Linda Flower Retires after 43 Years with the Department of English
By Maria Ferrato
The end of the 2022 - 2023 school year marks the end of Professor Linda Flower’s forty-three years with CMU’s Department of English. The Department of English community gathered on Saturday, May 20, 2023 to celebrate and honor her extensive, impressive career.
Professor Flower’s rich career began as a lecturer for the University of Pittsburgh in 1972. In 1973, she joined CMU’s Department of English as an assistant professor. After a stint at the University of Michigan as a visiting professor in rhetoric for the College of Engineering, Professor Flower returned to CMU in 1980 and has been a Professor of English and rhetoric since.
Her work understands writing as a social-cognitive process, looking at writers as rhetorical agents and at writing as a form of social action. This research allowed her to work as co-director of the National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy at Berkeley and CMU. Additionally, she played a part in creating Pittsburgh’s Community Literacy Center. She has studied and promoted the rhetorical work of deliberative local publics in the form of Carnegie Mellon Community Think Tanks organized around issues from urban workplace policy to acknowledging learning disabilities, to supporting low income “independent” students.
A powerhouse in the field, Professor Flower has authored eleven books, dozens of articles, and an incredible number of conference papers.
Professor Flower is beloved by her students and revered by the rhetoric community; indeed, her impact on students and the field at large, though it lives on in legacy, will be greatly missed.
On May 20, the community gathered for “Transformation in Progress: A Symposium in Honor of Linda Flower” to celebrate the enduring impact of Professor Flower’s transformative work. Alumni, current students, and faculty gathered to celebrate her career and hear presentations from over a dozen of her former students.
The community also shared their appreciation for and fondest memories with Professor Flower on a digital kudos board.
Linda Flower with former students Mary Glavan, Doug Cloud, Derek Handley, Amanda Tennant, and Carolyn Commer.