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‘Antiracist’ and ‘queer’ scholarship also encouraged
Texas Christian University wants to hire a new composition professor who is particularly versed in “trans rhetoric,” “Black studies,” or “antiracist rhetoric.”
Applicants for this new rhetoric and composition professor job, starting in August 2027, will also be considered if they have interests in “disability studies,” “global/transnational rhetorics,” or feminism and “queer rhetorics.”
The Department of English will host this new hire, which will also give them an opportunity to teach in the gender studies and ethnic studies programs. These programs were collapsed last year into the English department due to budget issues and low enrollment.
“Candidates with relevant expertise may also contribute to our department’s programs in Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies and Women and Gender Studies as well as the program in Digital Culture/Digital Analytics and other interdisciplinary initiatives,” the posting states.
The College Fix reached out to Texas Christian University for a comment regarding how the job listing fits into the department’s learning goals and with the school’s mission as a private, Christian institution.
“I’ll look into it,” spokesman Greg Staley told The Fix. He has not provided any further information in the past several weeks.
Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told The College Fix that the job listing is an example of higher education prioritizing political ideology over foundational skills.
“TCU’s job ad for a rhetoric and composition professor reads like a DEI loyalty test,” DeAngelis told The College Fix. “They want someone in ‘rhetorics of health and medicine’ whose research draws on disability studies, Indigenous studies, Black studies, feminist rhetoric, queer rhetorics, and antiracist writing.”
DeAngelis said that universities should focus on fundamentals like grammar and clear arguments instead of political trends.
“Students in rhetorics and composition should learn how to write clearly, build an argument, use evidence, and handle grammar,” DeAngelis said. “‘Trans rhetorics’ does not belong on the hiring criteria for a writing professor.”
DeAngelis said higher education risks neglecting basic literacy in favor of activism.
“Universities keep staffing writing programs with political activists and then wonder why graduates can’t produce a coherent sentence,” he said. “Parents and students deserve instruction in literacy, not another faculty search built around gender ideology.”
This is not the only job posting at TCU to draw scrutiny from outside experts.
The Brite Divinity School, affiliated with TCU, previously sought a Biblical scholar with a background in “gender and sexuality studies, womanist, feminist, queer, postcolonial, postmodern, and racial/cultural studies.”
Though independent from the university on paper, it operates on TCU’s campus and offers collaborative degrees, The Fix previously reported.
Charisma Peoples, an ambassador with Project 21 who has theology degrees herself, said “divinity schools should exist to train pastors, not produce progressive academics.”
Video released in June by Accuracy in Media also shows a Texas Christian professor discussing how the school’s health sciences program continues to focus on DEI and “race conscious” topics.
Professor Aesha Johnson said while the school is officially Christian, in practice it isn’t “in a lot of ways.”
“I think we are very progressive,” she said.
