Issue 53.2 of @CompStudies is built around four tensions the field is sitting with right now. A thread. 🧵

Every cover has a story. Every issue of Composition Studies starts with a cover. This one started with a walk along the Kishwaukee River. Meet Michael J. Day, the photographer behind 53.2's "Peekaboo Raccoon." 🧵

Some big changes at Composition Studies. New submission policy: five-paragraph essays only. New section: Hot Takes. And a lifetime achievement award for Reviewer 2. Happy April Fools. 53.2 is coming soon—peer review included. #RhetComp #CompositionStudies

Something's happening at the journal this week. We're not ready to share the details yet—but you'll want to check back on April 1st.

Issue 53.2 is built around three questions: What does AI actually change about writing? Whose experiences in rhet-comp have been silenced? And what does composition owe the political present? We're starting with the questions. Article highlights coming soon. Which one's yours?

We keep having this conversation. What do we tell our students about GenAI? On the FEN Blog, Megan McIntyre slows it down—three questions about how GenAI works, what it costs, and when (if ever) it belongs in a writing classroom. bit.ly/genai-3quest...

That's a wrap on #4C26. Thank you to everyone who connected with us in Cleveland. Missed the discount? Still running through March 31: 📬 Domestic: $40 🌍 International: $70 🎓 Grad students: $15 Spotlights from 53.2 coming soon. #CompositionStudies #RhetComp #WritingStudies

Last day of #4C26. The ideas from this week's sessions keep following us into the hallway. What conversation has stuck with you this week? #CompositionStudies #RhetComp #WritingStudies

Getting a sticker never stops being fun. We don't make the rules. We're at #4C26—find our editors Jacob Babb or Zach Beare, say hello, and one is yours. No subscription required. Best bet: Editor's Table in the Action Hub. Also spotted near coffee. #CompositionStudies #RhetComp #CCCC2026

The conversations at #4C26 will be good. The ones in our Fall issue might be better. $10 off any one-year subscription to Composition Studies: 📬 $40 domestic 🌍 $70 international 🎓 $15 grad students Scan the QR, use code "4C26." #CompositionStudies #RhetComp #WritingStudies

4C26 is this week, and Composition Studies will be in Cleveland. Our Fall issue just dropped—generative AI and editing, women of color in grad programs, and a forum on the field right now. Subscriber perk coming tomorrow. #4C26 #CompositionStudies #RhetComp

Most outcomes statements just sit in a PDF. This one didn’t. In their article, Aligning with and through Difference, Jessica Ouellette and Ryan Dippre trace how a shared outcomes statement reshaped two campuses in the University of Maine System. 🔗 bit.ly/CS53-1

Are “real” conferences excluding people? For years, conferences have meant flights, hotels, and steep fees. What if our most inclusive, connected professional spaces are intentionally online? 🔗 bit.ly/wwa-living

Working at the intersection of rhetoric, migration, and teaching? Katie Silvester reviews Cruz Medina’s Sanctuary, tracing how geopolitical forces shape literacies, citizenship, and belonging—vital for scholars and instructors alike. Read the full review: bit.ly/review-sanct...

What if professional conferences built belonging—not barriers? Joanne Baird Giordano & Charissa Che trace how TYCA National became an open-access advocacy space for two-year college educators. 🔗 bit.ly/WWA_TYCA

What does it mean to “write the race” in America? Kimberly A. Bain reviews Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s The Black Box, tracing how language shapes—and constrains—Black identity. A sharp read with big stakes for our classrooms. Full review: bit.ly/review-black...

What if our conferences actually matched our values? In their new Composition Studies article, Kofi J. Adisa and Frankie Condon imagine a future for academic gatherings that’s more accessible, inclusive, and human. 🧵 🔗 Read here: bit.ly/www-future

What are we really grading — writing or behavior? In Composition Studies 53.1, @mattgomes.bsky.social explores how grading contracts don’t just assess writing, but regulate how students act, participate, and even think about writing. 🔗 Read here: bit.ly/CS53-1

New on the FEN blog: Joyce Kinkead’s collaboration with student researchers explores pens, pencils, and even quills in the classroom. 🔗 bit.ly/Zen-Pen-Blog

Teaching first-year writing in 2025 means juggling more than thesis statements. Students are navigating stress spirals, fragmented reading habits, and pandemic aftershocks. Casie Fedukovich & Brooke Mulhollem offer a reset: the ACT model. 🔗 Read more: bit.ly/ACT-FYW

How can we rethink academic conferences in a world of growing precarity? In Composition Studies 53.1, Genie Nicole Giaimo reflects on the inequities of academic labor—and the possibilities for reimagining how we gather.

Grades often stifle students’ willingness to take risks. But what if grading itself could invite risk? In Composition Studies 53.1, @dlib24.bsky.social explores how labor-based grading contracts (LBGCs) reshape what risk means in the classroom. 🧵

What if the future of conferences looked nothing like the past? Our first highlight from 53.1’s “Where We Are” is Cristy Beemer & Rebecca S. Richards’ “Nimble and Sustainable.” 🧵

Want to shape the next Composition Studies special issue? We’re looking for guest editors for Summer 2026. (Open-access + digital → wide circulation + real impact)

Reflection isn’t just a tidy essay at the end of class. ✨ In the newest issue of Composition Studies, Jaclyn Fiscus-Cannaday shows how reflection is alive, happening in motion through everyday classroom moments. 👇 3 reasons her new book is worth your time:

The cover of our new issue features Attention by Susanna Crum—a cyanotype that reimagines the “blueprint” as the architecture of thought. #cs531 #chartingourcourse #compositionstudies #writingstudies #rhetcomp #coverart #cyanotype

Turns out, a lot of PhDs—and a lot of care. Composition Studies 53.1 is now live. Featuring essays on grading contracts, conference futures, sustainable teaching, and editorial care. Read it here: compstudiesjournal.com/current-issu... #cs531 #compositionstudies #rhetcomp #writingstudies

“How many PhDs does it take to write an editorial introduction?” Our Spring 2025 issue isn’t about returning—it’s about reimagining. Coming soon from Composition Studies. #cs531 #chartingourcourse #compositionstudies #writingstudies #rhetcomp #academicpublishing #editorsatwork

Read about Amanda Smith, Jill Logan, Bryan Hoffer, Alesya Petty, Chelsea Criez, and Anne F. Walker's work on the FEN Blog: bit.ly/43DELtK 👈

Are you interested in #studentcentered #assessment projects? Check out Nicole Guinot Varty & @adriennejankens 52.2 #article about Wayne State University’s CLC #writing showcase: bit.ly/3DOvnu2 ✨ #multimodal #studentvoice #TeamRhetoric #highered #composition #rhetcomp

Composition Studies readers and #4C25 goers, it's time for a subscription discount. Use the QR code below to take $10 off any one-year subscription to our journal. And, if you find Jacob or Zach at 4Cs, show them your confirmation for a free sticker!

“But most of all, every student leaves the course knowing that editing and publishing is not just ‘correcting’ or ‘copy editing’ other people’s words” (Richards 142). Read more from @RhetorRichards: bit.ly/4a9Ay3P. 🎉 #editing #publishing #antiracism #feminism #rhetcomp #contractgrading #umass #engl

Check out Nasih Alam’s #bookreview for a collection that highlights linguistic and cultural diversities by amplifying twenty-two voices whose primary language is not English: bit.ly/3C1GRda. 🎉🎉 #identity #diversity #inclusion #marginalization #pedagogy #composition

Monica Reyes’ “Transformative Counterstorying in a Rhetorics of Displacement Seminar” is a course design that you would want to read to help your students use stories as a geopolitical tool for accessing safety, power, and dignity: bit.ly/4h6H4ur

Check out Omar Yacoub's review of Writing STEAM: Composition, STEM, and a New Humanities. This collection explores the intersection of writing, STEM, & the arts, highlighting the need for better communication in these fields. Read more: bit.ly/40pgJlL. #STEAM #HigherEd

In "Liberalism in Rhetoric and Composition: An Ideological History and (Re)Definition," Overstreet challenges critiques of liberalism, arguing that it is "a political reform project that seeks to structure social systems to maximize human potential” (103). Subscribe for access: bit.ly/3SL3ANl

Read Jainab Tabassum Banu's review of Michael J. Michaud's book, “A Writer Reforms (the Teaching of) Writing,” which explores the impactful journey of #DonaldMurray, a pioneer in writing pedagogy: bit.ly/4aafPNn #WritingProcess #EducationReform #BookReview #WritingPedagogy

Join us in welcoming our new FEN Blog co-editors, Emily Brier and Daniel Libertz!🎉 And with this new leadership comes a fresh #CFP! Any proposals about #composition, from #PublicRhetoric, #CollaborativeWriting, #Assessment, and more, are encouraged. Read more at bit.ly/3QleGcv. Please share widely❣️

#BOOKREVIEW: @dhroen reviews @ShaneAWood’s 2022 text, which further exemplifies Wood’s interview talents and “offers many informed perspectives about teaching writing in a wide range of institutional and programmatic contexts” (178): bit.ly/3BZP5CB #pedagogy #rhetcomp

Have you ever thought of curatorial technique as a writing invention strategy? If not, then you should definitely check out Mario D’Agostino’s design for the course, “WRIT 5900: Archival Curation and Museology”: bit.ly/42eZ9Cx #TeamRhet #RhetComp

Is the traditional "writing process" model truly helping—or hindering—development as writers & professionals? Read “‘This is Me, Writing’: Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Their Writing Processes Over Time” by Chris W. Gallagher in your copy of 52.2. Subscribe here for access: bit.ly/3SL3ANl.

Discover how student-generated textbooks can revolutionize your writing classroom by reading @chris_friend’s article in your copy of 52.2! Subscribe for access: compstudiesjournal.com/subscriptions/ 📚

For those of you in rhet/comp/writing studies, here’s a list of independent peer-reviewed journals that are currently accepting submissions: Composition Studies (@compstudiesjrnl.bsky.social) Kairos (@kairosrtp.bsky.social) Composition Forum Xchanges Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics

“Of the 133 four-year institutions listed in 2015, 118 still offer a Writing and Rhetoric major. What happened between then and now?” (Becker 2). Check out Tim Becker’s At A Glance graphics in 52.2: bit.ly/3WgkVSl. #RhetComp #WPA #Writing

Hey, CS friends! Editors Jacob Babb and Zachary Beare are "Keeping the Ship Afloat" 🌊🚢 with our Fall 2024 52.2 Issue, which is now out! Happy reading: bit.ly/42ataDl 🥳🥳 #TeamRhetoric #WritingStudies #HigherEd #CompRhet

Happy New Year!

Allison Harper Hitt’s book Rhetorics of Overcoming is a must read for graduate students in writing studies and seasoned disability scholars. - @adahubrig.bsky.social Here’s why: bit.ly/4fx6EJd #openaccess #teamrhetoric #rhetcomp #highered #bookreview #writingstudies #disabilitystudies

Join our team!! 🥳 We are seeking applicants for 1) new editor(s) for FEN Blog; 2) an advertising assistant; and 3) content and copyediting editorial assistants. Check out the specifics here: bit.ly/48VSXjr. Apply by Dec. 2! #AcademicChatter #teamrhetoric #HigherEd #composition #writingstudies

“...[first-year writing students] reported developing a relationship with writing that extended beyond leveraging it for academic gain” (64) – isn’t that the dream?! Learn more #openaccess: bit.ly/4flA1xQ. #HigherEd #TeamRhetoric #RhetComp #WritingStudies