Definition toward fixed essences seeks to settle what something is unto itself (e.g., Canadian writing studies is x); definition toward contrastive differentiation, which is likewise useful for apprehending disciplinary knowledge, marks out qualities by comparison (e.g., Canadian writing studies is x relative to writing studies elsewhere). The twin applications of surveying featured in this chapter, however, offer definition a third, more exploratory sense: definition toward shape-finding. My objective has been to create a series of graphs and maps that not only add to definitional scholarship but also complicate definition pursuant to essences or differentiation because disciplinary formation is continuing, yet-emerging. The shapes and patterns will continue to shift, change. The data visualizations and digital maps featured in this chapter offer telescopic perspectives on Canada-US writing studies interdependencies that stand in service of shape-finding, or inquiry that should continue to be revisited, updated, or inquired into yet again. As the design of this book and the broader study it conveys presumes, no one scale or method of inquiry is singularly adequate for grasping such a complex, distributed phenomena as a disciplinary network, much less even this modest slice of an emerging network that spans several decades, several thousand kilometres, and more than two countries. Inquiring into patterned activity at any one scale can tell us something that is not evident at any other scale. Through the deliberate alteration of scale, this opening segment of the project seeks to define Canadian-American writing studies interdependency from perspectives that are yet uncommon; it seeks to introduce a viewshed for graphical, distant, and aerial treatments of disciplinary activity that may contribute to a definition concerned less with fixed essences or contrastive differentiation than noticing time-sensitive patterns and emerging shapes.
Survey of Canadian Scholars
The study opened with an eleven-question survey designed to inquire into three general classes of information related to transnational interdependencies between Canada and the United States. Questions 1–4 addressed locations associated with professional activity. Questions 5–8 considered involvement with organizations, conferences, listservs, and publishing. And questions 9–10 provided limited-option responses on the geographic reach of publishing and self-identification. Lastly, the survey invited respondents to provide a CV as an attachment, if one was available. The survey’s design took into account Roger Graves’s (1994) study of the ways writing instruction is organized in Canadian universities, yet the overlap is limited, and as such we consider this instrument to feature an original, unique set of questions that have not been circulated in any other disciplinary survey to date.
SURVEY QUESTIONS
1. Where are you from?
City, Province or City, State
2. From what institutions did you obtain the following degrees (as applies)?
BA or BS
MA or MS
PhD
Other
Please specify degree.
3. Where do you currently live and how long have you been there?
City, Province or City, State; x years, x months
4. What is your current (or most recent) academic teaching, research, or administrative appointment?
Please include the name of the institution.
5. What professional organizations do you belong to?
List up to five.
6. What conferences do you attend most frequently?
7. What professional/disciplinary listservs do you subscribe to?
8. Which journals and presses (including both print and online) have you published in and do you consider the most amenable to your scholarship?
9. Please indicate the geographic circulation/reach of the journals and presses you identified in the previous question.
Primarily Canada
Primarily U.S.
North America
International
10. Do you see yourself primarily as a Canadian scholar, an American one, something in between, or something else?
Canadian scholar
American scholar
Something in between
Something else
Please briefly explain your response to question 10.
CV UPLOAD
11. Would you be willing to provide your CV? If so, please attach the document.
Our team distributed the survey to a list of scholars that the four of us compiled together—scholars who work at Canadian universities; who studied at both Canadian and American institutions; and who, based on scholarship, citations, or informal connections, we believed to identify professionally with writing studies, rhetoric and composition, or professional and technical communication. To begin, the original roster consisted of 112 scholars. We were unable to locate email addresses for 11 prospective respondents, and, working with the best collection of addresses available, 6 more emails were returned as undeliverable after we circulated the survey the first time. Four prospective respondents replied to ask that they be removed from the distribution list, citing disidentification with the disciplinary frame or apprehensions about the survey’s identifying respondents by name (see the maps in the following section). Thus, after smoothing the roster, 91 scholars were invited to complete the survey. Holding the survey open for approximately 10 weeks, from November 20 to December 18, 2013, and May 1 to June 12, 2014, we received 55 responses. The 60.44% response rate this survey received is markedly higher than the benchmark of between 20–30% typical for surveys initiated via email.
The following discussion of the survey responses proceeds from the last question to the first because the initial questions about locations associated with professional activity are directly applicable to the maps presented in the following section. Across the questions and responses, a portrait of the fifty-five scholars gradually becomes clearer, such that the responses confirm complex Canada-US interdependencies interwoven in myriad ways throughout professional, scholarly activity and identifications.
Questions 9–10: Geographic Reach of Publishing and Self-Identification
Question 9 inquired into the geographic reach of publishing activity. Nearly half of the respondents (25, or 45.5%) selected North America, and just over a quarter (15; 27.2%) answered International, which was the most encompassing among the four choices. Identifications primarily with Canada (5; 9.1%) and the US (8; 14.5%) were significantly fewer, which suggests a recognition that the circulation of scholarship exceeds national boundaries and that a clear majority of respondents think of their scholarship as operating more broadly than either Canada or the US, alone.
Figure 1. A horizontal bar graph presenting compiled survey responses for the geographic reach/circulation of journals and presses.
North America: 25 / 45.5%
International: 15 /27.2%
Primarily US: 8 / 14.5%
Primarily Canada: 5 / 9.1%
No