Dr. Todd is Outstanding!

Please congratulate Dr. Anne Marie Todd, this year’s recipient of the university’s outstanding professor award!
Image of Dr. Todd
From her nomination letter:  “Let me emphasize that Dr. Todd’s contributions are not simply a matter of adding up the number of SOTE scores, faculty workshops, student advising activities, etc., as impressive as those numbers might be. There is a quality dimension to Dr. Todd’s work that puts her in a special category. First, Dr. Todd is an excellent communicator, one who is sophisticated in developing collaborative processes and productive work relationships with faculty, students, and community members. Second, she has a strong work ethic; you can always count on her to step up, follow through and ultimately get things done. And on top of all that, she is a wonderful person: ethical, generous, and caring with just the right blend of humor and seriousness. It is clear to me that her colleagues and students have great admiration and respect for her. I know I certainly do.”
 
Dr. Todd will be honored at the Faculty Service Recognition and Awards Luncheon on March 11th; for more information: 
http://www.sjsu.edu/provost/events/faculty_service_luncheon/ 
 
Congratulations Dr. Todd!

 

Dr. Spangler’s New Play Opens in Boston

Dr. Spangler’s play, Albatross, will open at the Poet’s Theatre in Boston on February 13th and run until March 1.  The play is based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and tells the story of a refugee-sailor forced to wander the earth for eternity. Dr. Spangler will visit classes at Boston University and Emerson College in connection to the performance.  http://www.poetstheatre.org/albatross/

Dr. McConnell Publishes in Rhetoric Society Quarterly

Dr. Kathleen McConnell published her research in the latest issue of Rhetoric Society Quarterly (2015, Vol 45, Issue 1).

Dr. McConnell’s article, “Imbalances and Inequities: the Structure of Inquiry and Its Place in Rhetorical Studies” revisits the concern that academic professionalism and the rise of criticism and theory have diminished rhetoric as a pragmatic art.

Dr. McConnell argues that the recent trend in higher education toward greater restrictions on academic inquiry poses new problems for rhetorical studies, particularly where those restrictions exacerbate existing educational inequities. In the effort to address those inequities, a distinction needs to be made between old concerns with inquiry and the new issues any reorganization of inquiry will present.

Dr. McConnell notes that the generic support for inquiry that universities provide benefits rhetorical studies by lending structure to inquiry processes fraught with uncertainty and marked by impermanency. That support allows for the kind of careful engagement with possibility that rhetorical invention requires. The 2009 documentary film Naturally Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist illustrates the value to inquiry of professional conventions and other forms of generic support. Those same conventions serve rhetorical studies in similar ways.

Congratulations Dr. McConnell!

Dr. Todd Receives Research Award

Dr. Anne Marie Todd received the Christine L. Oravec Research Award from the Environmental Communication Division of the National Communication Association. Presented at this year’s NCA conference, the award honors her book, Communicating Environmental Patriotism: A Rhetorical History of the American Environmental Movement (Routledge, 2013). You can read more about the book here.