Holy Cross English Professor to Deliver Annual Rodino Lecture on Liberal Arts

WORCESTER, Mass. – Patricia L. Bizzell, Rev. John E. Brooks, S.J., Chair in the Humanities and professor of English, will present this year’s Richard Rodino Lecture on the Aims of the Liberal Arts on Tuesday, Feb.15 at 4 p.m. in Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The talk, titled “‘Take with you words:’ The Intellectual Work of Rhetoric in Liberal Education,” is free and open to the public.

The title of Bizzell’s talk, ‘Take with you words,’ derives from Hosea 14:3: “Take with you words, and return to the Lord,” which relates to her work on rhetoric.  In her talk, Bizzell will address how rhetoric denies the separation of rationality and emotions.  Rather it creates space for reasonable individuals to discuss matters about which they disagree.  Bizzell will be arguing how rhetoric is crucial in the classroom.  “The rhetorical exchanges of teacher and student may also cultivate the moral formation of both parties,” she says. “Such is the function of rhetoric in liberal education.”

A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1978, Bizzell holds degrees from Wellesley College and Rutgers University.  She is a nationally-recognized authority on the teaching of composition, and has lectured and conducted workshops across the country.  An expert on American literature, rhetoric and rhetorical theory, as well as composition and composition theory, she received the 2008 Exemplar Award by the Conference on College Composition and Communication and served as president of the Rhetoric Society of America from 2006-2008.

In addition to numerous articles and essays on composition theory, Bizzell is the author of Academic Discourse and Critical Consciousness (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993) and co-author, with Bruce Herzberg, of The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001), which received the National Council of Teachers of English Outstanding Book Award in 1992.

At Holy Cross, Bizzell has served as the director of the Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Program, chair of the English Department, director of the College Honors Program, and as Speaker of the Faculty.  She was a 2008 recipient of the Arthur J. O’Leary Faculty Recognition Award, an honoraria delivered annually to four faculty members who make a special contribution to Holy Cross through their teaching, scholarship, and service.  She is a resident of Worcester, Mass.

The annual Rodino Lecture series is devoted to the memory of Richard Rodino, formerly of the English department at Holy Cross.