Curricula Vita Highlights
Education
Ph.D. English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2016)
Area: Composition and Rhetoric
Dissertation: Rhetoric as Inquiry: Personal Writing and “Academic Success” in the English Classroom
Committee: Deborah Minter (Chair), Shari Stenberg, Robert Brooke, and Lauren Gatti
Comprehensive Exam Essay: The Student Writes, the Teacher Writes: A Scholarly Personal Narrative
M.A. English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (August 2012)
Thesis: Disciplinary Permeations: Complicating the “Public” and the “Private” Dualism in
Composition and Rhetoric
B.A. English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (August 2006)
Ronald E. McNair Scholar
Academic Employment
Visiting Associate Professor, Department of English
University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire
Fall 2014 - present
Lecturer, Department of English
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Fall 2013 – Spring 2014
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of English
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Fall 2007-Spring 2013
Research Interests
Feminist, Holistic, and Critical Pedagogies
Grit, Motivation, and Academic Success
Emotions and Rhetorical Practice
Digital Rhetoric(s) and Instruction Technologies
Inquiry, Metacognition, and Writing
Awards
Grant ($4,470): ORSP Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (2017)
University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
This grant supports undergraduate research and mentoring, and is a complement to the ongoing research project, "Communities of Practice: How the Classroom Can Sponsor Individual Student Success, Grit, and Persistence within the Context of a Learning Community."
Grant ($1500): Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (Spring 2017)
University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire
This technology grant allows for training in digital technologies and new course development for at-risk students, to explore alternative modes of delivery, multi-modal composition, and digital learning platforms.
Parents Association Teacher Recognition Award (February 2014)
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
An award based on surveys conducted by the UNL Parents’ Association to recognize those who have “made a significant contribution to students’ lives.”
Parents Association Teacher Recognition Award (January 2013)
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
An award based on surveys conducted by the UNL Parents’ Association to recognize those who have “made a significant contribution to students’ lives.”
Ronald E. McNair Scholar: Summer Research Experience Grant
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Named after Challenger astronaut Dr. Ronald E. McNair, this federally funded scholars program for underrepresented students provides assistance, training, and academic support by offering students faculty mentorships, undergraduate research funding, and academic success guidance.
Administrative & Academic Appointments
Associate Coordinator of Composition, Department of English
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Spring 2010 - Spring 2011
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Compiled, edited, and digitized The Writing Teachers Sourcebook, a resource for first-year writing instructors and graduate teaching assistants new to the Composition Program
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Created a closed social network (NING) for incoming graduate teaching assistants (and supporting Blackboard interface) to help them develop peer relationships prior to arrival on campus
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Co-planned and co-facilitated the five-day fall teaching workshop for incoming graduate teaching assistants, providing syllabus and assignment review, mentoring, and revision support to ensure programmatic goals were met by new instructors
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Procured university “swag” (portfolios, office supplies, water bottles, etc.) from various campus entities to help new graduate teaching assistants feel welcomed to campus as both students and new teachers
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Designed, edited, and distributed the Composition Program Newsletter to showcase innovative teaching and pedagogies in our department
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Organized sessions of the Composition Colloquia for faculty and graduate students to share their research and writing projects
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Co-organized and co-facilitated the “Spring Send-Off,” a cross-talk opportunity for faculty and teaching staff from literature, creative writing, and rhetoric subfields to address, explore, and identify pedagogical practices and instructor expectations for writing instruction in classes beyond first-year writing courses
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Provided support to the UNL Writing Center and Director by presenting at the “Mid-Semester Check-Up,” in a campus-wide “mini-conference” for freshmen aimed at fostering academic success
Nebraska Writing Project Summer Institute, Department of English
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
June 1 – 30 2009
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Selected as one of two paid graduate student participants in the institute (National Writing Project chapter)
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Developed and facilitated a writing workshop featuring personal writing as a tool for developing critical consciousness and potential public actions
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Facilitated a writing workshop featuring slam and performance poetry, demonstrating how teachers can sponsor students’ explorations with language as play, persona/ethos invention, and creative resistance to injustice
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Developed relationships with K-12 teachers that shaped my doctoral research and publication interests
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Designed, edited, and published the digital (and print) anthology featuring NeWP participants’ creative nonfiction, poetry, and fiction
Refereed Conference Presentations
“The Role of ‘The Personal,’ Empathy, Compassion, and Metacognition in the Writing Classroom.”
College Composition and Communications Conference, Portland, Oregon (March 17, 2017)
This research presentation outlines a methodology for engaging students as whole beings with complicated personal, spiritual, and intellectual needs while supporting the very difficult work of metacognitive practices aimed at unveiling students’ “epistemic assumptions” (Qualley 2001) and “identity processing styles” (Berzonsky 2004) that determine the learning they will and will not tackle due to preconceived notions surrounding identity, effort, time, and the purposes of learning.
“Making it Personal: Self-Focused Inquiry, Discovery, and Art in the
Writing Classroom.”
10th Biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, Arizona State University - Tempe (Oct. 30, 2015)
This research presentation advocates a methodology for multimodal composition in analog and digital formats, that helps students to think about their thinking, map connections across all of their courses, and use self-reflexive inquiry as a means to self-identify the limitations of their own learning strategies and attitudes toward education.
“May I Have a (Spoken) Word with You? Spatial Relationships in Poetry and the Rhetoric of Borrowed Identities.”
Rhetoric Society of America Conference, Minneapolis (May 29, 2010)
This research presentation advocates treating texts as inhabitable spaces, places in which one can adopt a host of borrowed personas in service to poetry performance, exploration of authorial intent, and to complicate one’s relationship with “difficult” texts.
“Fatty Girls, Imaginary ****, and Vaginas Built Like Bookstores: A Workshop on Writing the Activist Body” (with Laura Madeline Wiseman and Aimee M. Allard).
Split This Rock Poetry Festival, Thurgood Marshall Center, Washington D.C. (March 13, 2010)
Washington D.C.
A two-hour workshop for poets and writers interested in how the body is configured in writing and culture, particularly when that body is engaged in activism on behalf of diversity and equity, social justice, and women’s issues.
“Reframing Resistance: ‘Critical Thirding,’ Student Identity, and Alternative Spaces.”
College Composition and Communications Conference, San Francisco, CA (March 13, 2009)
This conference presentation presented qualitative research surrounding the ways students create “third spaces” – alternative spaces between those designed by institutions and/or constructed by culture – as a means to navigate the challenges found in higher education. By reconfiguring “resistance” to learning as a political act, this presentation outlines the importance of student autonomy and community support in their efforts toward student success.