History Bump

I've decided to research: 20th Century African American Women Rhetoricians and their Contributions to Composition Studies. My reasons for wanting to take on such a task are simple. First, I don’t know enough about the contributions that African American women have made in the field of composition studies. Since being introduced to the polemical underpinnings of composition and rhetoric, I’m not surprised that this arena is dominated by people, who are not of color. I know that there is information that I need to know, realize, and hold true, but, I’m not really interested in taking up a cause I’m not feeling. Thus, I’d like to know what it is that I am being birth into by situating Royster and Smitherman in the field of composition. I want to know whether other scholars have embraced their arguments, in particular, what Royster and Smitherman espouse about language, and how that is represented in pedagogy. I want to know how they execute their research, and what methods they use. Since these women are writing in present day, it would also be interesting to survey their writings, collectively, to identify areas of composition to which they ascribe. I want to present a picture and mood of the attitude of composition when they wrote specific works. This constitutes historical work because the focus would not be a posthumous account of the contributions that African American women have made to composition studies, but a contemporary account. This would permit me to access primary sources by way of interview, and it would allow me to survey a specific period, locating what may have helped to influence how they couched language and pedagogy. I am concerned that this proposal is too broad and needs more focus. I am also concerned that I will not have enough time to complete this project. I am also concerned that "language" is not the word I'm looking for to describe what I want to review.

So, as a very preliminary bibliography, I'm thinking:

Potter, J. and M. Mulkay. "Scientists' Interview Talk: Interviews as a Technique for Revealing Participants' Interpretative Practices." The Research Interview: Uses and Approaches. Ed. M. Brenner, J. Brown, and D. Canter. New York: Academic P, 1985. 247-271.

Fink, Arlene, and Jacqueline Kosecoff. How to Conduct Surveys: A Step-by-Step Guide. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1985.

Smitherman, Geneva. Interview. (Before this project is complete [2005]).

Jackson, Austin, and Geneva Smitherman. “ ‘Black People Tend to Talk Eubonics': Race and Curricular Diversity in Higher Education.” Strategies for Teaching First-Year Composition. Ed. Duane Roen, Veronica Pantoja, Lauren Yena, Susan K. Miller, and Eric Waggoner. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2002. 46-50.

Makoni, Sinfree, Geneva Smitherman, Arthur K. Spears, and Arnetha F. Ball. Black Linguistics: Language, Society and Politics in Africa and the Americas. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Rose, Shirley K. “Two Disciplinary Narratives for Non-Standard English in the Classroom: Citation Histories of Shaughnessy's Errors and Expectations and Smitherman's Talkin' and Testifyin'.” History, Reflection, and Narrative: The Professionalization of Composition 1963-1983. Eds. Mary Rosner, Beth Boehm, and Debra Journet. Greenwich, CT: Ablex, 1998. 187-204.

Smitherman, Geneva. “ ‘The Blacker the Berry, the Sweeter the Juice’: African American Student Writers.” The Need for Story: Cultural Diversity in Classroom and Community. Ed. Anne Haas Dyson and Celia Genishi. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 1994. 80-101.

Smitherman, Geneva. “CCCC's Role in the Struggle for Language Rights.” College Composition and Communication. 50.3 (February 1999): 349-376.

Smitherman, Geneva. “The Historical Struggle for Language Rights in CCCC.” Language Diversity in the Classroom: From Intention to Practice. Ed. Geneva Smitherman and Victor Villanueva. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2003. 7-39.

Smitherman, Geneva. “Language and Democracy in the USA and the RSA.” Language Ideologies: Critical Perspectives on the Official English Movement. Vol. 2. Ed. Roseann Dueñas González. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 2001. 316-345.

Smitherman, Geneva. “Language Policy and Classroom Practices.” Making the Connection: Language and Academic Achievement among African American Students. Ed. Carolyn Temple Adger, Donna Christian, and Orland Taylor. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1999.

Smitherman, Geneva. “Meditations on Language, Pedagogy, and a Life of Struggle.” Rhetoric and Ethnicity. Ed. Keith Gilyard and Vorris Nunley. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2004. 3-14.

Smitherman, Geneva. Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1977, 1986.

Smitherman-Donaldson, Geneva. “Toward a National Public Policy on Language.” College English 49 (1987): 29-36.

Royster, Jacqueline Jones. Interview. (Before this project is complete [2005]).

Royster, Jacqueline Jones. “When the First Voice You Hear Is Not Your Own.” College Composition and Communication 47.1 (February 1996): 29-40.

Royster, Jacqueline Jones, and Jean C. Williams. “History in the Spaces Left: African American Presence and Narratives of Composition Studies.” College Composition and Communication. 50.4 (June 1999): 563-585.

Royster, Jacqueline Jones, Anne Bradford Warner. “Saga of the Dragon Slayers or Perspectives on Teaching Writing at Spellman College.” Teaching Writing at Historically Black colleges and Universities. eds. David G. Lanoue and Vivian A. Wilson. New Orleans: Southern Education Foundation, 1988. 25-30.

Royster, Jacqueline Jones. “In Search of Ways in: Reflection and Response.” Feminine Principles and Women’s Experience in American Composition and Rhetoric. eds. Louise W. Phelps and Janet Emig. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995. 385-392.

Royster, Jacqueline Jones and Rebecca Greenberg Taylor. “Construction Teacher Identity in the Basic Writing Classroom.” Journal of Basic Writing. 16.1. 1997: 27-50.