Two former graduate students from our department, who are completing their doctoral degrees at other universities, are joining our faculty this fall.

Holley Vaughn is a doctoral candidate at LSU and is currently putting the finishing touches on her dissertation, a critical ethnography of The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana. Holley served as an undergraduate advisor and taught Performance of Literature (2060) during the recently completed summer sessions. This fall, she will be teaching the large lecture section of Performance of Literature, a stand-alone section of the same course, and undergraduate Performance Methods (3760)--a Group C course in the major. In addition, she will be handling advising for the department and working on undergraduate recruitment and retention issues.

Emily Wachsmann, a student in the doctoral program in Communication at the University of Texas, Austin, has also joined the faculty and will be teaching a full slate of courses in rhetorical studies. We feel lucky, indeed, to have an instructor of Emily's caliber step in to teach courses that needed to be covered after the departure of one of our faculty members this summer. In addition to a Public Speaking course (2040), Emily will also be teaching Rhetoric, Culture, and Ideology (4240), Rhetoric and Politics (4340), and a special topics course in the Rhetoric of Social Movements (4849). COMM 4240 and 4340 are both Group B courses that fulfill the distribution requirement for rhetoric.

Having these alumnae join our faculty provides our majors with an excellent opportunity to be exposed to fresh perspectives on the subjects that we offer in the department.