Faculty and Staff

Introduction to College Writing; Introduction to Literature; Writing in the Disciplines; Argument and Analysis; Language and Communication; Composition Theory and Practice in Writing Instruction

I earned my B.A. in Secondary Education and M.A. in English at Western Kentucky University and my Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Composition at the University of Louisville.  I have been a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Writing Project, the Bread Loaf Rural Teachers Network, and the Apple Corporation Computer-Assisted Learning initiative.  My research field is literacy studies with a special interest in non-traditional and working-class literacies.  My presentations at state, national, and international conferences have included topics as diverse as H.G. Wells, American women journalists of the Progressive Era, the Federal Writers’ Project, and oral histories of southern shirt factory workers.  Currently, I am engaged in research on the online literacy practices of readers of young adult literature.  I am also engaged in ongoing ethnographic research on the effects of home demonstration clubs on the literacy practices of mid-twentieth century rural women.  In addition to directing the WKU Writing Project, I am a member of the  Literacy in the Common Core Collaborative of the National Writing Project, engaged in designing and testing professional development models for Writing Across the Curriculum. 

Before completing my Ph.D., I taught high school English and French in Kentucky and Tennessee. I taught in the English Education program at Western Illinois University from 2008-2011.  Although I taught part-time for WKU for a number of years in the 1980s and 90s before earning my doctorate, I will be beginning my first year of full-time teaching for WKU in fall 2011.  I am pleased to be returning to the hill and eager to work with English students and department faculty in Cherry Hall as well as public school teachers in the surrounding areas.