Future Students

Why WSU?

Learn to write from this nationally acclaimed rhetorician.

Professor of English Victor Villanueva focuses on composition and rhetoric studies, and works with both graduate and undergraduate students to better their grasp and usage of language.

Rhetoric is of particular interest to Villanueva, who defines it as “the conscious use of language.” He is especially interested in the area of racism, which was the subject of one of his recent undergraduate courses, The Rhetoric of Racism.

The inner workings of rhetoric

Rhetoric is used for persuasion, and Villanueva examines how conscious we are of not only what we are doing to persuade, but what is happening to us as we receive rhetoric. In terms of ideology, he opens the door to understanding “the stuff we take in without recognizing that we’re taking it in.”

Engaging you

Villanueva works to engage students in writing by getting them “to recognize that as long as they’ve got the technology, which means they know how to put letters to page, all of them are potentially writers.”

Villanueva is the winner of two national awards for Bootstraps: From an American Academic of Color. His research concerns the interconnectedness of rhetoric, ideology, and racism, and their manifestation in literacy and literacy practices. His exploration takes him through classical and contemporary rhetoric, cultural studies, world-systems theory, critical race theories, and composition studies. In 1999, the Young Rhetoricians Conference declared him Rhetorician of the Year.

An inspiration

There’s something else to learn from Villanueva: as a Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican high school dropout, he is everything you need to know about what a dedicated, determined student can achieve.

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