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We offer institutional critique as an activist methodology for changing institutions. Since institutions are rhetorical entities, rhetoric can be deployed to change them. In its effort to counter oppressive institutional structures, the field of rhetoric and com-position has focused its attention chiefly on the composition classroom, on the de-partment of English, and on disciplinary forms of critique. Our focus shifts the scene of action and argument to professional writing and to public discourse, using spatial methods adapted from postmodern geography and critical theory.

Abstract As publishers integrate international issues into professional writing textbooks, we must analyze how curricular globalization is presented to students. Textbooks examined here position international students as clients, consumers, and exotics who present barriers to effective communication. Furthermore, most of the textbooks contain catalogs of decontextualized cultural factoids rather than strategies for identifying and understanding cultural differences. To expand our notion of international issues, we might consider reading relevant English as a Second Language scholarship for insights. A limited annotated bibliography concludes this article.