ABSTRACT
Any responsible discussion of scholarship and its role in the job description and evaluation of college and university faculty members during the decade surrounding the year 2000 must be marked by awareness of and openness to change. Composition studies is such a diverse field that, in Lester Faigley’s words, “in some departments the people now find scholars studying topics ranging from pre-Socratic rhetoric to interactive computer networks”. When scholars discuss the diversity of composition studies, they usually see it as a source of the field’s strength and vitality. The two sides of diversity show, too, in Gesa Kirsch’s discussion of research methodologies in composition studies. Tweaking traditional criteria is a start—already well underway—to-ward broadening the definition of scholarly activities and enhancing the relationship of scholarship to other dimensions of faculty work. The public has many needs, as well as expectations of how higher education should meet them.
