University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

"Much research in rhetoric and composition has focused on the damage done by teachers who inappropriately control student texts, but little of this research has examined the origins of text appropriation. I believe a spiritually sensitive approach to reading student texts may shed light on the perennial questions surrounding text appropriation. In particular, there are several groundbreaking?—perhaps mindblowing—ideas about control presented by Jerry Miller in his book The Way of Suffering: A Geography of Crisis that may help the academic discipline of rhetoric and composition grow far beyond its current simplistic binaries. Chiefly, understanding the complex spiritual dimensions of control, as characterized by Miller, may help many writing teachers change the kinds of appropriating behaviors that can short-circuit student learning."