The faculty's concern with teaching translates to a strong focus on the development of teaching excellence among our graduate students. This focus has been part of our departmental culture since 1959. New graduate teaching assistants not only attend an intensive week-long orientation, taught by our nationally recognized faculty in composition and rhetoric, but also take a class focused on pedagogy and the teaching of composition in their first semester of teaching. Throughout their time as teaching assistants, our graduate students are matched with faculty mentors from among the faculty in their fields of interest. Our teaching assistants enjoy considerable flexibility in designing their courses. They teach introductory literature courses, including special topics courses, no later than their third year in the program. In addition, Ph.D. students usually teach at least one survey course in their field. The department's focus on training and pedagogy has produced impressive results; our graduate students have won thirteen extremely competitive university-wide teaching awards in the past ten years.
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