obligatory post on reading student papers

Had final meeting with grad students last night. Dinner and informal presentations of seminar papers at my place...in that order. Dinner: stuffed grape leaves, hummus, salad with lots of basil and fresh mozzarella, spinach pizza. Presentations: identity construction & the blue collar comedy tour, confederate flag debate as embodiment of cultural capital, Canada's "fat" tax, belletrism at Appalachian settlement schools, and more. What great work. Over the next year or two these ought to morph into nine published articles. As I comment on the papers--asking questions, making suggestions, suggesting further connections--I envision the articles thrusting Aune, Lukacs, and Bourdieu (easily the three most cited theorists in the stack of papers) into the field's spotlight. A rhetoric revolution.