RCID announces new Victor J. Vitanza Outstanding RCID Dissertation Award

December 7, 2021

As 2021 comes to an end, we have an exciting new award to announce, the Victor J. Vitanza Outstanding RCID Dissertation Award, that will be given annually beginning this Spring 2022. The first award will go to a student who graduated in 2021. The award carries a $500 cash award and a plaque. The RCID Advisory Committee Ad Hoc Awards Committee will be judging this award in the spring 2022. The process begins with your Chair’s nomination, and if a faculty member chaired more than one student’s committee during 2021…they are still able to nominate each student for this award. To be eligible for the Dissertation Award, a dissertation must have been defended between January 1 and December 31 of the designated calendar year. Dissertations that depart from traditional written formats (e.g. multimodal projects, collaborative projects) are welcome. In reviewing nominees for the Dissertation Award, the selection committee considers:

— The dissertation’s contributions to rhetorical studies, communication studies, and/or information design broadly construed
— Effective, generative use of methodological and/or analytical tools
— Engagement with primary and secondary texts: Here, we were thinking about demonstrating depth and breadth of knowledge of text and context.
— Clear, accessible, engaging prose and style
— Strong prospect for publication as a book and/or evidence of the project’s readiness to contribute to the field.*

Each nomination should include:
— Letter of nomination from Dissertation Chair.
— A digital copy of the dissertation in PDF format.

The deadline to submit the materials is January 31, 2022 to texcyn@clemson.edu.

*Criteria are borrowed from the Rhetoric Society of America Outstanding Dissertation Award information.