28.07.2026 | 18 Uhr c.t. | Raum 119, Brechtbau (Wilhelmstr. 50)
Der Vortrag zeichnet die Entwicklung der akademischen Schreibausbildung in den USA nach – von der klassischen rhetorischen Bildung über die Ausweitung des Hochschulzugangs im 20. Jahrhundert bis hin zu den aktuellen Herausforderungen durch generative KI. Anhand von Beispielen aus der Auburn University diskutiert Dr. Basgier, wie rhetorische Perspektiven auf Schreiben neue Zugänge zu kritischem Denken, Ethik und wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnis eröffnen können.
Abstract
In the United States, higher education institutions have developed complex infrastructures for teaching and supporting academic writing. Most first-year undergraduate students take a required writing course that introduces rhetorical conventions and processes of academic writing. Some institutions extend writing instruction beyond the first year via discipline-specific writing courses and professional development in writing pedagogy for faculty in all fields. A majority of US universities also have a writing center, where students can get one-on-one extracurricular tutoring from trained peers who help them respond to writing assignments and rhetorical situations. Furthermore, an entire academic discipline—rhetoric, composition, and writing studies—conducts scholarly inquiry into the teaching, learning, and study of writing. In this talk, Dr. Christopher Basgier will discuss how this complex ecosystem of writing instruction, support, and research came to be, as well as its near future, through the lens of three moments when changing literacy demands reshaped writing instruction: the shift from the classical (heavily rhetorical) curriculum to the modern research university in the late 1800s; expanded access and the revival of rhetoric in the 1960s and 70s; and the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (genAI), which challenges existing assumptions about writing instruction. Using professional development programs at Auburn University as illustrations, he will argue that rhetorical ways of thinking about writing can help faculty across the disciplines reimagine the relationships among writing, critical thinking, ethics, and inquiry.
