People
Catherine Prendergast
PHOTOGRAPH: L. BRIAN STAUFFER
Catherine Prendergast is Professor of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is a University Scholar and Director of the First Year Rhetoric Program.
Contact Information
239 English Building | MC-718
217-333-2345
cprender@illinois.edu
Biographical Statement
Recently the focus of my scholarship has moved offshore: A Fulbright grant allowed me to return after almost a decade to Slovakia to conduct ethnographic research for Buying into English: Language and Investment in the New Capitalist World (2008, University of Pittsburgh Press), a study of the rapid spread of English language use and instruction in the country following the fall of communism.
Read excerpt.
Read the review in The Nation magazine.
For my book-in-progress, Of Sound Mind, I return to the topic of mental disability and self-representation, specifically to explore the pivotal role of writing in the trial of Theodore Kaczynski.
Education
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin at Madison, 1997
M.A. University of Wisconsin at Madison, 1991
B.A. Columbia University, 1990
Publications
Books
Buying into English: Language and Investment in the New Capitalist World. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008.
Literacy and Racial Justice: The Politics of Learning after Brown v. Board of Education. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2003.
Opening Dialogue: Understanding the Dynamics of Language and Learning in the English Classroom. Martin Nystrand with Adam Gamoran, Robert Kachur and Catherine Prendergast. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 1997.
Articles and Chapters
“We Live and Learn: English and Ambivalence in a New Capitalist State.” Globalisation, Societies and Education, 6.1, 2008: 89–100.
“The Unexceptional Schizophrenic: A Post-postmodern Introduction” Journal of Literary Disability, 2.1, 2008.
http://www.journalofliterarydisability.com/issues/vol02no01/prendergast.html
"And Now, A Necessarily Pathetic Response." American Literary History, 20. 1-2, 2008: 238-244.
“Asians: The Present Absence in Crash.” College English Volume 69.4, March 2007.
“Alma Mater: College, Kinship, and the Pursuit of Diversity” (second author Nancy Abelmann) Social Text, 24.1, 2006: 37-53.
“When Whiteness is Visible: The Stories we Tell about Whiteness” (co-author Ira Shor) Rhetoric Review, 24.4, 2005.
“The Economy of Literacy: How the Supreme Court Stalled the Civil Rights Movement” [Reprint] in Legacies of Brown: Multiracial Equity in American Education. (Eds.) Dorinda J. Carter, Stella M. Flores, and Richard J. Reddick. Harvard Education Publishing Group, 2004.
“On the Rhetorics of Mental Disability” [Reprint] in The Rhetoric of Everyday Life. (Eds.). Martin Nystrand and John Duffy. University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.
“The Economy of Literacy: How the Supreme Court Stalled the Civil Rights Movement,” Harvard Educational Review, 72.2, Summer, 2002: 206-229.
“On the Rhetorics of Mental Disability” in Embodied Rhetorics. (Eds.) Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson and James Wilson. Southern Illinois University Press, 2001.
“The Water in the Fishbowl: Historicizing Ways with Words.” Written Communication, 17.4, October, 2000: 452-490.
“Race, the Absent Presence in Composition Studies.” College Composition and Communication, 50.1, September, 1998: 36-53.
“Catching up to Professor Nate: The Problem with Sociolinguistics in Composition Research.” JAC, 17.1, January, 1997: 39-52.
Awards
- David H. Russell Award from NCTE (for Literacy and Racial Justice)
- CCCCs Outstanding Book Award (for Literacy and Racial Justice)
- Mina P. Shaughnessy Award, Modern Language Association (for Literacy and Racial Justice)
- W. Ross Winterowd Award (for Literacy and Racial Justice)
- Fulbright Research Grant, Slovak Republic, 2003
- Brown v. Board of Education Jubilee Commemoration Grant, University of Illinois, 2003 ($13,200)
- Richard L. Braddock Award (for outstanding article in 1998 issue of College Composition and Communication)
- Wisconsin Alumni Research Fellow (1990-91, 1992-93)
Research Interests
Rhetoric, Literacy, English Education, Disability Studies, Critical Race Theory
Sample Course Description
Globalization and the English Language
This course will examine the new status of the English language, the medium at the heart of this department. As English language users now comprise one-quarter of the earth’s population and live in many other places besides traditionally Anglophone countries and their present and former colonies, English has achieved a position of prominence unprecedented in history. We will examine the factors contributing to English’s broad reach including the influence of technology, popular culture, and supranational political formations, but move swiftly into considering the implications of the current state of affairs for work in English and cultural studies. Attention will be given to the rhetorical mobilization of the English language in different geographical contexts and the politics of translation in textual and cultural production.