Keynote Speaker: Jacqueline Jones Royster

Research:  Projects of the Heart, Mind, and Spirit
The focus of this presentation is on research as a desire to know with emphasis on how Professor Royster's need to know as an archival researcher has shaped and directed her research.  She will share one project related to the documentation of women's contributions and achievements with the intention of demonstrating how research can be dynamically intertwined in both our personal and professional lives.
April 17, 2008
Main Theater, Vern Riffe Center for the Arts
10:00 Welcome – Dr. David Todt, Interim Provost
10:15-11:15am

Jacqueline Jones Royster, Senior Vice Provost and Executive Dean of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English at The Ohio State University, has three complementary areas of interest in research:  the rhetorical history of women of African descent, the development of literacy, and contexts and processes related to the teaching of writing.  She has authored numerous articles and books that illustrate this confluence of concerns in both literacy studies and women's studies. 

From 1983 through 1996, she was a member of the editorial collective of Sage:  A Scholarly Journal on Black Women, serving as senior associate editor.  In addition to their semi-annual journal (which published its final issue in January 1996), the collective published an anthology, Double Stitch:  Black Women Write About Mothers and Daughters (Beacon Press, 1991--hard cover; HarperCollins, 1993--softbound).  Professor Royster’s other book publications included an edited volume Southern Horrors and Other Writings:  The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Bedford Books, 1997); Traces of a Stream:  Literacy and Social Change among African American Women (University of Pittsburgh, 2000); Profiles of Ohio Women, 1803-2003 (Ohio University Press 2003), a volume published in support of the State of Ohio’s Bicentennial celebration; and a co-edited volume (with Ann Marie Simpkins, also at Ohio State), Calling Cards: Theory and Practice in  Studies of Race, Gender, and Culture (SUNY, 2005). 

Professor Royster’s publications also include textbooks.  She served as consulting author for composition of Writer's Choice, 6-8 (Glencoe 1994--), a textbook series in language arts for middle school students.  She served as program consultant for Glencoe Literature: Reader’s Choice (Glencoe 2000--), a literature series for high school courses (courses 1-5, American literature, British literature, and World literatures); and Critical Inquiries (Addison Wesley Longman 2003), a college level reader for first and second year composition courses.  Currently, she is working with other colleagues in rhetoric and composition as a co-editor of the Norton Anthology of Rhetoric and Writing and on a book manuscript with the working title Nubia Lives:  Utopian Desire, Radical Action, and the Voices of African American Women.   

In addition to her teaching, administrative, and scholarly activities, Professor Royster has also been very active in English professional organizations.  She has filled a variety of roles on committees, task forces, and commissions, including serving as chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, chair of the executive committee of the Division on Teaching Writing of the Modern Language Association, and currently on the Writing Advisory Committee of the National Commission on Writing, established by the College Board.  Such leadership roles are evident in the Columbus community as well.  Professor Royster serves on the advisory boards of the Columbus Literacy Council, the Ohioana Library Association, and the Children’s Hunger Alliance.

Among the recent honors and awards that Professor Royster has received are:   Ohio Pioneer in Education (for higher education) by the State of Ohio Department of Education (2000); Braddock Award (2000) from the Conference on College Composition and Communication’s  for the best article in their journal, College Composition and Communication; Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize (2001) from the Modern Language Association’s  in recognition of her book Traces of a Stream; University Distinguished Diversity Award (2002) from Ohio State;  University Distinguished Lecturer (2003) from Ohio State; Exemplar Award (2004) from the Conference on College Composition and Communication; a YWCA Woman of Achievement Award (2004) from the city of Columbus; the Nancy Dasher Award (2006) from the College English Association of Ohio for Calling Cards; and the Frances Andrew March Award (2006) for distinguished service to the profession from the Association of Departments of English of the Modern Language Association .