So, I turned in my final paper yesterday. I feel oddly blah. I thought completion of my first semester as a Ph.D. student would have me jumping up and down yelling shouts of euphoria. It must be the fatigue. I did treat myself to a pedicure though. During the spa treatment, I couldn’t really relax. The nail technician kept telling me to sit back and enjoy. I think I’m in hyper-drive, and I can’t get back to mellow. I keep wandering over to my book bag as if it is my only friend. “Talk to me; give me a book to read, a paper to write, ANYTHING!” But, every time I try to get it to respond, it just sits there, propped up against the wall. Alas, I am actually done until January 16th.

But, before I commit to too much downtime, I must admit I will be writing a book review over the break. I’m reading Rhetorical Listening: Identification, Gender, and Whiteness by Krista Ratclliffe. She is one of my favorite feminist rhetorical scholars. So when the chance to write the review of her book for a journal came up, I took it. Her book is part of a great publication series called Studies in Rhetorics and Feminisms published by Southern Illinois University Press. The series editor is another one of my favorite scholars, Cheryl Glenn. Essentially, the series aims to do the following:

[A]ddress the interdisciplinarity that rhetorics and feminisms represent.  Rhetorical and feminist scholars want to connect rhetorical inquiry with contemporary academic and social concerns, exploring rhetoric’s relevance to current issues of opportunity and diversity.  This interdisciplinarity has already begun to transform the rhetorical tradition as we have known it (upper-class, agonistic, public, and male) into regendered, inclusionary rhetorics (democratic, dialogic, collaborative, cultural, and private).  Our intellectual advancements depend on such ongoing transformation.

I couldn’t agree more.  I hope my role as a “fan” allows me to write a review through an appropriate critical lens.