Studies, Cultural Studies, Critical Race Theory, Decolonial Theory, Land-Based Pedagogies, Indigenous Language Revitalization, and Critical Regionalism

• Check out Professor Jackson's most recent article "Red Flags of Dissent: Decoloniality, Transrhetoricity, and Local Differences of Race": https://library.ncte.org/journals/CE/issues/v84-1 

Susan Kates: History of rhetoric; material rhetorics; women's rhetorics; creative nonfiction; Oklahoma cultural studies.  

• Check out Professor Kates’s creative non-fiction collection Red Dirt Women if you’re interested in learning more about Oklahoma as an intricate site of cultural studies.

Will Kurlinkus: Technical writing; nostalgia; rhetoric; multimodal composition; digital media studies; philosophy of technology; design studies; UX.

• Check out Professor Kurlinkus’s book on nostalgia, design, and democracy: https://www.upress.pitt.edu/books/9780822965527/

Roxanne Mountford: Rhetorical history, theory, and criticism; writing; women’s rhetoric; African American rhetoric; rhetorical education; religious rhetoric; environmental rhetoric; institutional history.  

• Check out Professor Mountford’s field-defining “Mt. Oread Manifesto” and her latest edited collection Rhetoric and Writing Studies in the New Century

Sandra Tarabochia: Writing program administration; writing pedagogy; writing across the curriculum/writing in the disciplines; cross-curricular literacy learning; cross-disciplinary collaboration.  

• Check out Professor Tarabochia being interviewed about her most recent book at https://soundcloud.com/swrbookseries/alex-hanson-interviews-sandra-tarabochia-author-of-reframing-the-relational

Kimberly (Roppolo) Wieser: American Indian rhetorics, literatures, critical theories,  gender studies 

• Check out Professor Wieser's recent co-edited NCTE/CCCC Cross-Caucus Symposium written with Ersula Ore and Christina V. Cedillo at: http://christinavcedillo.com/files/documents/8b7bb678-e9eb-400c-bcde-01dd65879706.pdf

James Zeigler: Cultural rhetoric studies; post-45 American literature; Cold War culture; Civil Rights Movement; literary and critical theory; queer theory; the graphic novel; environmental literature, ecocriticism, and the new materialism 

• Check Out Professor Zeigler's most recent book Red Scare Racism and Cold War Black Radicalism: https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/R/Red-Scare-Racism-and-Cold-War-Black-Radicalism

Application Deadline: January 5.

• For frequently asked questions about our MA and PhD programs visit: http://www.ou.edu/cas/english/academics/graduate/faq
• Need a link to applying to OU?: https://www.ou.edu/gradcollege/admissions/apply/how-to-submit-a-new-application

English Department Application Requirements:

1.     A sample of critical or scholarly writing, no more than 25 pages long. This may be an excerpt from a longer work, such as a senior thesis. It should, however, be clear of grading comments and should preferably be in your expressed area of concentration.

2.     A 1-2 page personal statement about what you’ve done in English or in related fields, why you want to study English, and, particularly, why you think the University of Oklahoma is an appropriate place for you to do it. We want to know what your scholarly interests are, and what areas of concentration you are planning to declare. If you aren’t sure yet what you plan to do in English, that’s fine, but we want to know that you have some idea of the possibilities.

3.     Three letters of recommendation. On your online application, you will be asked to provide emails for three references, who will be contacted by the University with a request for a letter of recommendation. Request your references to comment specifically upon (1) your qualifications as a prospective graduate student (literary/rhetorical judgment, writing ability, originality, diligence) and, if you are applying for Graduate Teaching Assistantship, (2) your qualifications as a prospective teacher (ability to organize, enthusiasm, responsibility, objectivity). If possible, referees should use the online reference system, but if they prefer, they may send hardcopy letters directly to the Office of Graduate Admissions (731 Elm Avenue, Room 318 Norman, OK 73019).

5.     An up-to-date Curriculum Vitae

6.     Official transcripts from every prior institution

• For more, see “Admission Requirements” http://www.ou.edu/cas/english/academics/graduate/m-a/handbook

For other questions contact our graduate program liaison Brenda Mackey (bmackey@ou.edu) or director of graduate study Dr. William Kurlinkus (wkurlinkus@gmail).