An intellectual and institutional history of rhetoric and composition studies. Special attention will be given to the history and ethics of writing instruction; the importation of classical rhetoric into contemporary composition classrooms; the institutional formation of the field and its ambiguous status in the academy; and the major contemporary pedagogical approaches (e.g., expressivism, cognitivism, social constructionism). May also address recent topics that have attracted the attention of the field (e.g., dialogism, institutional critique, plagiarism, post-process theory, service learning, writing across and beyond the curriculum).