2009 RSA Dissertation and Book Awards

This memo is to update you all on the 2009 RSA Dissertation and Book Awards process. We have recently updated the website information now for the 2009 Awards-and we are ready for your nominations.  Please check the RSA site for full details.

Janet Atwill will again be heading up the Dissertation Awards Committee for this coming year, so please forward any nominated dissertations to her:

Dr. Janet Atwill 
jatwill@utk.edu
Department of English
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996

As for the Book Award, note first that the awards cycle has been changed to the calendar year, so any book published before December 31, 2008 is eligible. Members and presses will have until February 28^th to make nominations, so please nominate books that you think should be considered. Note that authors of nominated books must be members of RSA. (Generally, edited collections and second editions are not eligible for this award. Translations are eligible.) The criteria for evaluating the books are these:

• Originality
• Strength and persuasiveness of argument
• Engaging style or readability
• Potential to promote rhetoric among scholars from other fields
• Potential to promote the general public's understanding of rhetoric.

If you have any nominations for the 2009 Book Award, please have the publisher submit three copies of the book and a brief nominating letter verifying the date of publication to this address:

Dr. Cinthia Gannett
2009 RSA Book Awards Chair
English Department
Fairfield University
1073 North Benson Road
Fairfield, CT 06614

cgannett@mail.fairfield.edu
(203) 254-4000 x2800

These awards will be presented at Rhetoric Society of America's Third Biennial Summer Institute, June 22-28, 2009, at Penn State University.