PhD Student Profiles
Jennifer Cover
My research interests include writing program administration, disciplinarity, genre studies, and postmodernism. I am interested in administration and the ways that the discipline of Composition interacts with other disciplines through WAC/WID programs. In particular, I would like to explore the way larger cultural and institutional forces, such as postmodernism, affect writing program administration. I also currently work as a program assistant to the Composition Program. This year, I received second place in the WPA graduate writing award. My teaching has incorporated both writing in the disciplines and multi-genre approaches to writing. In addition, my master's thesis, which I am currently revising as a book-length study, involved a narrative and genre analysis of the tabletop role-playing games. For more information about me and my current projects, please visit my website: http://filebox.vt.edu/users/jcover/
Lisa Durbeck
I am currently examining how rhetoric and writing can be used to uncover, examine and transform human practices that are harmful to ourselves or to others; for instance, how do we as rhetors, writers and educators contribute to a reversal of global warming, or topsoil erosion, or loss of habitat? How do we reconcile individual and cultural belief and traditional practice with environmental degradation arising from industrial practices, lifestyle choices, and overpopulation? I am interested in gaining further appreciation of the reality in which all human practices are situated, its complex overpowering shiftable nature.
Megan O'Neill Fisher
I earned my MA in English from Virginia Tech in 2005. My current research interests include the role of reflective writing in student civic engagement and community outreach, as well as the relationship between feminist or activist research methodologies and pedagogy. I currently hold an assistantship in the Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society, where I collaboratively research and write on issues of rhetoric, public policy, and social change, as well as develop Virginia Tech's new National Writing Project site. Recent courses I have taught include Grant and Proposal Writing for Virginia Tech's undergraduate professional writing program and Rhetoric and Communication for Leadership for Virginia Tech's minor in Leadership and Social Change. I am also the current co-president for the English Graduate Student Organization.
Brian Gogan
I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree from Xavier University in 2004 and my Master of Arts degree from Marquette University in 2007. My current research examines research and reciprocity as both are manifested in the rhetoric and writing discipline. I am particularly interested in new configurations of disciplinary work negotiated in either the classroom or the research center. A forthcoming article, Laughing Whiteness: Pixies, Parody, and Perspectives, will appear in the edited collection Promoting Dialogue: The Comedy of Dave Chappelle. This article analyzes rhetoric, parody, and whiteness in a series of Chappelle's Show sketches known as The Pixies Sketches. At Virginia Tech, I Co-Chair the GLC Speaker Series Committee and have Co-Coordinated the Graduate Scholars Society.
Daniel Lawson
I earned both my B.A. and my M.A. at Northern Michigan University. Much of my work during my M.A. focused on workshopping, metacognition, and the role of reflection in the writing classroom. Since arriving at Virginia Tech, I have continued some of these threads, delving into genre studies, workshopping as a genre, and composing through visual media. Most of my research here, however, has dealt primarily with visual rhetoric. I am particularly interested in the rhetorical character of ideology and how it manifests in visual media, especially in the graphic novel. Works such as Palestine and In the Shadow of No Towers have challenged our preconception of what comix can accomplish, and I would like to figure out how and why.
Tim
Lockridge
I received my B.A. from the University of Southern Indiana and my MFA from Virginia Tech. While I've taught both composition and creative writing, I'm currently working at Virginia Tech's Graduate Education Development Institute, where I explore new technologies and their potential for classroom application. My research interests focus on the role of rhetoric in new media and popular culture. I'm currently exploring these interests through several projects: An ethnographic exploration of a fan fiction community, an analysis of the role of the medium in online discourse communities, and a critical assessment of shifting and merging genres in the graphic novel and the webcomic. I also write poetry and short fiction (and am trying to publish my first book), and I hope to someday reconsider the connections between creative writing and composition pedagogies.
Ashley Patriarca
My research interests include ethics and public service in technical communication, visual rhetoric, risk communication, and new media. An ongoing project examines the role of ethical decision-making in public policy and communications related to Hurricane Katrina. I am particularly interested in how technical writers and other communicators become user and audience advocates within larger organizations. I work as a graduate assistant in the Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society (http://www.rhetoric.english.vt.edu), which supports and creates collaborative research on rhetorical topics with a broad public impact. I also serve as the copy editor for /Public Knowledge/, a graduate student journal that uses communication technologies to create a sustained, interdisciplinary conversation about issues affecting the public(s).
Amy Reed
I earned my B.S. and B.A. degrees in Biology and English at The Ohio State University in 2004, and I earned my M.A. degree in English at the University of Dayton. I have two main research interests: the first is in genre theory, studying the catalysts of genre change, as well as defining the differences between genre evolution and new genre emergence; the second is composition pedagogy, studying first-year composition as a course which prepares students for writing in their college careers and beyond, and thus considering topics such as transfer of learning and writing across the curriculum. I teach first-year composition courses that focus on exploring writing processes, practicing critical thinking, and developing analytical skills. I view first year composition as a place to teach writing awareness rather than master any specific skills. I aim to be a teacher who encourages a supportive and effective community within the classroom and encourages students to reflect upon what they are learning and where they might use it next.
Maggy Saba
I earned M.A degree in Linguistics at the University of Louisville. I taught university-level Linguistics, EFL, and Communication for twelve years at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. During this time I also served as Deputy Supervisor General in the English Language Center and Director of the Human Resources. My research interests include Rhetoric and Communication for Leadership, Women and Leadership, and composition pedagogy and learning styles.
Grete
Scott
My areas of scholarly interest stem from my experiences as a Humanities major at Milligan College (BA) and as a writing major (MA) at DePaul University. At DePaul, I taught first-year writing courses, developed computer-assisted tutoring options in the writing center, and trained writing center tutors. My entrance into the field, then, was a student-centered, pedagogically interested stance, which began as a side interest, since I came to DePaul as a literary writing major. This background has allowed me to write about the relationship between creative writing and composition, particularly the place of poetry and fiction writing in composition courses. I am currently asking questions about place, identity, genre, and rhetorical situation, wondering how our contexts, identities, and writings inform and shape one another, in communities both inside and outside the university. This year I am working on a study considering the competing literacies involved in service-learning partnerships at Virginia Tech.
Sarah Tolbert-Hurysz
While earning both my Bachelor of Science Teaching and Master of Arts degrees in English at Radford University, I developed what has become a persistent scholarly interest in the construction of the other by dominant culture, as well as the other's celebration of its culture, which restores credit to its previously and often currently discredited sources of information or ways of knowing the world. However, my current research concentrates on the learning communities recently emerging within the Virginia Community College System, which often involve college composition courses. I am particulary interested in how these course pairings shape instructors and students' understanding of writing and its purposes and the role college composition plays in the transfer curriculum, as well as the lc's implications for understanding content in the composition course.
Cyndy Williams
I received a B.A. in English from Ohio University and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Hollins College. My work experience includes non-profit grant writing, policy research, and university level proposal development. My research interests at the moment are wide open although I have interests in the rhetoric of science and how interdisciplinary languages and discussions are formed. I am also interested in exploring the border between creative writing and composition and how the lyric relates to the available means of persuasion.