“Subterranean Fire: The Percolating Currents of Graduate Labor Activism in Rhetoric and Composition”

by Andrew Bowman and Bruce Kovanen | Xchanges 15.1, Spring 2020

About the Authors

Andrew Bowman is a PhD student in the Center for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His scholarship reconstructs the rhetorical histories of campus student activism through archival research. He is Co-Steward for the English department in the Graduate Employees’ Organization and also serves as part-time staff organizer for the Campus Faculty Association at the University of Illinois.

Bruce Kovanen is a PhD candidate in the Center for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His dissertation focuses on organizing and how labor activists coordinate chains of text and talk to create social change. Bruce is a Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and an Officer-at-Large in the Graduate Employees’ Organization Local 6300.