I'm an Assistant Professor of English at UT Knoxville, where I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in rhetoric, writing, and language and literacy.My scholarly interests include the history of rhetoric, rhetorical theory, and composition pedagogy. I am particularly interested in the voices of marginalized rhetors and the intersections between literacy and civic action, and I seek to understand how minority, female, working-class, and first-generation college students have used their rhetorical education in public and professional spheres. My work has appeared in College English, College Composition and Communication, Rhetoric Review, and other publications, and I was the recipient of a 2001 Spencer Dissertation Fellowship and the 2004 Rhetoric Society of America Dissertation Award. I obtained my Ph.D. in 2003 at the University of Texas at Austin.
My first book, Rhetoric at the Margins: Revising the History of Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1873-1947, was published by Southern Illinois University Press in 2008. (It is available through the press or Amazon.) I am currently at work on "Sisters of the South: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Citizenship at Public Women's Colleges, 1884-1945," which I am co-writing with Catherine Hobbs with the assistance of a Spencer Foundation Research Grant.