This Fall, TCU's Winifred Bryan Horner (WBH) Rhetoric Society is holding most of its meetings at the University Pub near TCU's campus. The casual atmosphere provides a great space for rhetoric and composition faculty and graduate students to discuss current research in the field.

This week, the group discussed Laurie Gries's Kairos article "Mapping Obama Hope: A Data Visualization Project for Visual Rhetorics." Along with Gries's piece, the group spoke to general merits and concerns of digital scholarship and publication. 
​
Next time, the group will meet for a cookie exchange and read Heather Lindenman et al.'s "Revision and Reflection: A Study of (Dis)Connections between Writing Knowledge and Writing Practice."

TCU's Winifred Bryan Horner Rhetoric Society of America (WBH) had their first meeting Thursday, Sept. 6, from 12:30 - 1:30. Before the meeting members collaborated on a list of successful (accepted) proposals submitted to Rhetoric/Composition conferences. During the meeting, members shared their experiences with conferences - applying to them, presenting at them, and networking with scholars in our field at them. Dr. George and Dr. Leverenz offered helpful advice for graduate students thinking of submitting proposals to and/or attending Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) and Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), respectively. Dr. Enos, Dr. Hogg, and Dr. Helms also gave advice on these and other conferences in our field.

At the next meeting (Oct. 18), veteran graduate students will "demystify" the exams process, speaking to processes such as creating exams lists, deciding on the structure of and writing their exams, and just making something as scary as doctoral exams seem...less scary. Finally, on Nov. 29, members will meet one last time before the close of the semester for WBH's Draft-a-palooza, a designated hour for members to work on final projects alongside faculty members who will also be working on papers of their own.

What do rhetoric graduate students and faculty at TCU do for fun before a new school year kicks in? They do an escape room and share a meal and conversation together in Fort Worth. Dr. Ann George suggested the event, remembering fondly camp rhetorics she participated in as a graduate student at Pennsylvania State University. TCU's version of the event may have only lasted a day, but it gave students and faculty a chance to collaborate and engage in ways they don't often get to during the busy academic year.

The festivities occurred in Fort Worth's "Magnolia" disctrict. The TCU campers split up into teams and escaped three challenging rooms at Fort Worth Escape and then moved on to Brewed for dinner. As the semester gets underway, students and faculty in TCU's rhetoric program know they have a community and network of support to lean on.