Past Dissertations

2023 

Sharieka Botex, The Progress and Prosperity Present in African American Rhetoric and Composition Scholarship. (Smith, Chair; Hart-Davidson; Lindquist; Jones; Carey. 

Jerrice Donelson, Voices from the Void: Dual Enrollment User Experience with Composition. (Smith, Chair; Hart-Davidson; Lindquist; Lauren). 

Shannon Kelly, Relational Institutional Change: Writing, Terms and Transformation. (DeVoss, Co-Chair; Lauren, Co-Chair; Hart-Davidson; Lindquist). 

Ruben Mendoza, A Rhetorical, Decolonial, and Cultural Critique on Cistematic Academic Scholarly Practices: Mobilizing Queer and Trans*/Formative Bipoc Resistance for Institutional Change. (Jones, Chair; Shuster; Smith; Boyles; Arola).

Kenlea Pebbles, The 4RS: The Flint Water Crisis, Government, Community and Science. 

Nick Sanders. Divesting White Racial Consciousness: A Rhetoric of Coalition White Racial Un/Learning. (Hart-Davidson, Co-Chair; Opel, Co-Chair; Lindquist; Rhodes).

2022 

Tania de Sostoa-McCue, Storying Embodiment: Building Theory Through the Self Storying of Queer Bodies (DeVoss, chair; Hidalgo; Powell; Rhodes; Smith).

Wilfredo Flores. Toward a Virulent Community Literacy: Constelling the Science, Technology, and Medicine of Queer Sexual Health (Jones, Chair; Arola; Powell; Rhodes; LaPensee).

Constance Haywood, A PLACE OF PERSONAL AND CULTURAL RESISTANCE: USING BLACK FEMINIST VALUES, PERSPECTIVES, AND EMBODIED KNOWLEDGES TO (RE)EXAMINE INSTITUTIONAL LOGICS AND ETHICS IN DIGITAL RESEARCH (Jones, Chair; Potts; Rhodes; T. Smith).

Rebecca Conklin, Assuming Ambiguity (DeVoss, Chair; Rhodes; Lindquist; Ristich).

2021

Jack Hennes, Semiotic Remediation and Composing in an Environmental Nonprofit (DeVoss, chair; Blythe; Grabill; Limbu)

Derek Mkhaiel, New Materialism, Paralogic Rhetoric, and Multi-Material Composition (Rhodes, Chair; Arola; Blythe; Lindquist; Opel).

Rachel Robinson,“I’ve Fooled Them All!”: Imposter Syndrome and the WPA (Smith, Chair; Lindquist; Rhodes; Arola).

2020

Elise Dixon, Making as world-making: What the Lesbian Avengers can teach about communal composing, agency, and world-building (T. Smith, Chair; DeVoss, Powell, Rhodes).

Hannah Espinoza, Church and tower: Graduate student negotiations of faith and learning communities (T. Smith, Chair; DeVoss, Hart-Davidson, Powell).

Kate Firestone, Sharing stories, Making space: A relational approach to Korean American adoptee rhetorics through relational literacy (T. Monberg, Chair; Hart-Davidson, Louie, T. Smith)

Catheryn Jennings, Arrows to archives: Gathering Oklahoma stories (Arola, Chair; DeVoss, Hidalgo, Powell).

Suban Nur Cooley, Carrying culture: Temporal and spatial constructions of Somalia among women in the diaspora (Rhodes, Chair; Baker-Bell, Figueroa, Jones, Lindquist). Winner, 2021 CCCC James Berlin Memorial Outstanding Dissertation Award.

Bree Straayer, Once I believed: Evangelical sexuality, critical thinking, and the process of change (Lindquist, Chair; DeVoss, Halbritter, Rhodes).

2019

Lorelei Blackburn, Toward a trauma-informed pedagogy (Grabill, Chair; Blythe, DeVoss, Yergeau).

Lauren Brentnell, Responding to sexual violence through care-based practices in writing programs (DeVoss, Chair; Blythe, Hart-Davidson, T. Smith).

Leslie Hutchinson, Solidarity, safety, and online sovereignty: An inquiry into the social media sharing practices of Indigenous and Chicana women (DeVoss, Chair; Blythe, Lindquist, Powell).

Shewonda Leger, The cultivation of Haitian women’s sense of selves: Towards a field of action (Rhodes, Chair; Baker-Bell, Hamilton-Wray, Pough, Powell).

Stephanie Mahnke, “A place to call home”: The rhetoric of Filipinx-American place-making (Blythe, Chair; Lauren, Lindquist, T. Smith).

2018

Phil Bratta, Bridging culture and affect: Rhetorical practices with(in) a digitized archive (DeVoss, Chair; Hart-Davidson, Powell, T. Smith).

Wonderful Faison, What makes a space raced?: Exploring writing centers as raced spaces (T. Smith, Chair; Banks, Bell, Lindquist, Troutman).

Sarah Prielipp, Constellating cultural rhetorics, first-year writing, and service learning: A story of teaching and learning (T. Smith, Chair; Blythe, Epps-Robertson, Powell).

Santos Ramos, Making Chicanx foodways: Rhetoric, Mexican cooking, and cultural continuation ( Powell, Chair; Grabill, Miner, Torres).

Jaquetta Shade-Johnson, Wishi stories: Rhetorical strategies of survivance and continuance in Oklahoma Cherokee foodways (Powell, Chair; Hidalgo, LaPensée, Monberg).

Heather Noel Turner, “Take action in the world!”: Advocacy and reciprocity as research practices in technical communication (DeVoss, Chair; Epps-Robertson, Grabill, Hart-Davidson, Potts).

2017

Ronisha Browdy, Naming ourselves for ourselves: Black women theorizing their identities as everyday rhetorical practice (Powell, Chair; Baker-Bell, Epps-Robertson, Troutman).

Lami-Awa Fofana, Uncommon standard American English accents, like bodies, still matter: Stories of non-native English speaking writing instructors (Powell, Chair; Epps-Robertson, Hidalgo, T. Smith).

John Gagnon, New ways of seeing: Survivor rhetoric and (re)writing stories of human trafficking (Powell, Chair; Blythe, Hart-Davidson, T. Smith).

Minh-Tam Nguyen, Resistance is not futile: Exploring user resistance in technical communication (DeVoss, Chair; Blythe, Grabill, Potts).

Maria Novotny, The ART of infertility: A community project rhetorically conceiving failed fertility (T. Smith, Chair; Lindquist, Powell, DeVoss, Blythe).

2016

Matt Gomes, Decolonizing writing program assessment: Student contributions to knowledge about first-year writing placement at Michigan State (Grabill, Chair; Blythe, Lindquist, Powell).

Laura Gonzales, Sites of translation: What multilinguals can teach us about writing, rhetoric, and technology (Potts, Chair; Blythe, Fraiberg, Hidalgo).

Shenika Hankerson, “You must learn”: A critical language awareness approach to writing instruction for African American language-speaking students in composition courses (Hart-Davidson and Smitherman, Chairs; Kirkland, Paris).

Casey Miles, The queer critical research and video editing practices of the Gender Project: Consent, collaboration, and multimodality (T. Smith, Chair; Grabill, Halbritter, T. Monberg).

Esther Milu, “Hatucheki Na Watu”: Kenyan hip-hop artists’ theories of multilingualism, identity and decoloniality (T. Smith, Chair; Epps-Robertson, Lindquist, Paris, Powell).

2015

Beth Keller, Inventing situated mentoring: A feminist rhetorical analysis of workplace culture (Hart-Davidson, Chair; Powell, T. Smith, DeVoss).

Katie Livingston, The queer art & rhetoric of consent: Theories, practices, pedagogies (Julier, Chair; Lindquist, T. Monberg, T. Smith).

Katie Manthey, Fa(t)shion rhetorics: Building a body positive methodology (T. Smith, Chair; DeVoss, Powell, Winge).

2014

April Baker-Bell, “Stop killing my vibe”: A critical language pedagogy for speakers of African American Language (Kirkland, Chair; Juzwik, Paris, Smitherman, Troutman).

Letitia Fowler, Learning from stories of experience: Using narrative as pedagogy to understand racial and ethnic experiences in medicine (Lindquist, Chair; Cushman, Grabill, Powell).

Ann Lawrence, Genres of Experience: Three articles on literacy narratives and academic research writing (Lindquist, Chair; Cushman, DeJoy, Fendler, Grabill).

Lehua Ledbetter, The business of feminism: Rhetorics of identity in Youtube’s beauty community (Grabill, Chair; Blythe, Hart-Davidson, Powell)

Joshua Sauvie, College writing teachers’ perception of digital literacy and technology related professional development (DeVoss, Chair; Epps-Robertson, Grabill, Juzwik, Lindquist, Wilson).

2013

Julie (Platt) Alexander, Poetic composition in a digital age (DeVoss, Chair; Hart-Davidson, Powell, Rehberger).

Marilee Brooks-Gillies, Crafting place: Rhetorical practices of the everyday (Powell, Chair; DeVoss, Hart-Davidson, T. Smith).

Elena Goodwin Garcia, Writing on the factory floor (DeVoss, Chair; Lindquist, Rehberger, T. Smith).

Madhu Narayan, Writing the archives: Context, materiality, identity  (Powell, Chair; T. Monberg, Rehberger, T. Smith).

Donnie Sackey, The curious case of the Asian carp: Spatial performances and the making of an invasive species (Hart-Davidson, Chair; J. Monberg, Powell, Rehberger).

Jennifer Sano-Franchini, The rhetorical making of the Asian/Asian American face: Reading and writing Asian eyelids (Hart-Davidson, Chair; Grabill, Powell, Rehberger).

Bonnie Williams, Students’ “write” to their own language: Teaching the African American verbal tradition as a rhetorically effective writing skill (Troutman, Chair; DeJoy, Rehberger).

2012

Phill Alexander, Individual copycats: Memetics, identity and collaboration in the “World of Warcraft” (DeVoss, Chair; Grabill, Hart-Davidson, Powell).

Matt Cox, Through working closets: Examining rhetorical and narrative approaches to building LGBTQ & professional identity inside a corporate workplace (T. Smith, Chair; DeVoss, Hart-Davidson, Powell).

Shreelina Ghosh, Dancing without bodies: Pedagogy and performance in digital spaces (Cushman, Chair; Hart-Davidson, Powell, Rehberger).

Daisy Levy, This book called my body: An embodied rhetoric (Powell, Chair; Lindquist, Rehberger, T. Smith).

Les Loncharich, Visual composition in everyday life. (DeVoss, Chair; Cushman, Hart-Davidson, J. Monberg).

Andrea Riley-Mukavetz, “Theory begins with a story, too”: Listening to the lived experiences of American Indian women (Powell, Chair; Howard, Lee, T. Smith).

Cynthia Vagnetti, “This land is good for this animal”: A methodology to see the knowledge dynamics communicated among Sardo-Modicana breeders in a time of scientific uncertainty and technological probabilities (Grabill, Chair; Blythe, DeVoss, Lindquist).

Sue Webb, The inquiry practices of nonfiction writers (Hart-Davidson, Chair; Grabill, Powell, L. Smith).

Travis Webster, What ex-gays can teach us about gay, lesbian, and queer rhetorics. (T. Smith, Chair;  Grabill, Lindquist, Powell).

2011

Guiseppe Getto, Toward a rhetoric of infrastructure: Doing new media writing with communities (Grabill, Chair; Halbritter, Lindquist, Rehberger).

Stacey Pigg, Embodied rhetoric in scenes of production: The case of the coffeehouse (Powell, Chair; DeVoss, Hart-Davidson, J. Monberg).

Doug Walls, The “human” network: Digital, professional, and cultural access enacted (Hart-Davidson, Chair; DeVoss, Grabill, Powell).

Jessica Rivait, Assembling local publics in the digital age  (Hart-Davidson, Chair; Blythe, J. Monberg, Sheridan).

Mary Wendt, Institutionalization of digital literacies in four-year Liberal Arts institutions (Blythe, Chair; DeJoy, Halbritter, Hart-Davidson).

2010

Collin Craig, Da’ art of story tellin’: Black masculine literacies and a rhetoric of self-making (Powell, Chair; Ellis, Grabill, Lindquist).

Kendall Leon, Building a Chicana rhetoric for Rhetoric and Composition: Methodology, practice, and performance (Powell, Chair; Cushman, Grabill, Lindquist, Ramirez-Dhoore).

Staci Perryman-Clark, Back to the classroom: Afrocentricity and teacher-research in first-year writing (Grabill, Chair; T. Monberg, Powell, Smitherman).

2009

Andréa Davis, Media praxis: Reading cultural institutions (Powell, Chair; DeVoss, Lindquist, Rehberger).

Michele Fero, Negotiating literacy: The implications of writing program reform in one university (Lindquist, Chair; Grabill, Juzwik, Powell).

Aimée Knight, A rhetoric of aesthetic engagement for the arts and humanities  (DeVoss, Chair; Cushman, Geissler, Grabill, Tremonte).

Dundee Lackey, Access, health, and literacy: On becoming an informed patient (Grabill, Chair; Cushman, DeVoss, Lindquist).

Jim Ridolfo, Practice and theory: A new approach to rhetorical delivery  (Lindquist, Chair; Cushman, DeVoss, Hart-Davidson).

Stephanie Sheffield, Peer response of digital and non-digital texts in a composition classroom (Swenson, Chair; DeVoss, Sheridan, Wilson).

Robyn Tasaka, Challenges and privileges, entanglement and appropriation: Rhetorical practices of Asian Americans from Hawai’i  (Powell and T. Monberg, Co-Chairs; DeVoss, Grabill).

2008

Meghan Bacino, Genre, practice, and the composition classroom: What students learn about language and community discourse practices through a pedagogy of genre awareness (Geissler, Chair; Lindquist, Powell, Wilson).

Qwo-Li Driskill, Yelesalehe hiwayona dikanohogida naiwodusv / God taught me this song, it is beautiful: Cherokee performance rhetorics as decolonization, healing, and continuance (Powell, Chair; Grabill, Lee, T. Monberg).

Angela Haas, A rhetoric of alliance: What American Indians can tell us about digital and visual rhetoric (Powell, Chair; DeVoss, Grabill, T. Monberg).

Martine Rife, Rhetorical invention in copyright imbued environments (Hart-Davidson, Chair; DeVoss, Grabill, Halbritter).

Stewart Whittemore, Writing memory: A study of memory tools in invention (Grabill, Chair; Hart-Davidson, Lindquist, Porter).

Jay Wirtz, Poets on inventing: Revisioning invention theory, practice and pedagogy within rhetoric, composition, English education and creative writing (Julier, Chair; Lindquist, L. Smith, Wilson).

2007

Jill McKay Chrobak, The rhetoric of appropriation: How upper middle class white males flipped the script on hip hop culture and Black language (Powell, Chair; Geissler, Lindquist, Smitherman).

Doug Eyman, Digital rhetoric: Ecologies and economies of digital circulation (Porter, Chair; DeVoss, Grabill, Lindquist).

2006

Suzy Rumsey, Multimodal discourse and heritage literacy practices  (Cushman, Chair; Lindquist, Powell, Wilson)., G