Vision/Mission Statement
The key purpose the National Archives of Composition and Rhetoric is to bring together interested diverse scholar/teachers of every generation to collaborate on creating an articulated network of extant and developing archival projects that can work in concert to ensure more inclusive, authentic and “usable pasts.” Collaborating with archives across the disciplines and institutions, and several other kinds of formal and informal collections, we also support aims to identify specific archival protocols to preserve the rich and complex, even conflicted current moment, and seek the means to ensure much fuller and diverse representations for the future of the “everyday archive.”
Building on recent efforts of a grant from the New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC), the aim is not creating materials so much as locating them, and creating finding aids and links to provide easy access to scholars, instructors, and administrators. Making these materials available through digital means will enable scholars inside (e.g., undergraduate and graduate students) and outside of member institutions to turn to our archive as an example of the history of change in US writing programs, as forces internal and external brought about curricular, pedagogical, and structural reforms.
We hope this website brings together resources of all kinds in the efforts of archival studies within the discipline of Composition and Rhetoric - in essence, an "archive of archives." It is important to take stock of the efforts to preserve, curate, and make the history of the fields. There are a host of archival fonds being created at institutions, programs, centers, associations, courses, projects, or by individuals and groups. Some are print or material; others are partially or fully digital. Some are well supported, others fragile and ephemeral, and many of these archival collections are not readily locatable or accessible, or not even fully processed or named as Rhetoric and Writing Studies (RWS) archives. Equally, many institutional archives have been developed according to selective “traditional” values and principles which have omitted, inadvertently or deliberately, many kinds of important information, documents, and artifacts seen as not valuable, or as “outside the scope of interest.” Alternate archival projects and studies counter traditional archival notions and practices. Therefore, in addition to providing an archiving "hub" of the field, we also hope to provide scholars information and resources about how to establish, curate, and manage their own archival materials and collections.
History of the NACR
Originally established in collaboration between the University of New Hampshire and the University of Rhode Island, this site extends and renews the original work of the National Archives of Composition and Rhetoric, housed for the last three decades at consortium members UNH (Robert Connors) and URI (Robert Schwegler). Along with its archive of over 4200 composition and rhetoric textbooks (UNH Beale Collection) from the past 200 years, the NACR began the work of collecting paper copies of syllabi, course descriptions, and program materials from faculty and program members, nationwide, dating back to the 1960s, the beginning of the modern era of composition/ writing studies as a field.
We view the revival of the NACR as a network of archives, the challenges and possibilities of digital archives, questions of gaps and silences in current archival records, ethical ways to create and support local or topical archives, and the pedagogical uses of archival work to teach and interrogate history.
General Advisory Board Members
Cinthia Gannett, Emeritus Professor
Katherine Tirabassi, Keene State College
Neal Learner, Northeastern University
Alexis Ramsey-Tobienne, Eckerd College
Meaghan Elliott Dittrich, University of New Hampshire
Bradfield Dittrich, Southern New Hampshire University
Corey McCullough, Fort Lewis College
Bob Schwegler, University of Rhode Island
Elizabeth Slomba, University of New Hampshire
If you would like to become a member of the Advisory Board, please email NationalArchives.CompRhet@gmail.com
Contact Us
All inquiries can be addressed to NationalArchives.CompRhet@gmail.com