Texas Christian University's English Department posted a job listing on October 23 for a Rhetoric and Composition professor. The desired areas of expertise include "trans rhetorics, Black studies, antiracist rhetoric, disability studies, global/transnational rhetorics, feminism," and "queer rhetorics." The position starts August 2027.

The job posting notes that desired candidates will teach in TCU's gender studies and ethnic studies programs. That's not a secondary duty buried in the fine print — it's listed as part of the role. The English Department isn't just tolerating these fields. It's building faculty around them.

Corey DeAngelis, Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, called the listing what it is. "TCU's job ad for a rhetoric and composition professor reads like a DEI loyalty test," he said. "Students in rhetoric and composition should learn how to write clearly, build an argument, use evidence, and handle grammar."

He kept going. "'Trans rhetorics' does not belong on the hiring criteria for a writing professor. Universities keep staffing writing programs with political activists and then wonder why graduates can't produce a coherent sentence."

DeAngelis landed the point that matters most to anyone writing a tuition check: "Parents and students deserve instruction in literacy, not another faculty search built around gender ideology."

TCU spokesman Greg Staley's response when asked about the posting was four words: "I'll look into it." That's either the most honest thing a university spokesman has ever said or the least reassuring.

This isn't the first signal from TCU. Professor Aesha Johnson said in a video that "I think we are very progressive" and noted the school isn't Christian "in a lot of ways."

Charisma Peoples, an ambassador with Project 21 who holds theology degrees, pointed out that "divinity schools should exist to train pastors, not produce progressive academics." TCU houses Brite Divinity School. The pipeline from divinity training to "trans rhetorics" faculty hiring is shorter than anyone on the board of trustees probably wants to admit.

Here's what makes the timing interesting: TCU's gender and race studies departments collapsed the previous year due to budget issues and low enrollment. Students weren't signing up. The market spoke. And the university's response was to embed the same material into the English Department's hiring criteria instead.

The department that couldn't fill seats got shuttered. The ideology got a new address down the hall.