Oakland University unveiled a new writing and rhetoric Department in its College of Arts and Sciences, naming OU Associate Professor Marshall Kitchens as chair effective June 1. The new department consists of seven tenure-track professors, four full-time special instructors and 30 special lecturers, and will be home to a new degree program in writing, offering a major and a minor.
The department will also offer all of the first-year writing courses the vast majority of OU students take, as well as business writing classes, human resource development writing courses, and several upper-division and graduate level classes. The department will also offer support for writing in other disciplines. The newly restructured Communication and Journalism department, which used to be joined with Rhetoric, will continue to function as it did in the past.
The change is part of an effort to strengthen the writing skills of OU graduates in all disciplines, said chair of the Writing and Rhetoric Department Marshall Kitchens.
“It is highlighting writing as an integral part of the university and of the College of Arts and Sciences,” Kitchens said.
In addition to the new Writing and Rhetoric program, Oakland University will also offer a new major in Japanese and a Ph.D. program in Electrical and Computer Engineering. For more information, contact the Division of Academic Affairs at (248) 370-2190.