Introduction: WPA as citizen-educator

We locate the work of this volume in the context of three conversations: 1) the recent public engagement movement in higher education, particularly as this movement serves to address and respond to calls for colleges and universities to be more accountable to the broader public; 2) recent interest in exploring perspectives on public discourse/civic rhetoric among scholars of rhetorical history and contemporary rhetorical theory; and 3) the service-learning movement in higher education, in particular the ways in which college and university writing programs have contributed to this movement.