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Rhetorics of Inquiry (POROI)

The Project on Rhetorics of Inquiry (POROI) is an interdisciplinary program whose aim is to improve academic inquiry and scholarly writing in the arts, humanities, sciences, and professions, especially at the intersections between disciplines. POROI explores how scholarship and professional discourse are conducted through argument, how paradigms of knowledge are sensitive to social-political contexts, and how the presentation of scholarly and professional findings is an audience-sensitive process. The program offers classes, seminars, workshops, conferences, and a peer-reviewed online journal, Poroi: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Rhetorical Analysis and Invention.

POROI also collaborates with the Graduate College to offer a certificate for graduate students.

Certificate

The Certificate in Rhetorics of Inquiry requires completion of four POROI courses (normally a minimum of 12 s.h.). Students may pursue the certificate in conjunction with a graduate degree in any field. The interdisciplinary program helps students hone their skills for arguing in oral, written, and multimedia forms within their own disciplines, and broaden their understanding of the similarities and differences among various fields.

The certificate program's objectives are to:

• help students cultivate habits of interdisciplinary study and research through reading, writing, and conversation;
• encourage students to cross conceptual and institutional boundaries that often appear to separate the arts, humanities, and professions from each other and from the social, natural, and formal sciences;
• improve students' awareness of the rhetorical dimensions of argumentation and inquiry; and
• certify that students who have completed the program are prepared to do rhetorical and cross-disciplinary work after they graduate.

All certificate students must complete 160:200 Introduction to Rhetorics of Inquiry and three additional POROI courses of their choice. See "Courses" below.

Admission

Master's and doctoral candidates in good standing are eligible to enter the certificate program. To enroll, contact the Project on Rhetorics of Inquiry.