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March 04, 2005
About SU
When I went to Colgate as the WPA in 1984, it was my first full-time academic job. I had a Ph.D. from a primarily literary department, but one that had been very flexible in accommodating my interests in language and writing. But I was possessed of only the smallest scraps of information about the field of composition and rhetoric. And I was the only compositionist in my new university.
Now, twenty-one years later, I've taken to referring to myself as an autodidact. And with regard to the field of composition and rhetoric, I am. Early into my autodidacticism, though, I realized that I was living very close to a terrific writing program. In the early days of that realization, my impression of the SU Writing Program was mainly defined by the work Louise Phelps was doing there, crafting a program that seriously drew on the expertise of part-time composition workers and that pioneered new ways to reward those workers. Gradually I became aware of other SUWP workers such as Duane Roen and Keith Gilyard. The more I learned, the more I wanted to join them. Each year I eagerly watched the job ads, hoping that Syracuse would be searching for me. But they weren't.
Finally I left Colgate for TCU. At the time it was a traumatic move, but one full of hope. At last I was going to be in a place where I wasn't the only comp/rhet worker. Indeed, those two years at TCU were a revelation to me, as I worked with Jeanette Harris, Rich Enos, Ann George, Gary Tate, Brooke Hessler, Lois Agnew, Kurt Schick, Amy Taggart, and many other wonderful scholar colleagues.
It was hard to leave TCU, but it was also easy: Syracuse finally advertised for me, and my home and partner were still in upstate New York. So I moved again, in 1999, back to the Frozen North.
I haven't ever regretted it. On the contrary, I've felt over and over that I am an amazingly fortunate person. The path hasn't been easy, but I'm living in a place I love, and my workplace is every bit as good as I'd imagined it during those years in which I stalked the SUWP.
And on days like today, when I spend the day in a swirl of fascinating colleagues, fabulous grad students, and promising future grad students, I am reminded again not only of the fact that I believe myself fortunate, but also of the reasons I do. Damn, it's good to be here. I hope lots of other people like their jobs as much as I do mine.
PostscriptAnd I get to be Lois Agnew's colleague again!
Posted by senioritis at March 4, 2005 08:27 PM
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