Program Overview

Ph.D. in Composition and Cultural Rhetoric Doctoral Program (CCR)

The Composition and Cultural Rhetoric Doctoral Program emphasizes research on the dynamic interaction of rhetoric and writing in a variety of cultural and historical contexts. As the first independent writing program in the country to offer a doctorate in Rhetoric and Composition studies, and with doctoral education as our sole focus, the CCR program offers a unique environment with a highly favorable faculty to student ratio.

Research Areas

Our research and teaching centers entirely around writing and rhetoric, with faculty and students whose interests span a broad range of contemporary and historical specializations, including:

• American Ethnic Rhetorics
• Authorship Studies
• Composition Studies and Pedagogies
• Digital Rhetorics, Pedagogies, and Technical Communication
• New Literacies
• Rhetoric: Histories, Theories, and Pedagogies
• Studies of Gender and Sexuality
• Transnational Rhetorics and Globalization

Community

Community is a multi-layered concept in the CCR program.

We are a community of scholars, with faculty and students working closely together across a range of research interests. Each year in August we come together for Community Day, a time to check the pulse of the discipline, welcome our new students and set the pace for the academic year. Throughout the year, Colloquia and other meetings keep us connected.

As part of Syracuse University, we are members of an academic community where Chancellor Nancy Cantor's Scholarship In Action initiative calls for the active community engagement and closer relations between the university and the surrounding community, both in the city of Syracuse and abroad. Within CCR, our faculty lead several community-oriented projects.

As CCR scholars, we are also part of the larger discipline of Composition and Rhetoric. Our students and faculty regularly appear on panels at major disciplinary conferences, including the Conference on College Composition and Communication, Rhetoric Society of America, Writing Program Administrators, Kenneth Burke Society, and the National Communication Association.

We are citizens of the world, with research interests that recognize the larger communities of humanity and the role of language in human interaction. From global Englishes to the life stories of migrant workers, from technology to agriculture, from community writing groups to a community press, our students and faculty work with concerns across disciplinary and cultural lines to build bridges of access, understanding, and strength.

Course Catalog

Course Catalog: Composition and Cultural Rhetoric, PhD

Department

Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition