The Writing and Rhetoric Program at UVA offers a wide range of first-year writing courses and upper-level courses in writing and rhetoric as well as a minor in Public Writing and Rhetoric.
For undergraduates, the program offers courses that fulfill the First Writing Requirement (FWR), including the single-semester ENWR 1510 and a year-long course, ENWR 1505/1506. All our FWR courses approach writing as a form of critical inquiry that enables students to reflect on complex problems in light of how others have attempted to address them. We also offer a set of advanced writing and rhetoric courses that meet the Second Writing Requirement (SWR) and give students a chance to engage in many forms of writing, including visual, sonic, and other types of multimodal and digital composing.
For graduate students who teach first-year writing, the program offers a Pedagogy Seminar (ENGL 8900) each spring and a series of workshops on writing instruction throughout the year. In collaboration with the Writing Across the Curriculum initiative, we offer a week-long Faculty Seminar on the Teaching of Writing for UVA faculty in any school or department who wish to improve their writing instruction, writing assignments, and response to their students’ written work. Also, we participate in efforts to improve the teaching of writing in local area secondary schools.
Administrators
- Jim Seitz, Director of Writing & Rhetoric - jes4bd@virginia.edu
- Steph Ceraso, Associate Director of Writing & Rhetoric - slc7wd@virginia.edu
- Dylan Kellum, Administrative Assistant - dck4bqc@virginia.edu
- Claire Chantell, Writing Center Director - cc2de@virginia.edu
- Kevin Smith, Director of Writing Across the Curriculum - kgs8th@virginia.edu
2026-2027 Mentoring Team
Coordinator of Graduate Student Pedagogy Programming
- Lauren Parker
Mentor Coordinators
- Spencer Grayson
- Gabby Kiser
Mentors
- Vinayak Dewan
- Raginee Sarmar
- Karthik Shankar