Technology and tenure: Creating oppositional discourse in an offline and online world

In this article, I look at the complexity of the technorhetorician's place within academic institutions that promote traditional retention, promotion, and tenure procedures. First, I point out the shortcomings of current positionalities assigned to technorhetoricians. I then expand on theories of opposition as defined by Chela Sandoval (1994) in "Re-entering Cyberspace: Sciences of Resistance." I use this framework to look at the problems when creating binaries to identify online and offline work as traditional or marginal. I argue that we are a diverse and multilayered group whose members occupy many positions, emphasizing the shifting and sometimes contradictory nature of marginality in cyberspace. I conclude by pointing out possible effects of our diverse positionalities on our retention, tenure, and promotion efforts.