Education
BA English University of Maryland College Park, MS Professional Writing Towson University, PhD Syracuse University
Professor
BA English University of Maryland College Park, MS Professional Writing Towson University, PhD Syracuse University
Rhetoric, Writing, & Social Justice
My research and my teaching focus on how under-represented communities use language to achieve equity and actualize democratic ideals. My focus on histories from "below," archives, community engagement, and social justice, is exemplified in my book, where I mine the silences and gaps in the telling of history at a nineteenth century asylum.
At TU, I teach First Year Writing, TSEM (Diversity Dialogues for Social Justice), ENGL 301 Rhetoric & Science, ENGL 401 Grant & Advocacy Writing, PRWR 611 Rhetoric, PRWR 615 Style, and PRWR 619 Communication in the Non Profit Sector. I created and currently direct G.I.V.E. (Grantwriting In Valued Environments), a BTU supported project that advances students' professional writing goals by connecting their coursework to the writing needs of small non-profit organizations in the Baltimore/Washington region. The project is embedded in ENGL 401 and PRWR 619.
I also am a co-creator of the Diversity Faculty Fellows Program in the Provost's Office and an active member of the Intergroup Dialogue community.
Publication:
"" Disability Studies Quarterly 37:1 (2017).
Scholarships:
Rhetoric Review 32.3 (2013). "In Pursuit of the Common Life: Rhetoric and Education at the New York State Asylum for 'Idiots' at Syracuse, 1854–1884"
Epideictic Rhetoric and the Reinvention of Disability: A Study of Ceremony at the New York State Asylum for “Idiotsâ€
Octalog III: The Politics of Historiography in 2010
"What Has Become of Jimmy Thornton?": The Rhetoric(s) of Letter-Writing at The New York State Asylum for Idiots, 1855-1866
Rhetoric, Ethos, and Unease: Re-negotiation of the 'Normal' in the Classroom and on the Quad
Staring Back: The Rhetorical Fitness and Self-Fashioning of Lavinia Warren and Ann E. Leak, Nineteenth Century Side Show Performers
"Protest Narratives In Nursing Homes: Rhetorical Facility in the Production of Life Writing"
'Friction in Our Machinery:'Rhetorical Education at the New York State Asylum at Syracuse, 1854-1884.
Using Disability Studies Theory to Change Disability Services: A Case Study In Activism.