The Composition Specialist as Flexible Expert: Identity and Labor in the History of Composition

College English Sep 2014

The Composition Specialist as Flexible Expert: Identity and Labor in the History of Composition

Annie S. Mendenhall

Abstract

This history explores the early growth of composition faculty between 1960 and 1990, arguing that composition has historically functioned as a site of flexible expertise. As archives of the Modern Language Association’s Job Information List attest, early job advertisements for composition “specialists” defined the work of composition in terms antithetical to specialization, expecting a compositionist to perform a variety of administrative work and to teach comfortably in multiple areas. The flexible identity of the field’s faculty aided its growth during a period when tenure-track faculty waned; composition thrived because faculty could serve multiple institutional roles. This essay calls readers to investigate the ways that composition’s flexibility has impacted and continues to impact the field’s identity and labor structures.

Journal: College English
Published: 2014-09-01
DOI: 10.58680/ce201426071
Open Access: Closed
Topics: multimodality

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

Leverenz (2024)

“Nice Work If You Can Get It”: Preparing for the Job Search in Rhetoric and Com…

College Composition and Communication
Do (2024)

And Suddenly It Ended: The Cultural Tax of Diversity on Racialized Bodies in Wh…

College English
Walwema et al. (2021)

“Are You Authorized to Work in the U.S.?” Investigating “Inclusive” Practices i…

Technical Communication Quarterly
Bowen et al. (2020)

Identities Developed, Identities Denied: Examining the Disciplinary Activities …

College Composition and Communication
Brown (2020)

What Else Do We Know? Translingualism and the History of SRTOL as Threshold Con…

College Composition and Communication

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

CrossRef global citation count: 6 View in citation network →