Joe Marshall Hardin is Director of Writing and Assistant Professor of English at Northwestern State University of Louisiana, where he teaches courses in writing, rhetoric, composition theory, linguistics, and American literature.
2004 0-7734-6420-4 This work brings together divergent English professionals to discuss the question of balance between teaching, scholarship, and service in English departments. The selected essays by faculty, composition directors, graduate studies directors, tenure and promotion committees, department heads, deans, vice presidents and those is related fields give this collection a wide array of perspectives from research, comprehensive and teaching departments.
The essays examine how departments establish criteria, weight, and reward for these areas; how expectations are spelled out to faculty; how these elements are deemed to be accomplished satisfactorily; how graduate programs prepare English professionals or how they can more adequately prepare them for work in these areas; how well departments work with new faculty to define expectations; how expectations change as institutional missions change; how post-tenure review processes evaluate these elements; how “well-rounded English professionals” are defined, developed and encouraged; how new faculty can develop professional profiles; how new and established faculty would like to see these areas weighted; and how what we say we want our “well-rounded faculty” to look like and what we actually reward varies.
This work will be an important addition to the English studies cannon, faculty development circles, graduate English programs across the country, those interested in educational administration and planning, and generally in all college and university libraries.