Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Composition - Completed Dissertations and Job Placement

2022

Neiderman, Halle. The Consequences of Language in Occupying Institutional Space. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1650612648870926 Dissertation Director: Pamela Takayoshi

2021

Sterud, Sommer. Henry Ford College, Tracing Framing Processes in the Abortion Debate: An Ethnographic Investigation of a Pro-Life Lobbying Organization. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1625059489273216:  Dissertation Director: Derek Van Ittersum.

Le Rouge, Mary. Cleveland Institute of Music, How Literate Responses to Technical Communication Can Promote Practical Responses to Environmental Change http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1622204365670828:  Dissertation Director: Pamela Takayoshi.

Morris, William. Kent State University, A Rhetorical Approach to Examining Writing Assessment Validity Claims http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1619704495223314:  Dissertation Director: Brian Huot.

McKeehen, Shannon. Tiffin University, Engaging Peer Response in First-year Composition: Writers, Readers, and Rapport http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1618484899241983:  Dissertation Director: Brian Huot.

2020

Crosby, Aubrey, “News Media Representation of The Dakota Access Pipeline Protest (A Study Using Systemic Functional Linguistics).” http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1594292005011941 Dissertation Director: Patricia Dunmire.

Flick, Amy, Dissertation Title: “(Re)Defining Risk: An Examination of Harm Reduction Discourse and Language.”  http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1605895036516775 Dissertation Director: Pamela Takayoshi. Dr. Flick currently has a faculty position at the University of Pittsburgh.

Lawrence, Sarah Mary,  Dissertation Title: “A Rhetoric of Self-Injury: Establishing Identity and Representing the Body in Online Self-Injury Forums.” http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1605881084509116 Dissertation Director: Sara Newman.

Lee, Yvonne Renee,“Writing Toward Expert: The Writing Center's Role in the Development of Graduate Writers.” http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1586373161616433 Dissertation Director: Pamela Takayoshi.

Matus, Lauren A, Judging Knowledge: Conceptions of Literacy at UNESCO during the United Nations Literacy Decade 2003-2012 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1586812354993213 Dissertation Director: Sara Newman

Rowell, Christina Elizabeth, “Capturing the Dynamic Whole: Multimodal Composing Processes of Fashion Design Students.” http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent158593391681925 Dissertation Director: Derek Van Ittersum.

Sharier, Jason A, “Conceptualizing Composition: How College-writers (and Instructors) Use Figurative Thinking to Conceptualize, Acquire, and Enact Literacy.” http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1586450855261568 Dissertation Director: Sara Newman.

2019

Olding, Christine Jane, “Composing Processes of Musicians: A Case Study Approach.” http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1572872308873529 Dissertation Director: Pamela Takayoshi

Saternus, Julie. “Multilingual Literacy Practice in One School Community: Reading, Writing, and Being Across Japanese and English.” http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1563811516613295. Dissertation Director: Derek Van Ittersum

2018

George, Barbara, "Literate Practices: Public Deliberations about Energy and Environmental Risks." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent151862509603715. Advisor: Pamela Takayoshi. Dr. George is an Assistant Professor (TT) at Kent State University, Stark Campus, in North Canton, Ohio.

2017

Laffey, Seth Edward, "The Letters of Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Digital Edition (1889-1895)." Advisor: Paul Gaston. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1499369594701871. Dr. Laffey is an Assistant Professor of English at the American University in Dubai.

MacDonald, Sarah Nicole, "Working Women's Life Writing and Authorial Competency." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1511353472506823. Advisors: Margaret Shaw and Sara Newman.

2016

Baker, Alexis, "Identity and resistance: Understanding representations of ethos and self in women's Holocaust texts." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1469715753. Advisor: Sara Newman. Dr. Baker is a full-time Instructor in the English and Communications Faculty at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland.

Greve, Curt, "Reading beyond the folder: Classroom portfolio assessment as a literacy event." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1467129338. Advisor: Brian Huot.

2015

Byrne, Kathryn, "The give and take of peer review: Utilizing modeling and imitation." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1438036070. Advisor: Sara Newman. Dr. Byrne is the Writing Center Director at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas.

Corey, Jessica, "Literate artifacts and psychosocial compositions: Feminist activism's composing, archiving, and revising of social narratives." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1448646252. Advisor: Pam Takayoshi. Dr. Corey is an Assistant Teaching Professor and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies at Syracuse University in New York.

Goldstein, Dayna, "A MacDonald's sentence style disciplinary analysis of honors theses in three genres." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1448903384. Advisor: Ray Craig. Dr. Goldstein is an Instructor in the Writing and Linguistics program at Georgia Southern University.

McCracken, Christopher, "Mess management in microbial ecology: Rhetorical processes of disciplinary integration." http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1441216323. Advisor: Derek Van Ittersum. Dr. McCracken is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse.

2014

Johnson, Seth, "History, myth and secularism across the borderlands: The work of Michael Chabon." Advisor: Lewis Fried. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1392155557. Dr. Johnson is an Instructor in the English Departments at Kent State University and Cleveland State University.

Krishnan, Uma, "A cross cultural study of the literacy practices of the Dabbawalas: Towards a new understanding of nonmainstream literacy and its impact on successful business practices." Advisor: Brian Huot. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1416312472. Dr. Krishnan is a Professor in the English Department at Kent State University.

Sloan, Phillip, "Assembling the identity of 'writer.'" Advisor: Sara Newman. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1416523281. Dr. Sloan is an Associate Professor of English at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Illinois.

Povozhaev, Lea, "Addiction rhetoric: Conceptual metaphors in conversational illness narratives." Advisor: Sara Newman. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1406720653. Dr. Povozhaev is an Instructor in the English Department at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio.

Wagoner, Elizabeth, "Interpreting the multimodal novel: A new method of textual scholarship." Advisor: Ray Craig. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1416406231. Dr. Wagoner is an Instructor in the English Department at Kent State University.

2013

Oztan, Meltem, "Indelible Legacies: Transgenerational Trauma and Therapeutic Ancestral Reconciliation in Kindred, The Chaneysville Incident, Stigmata and The Known World."  Advisor: Willie H. Harrell. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1375031855. Dr. Oztan-Meli is a member of the faculty for the Office of International Affairs and Global Strategies at the University of Central Florida. 

Hanes, Stacie, "The sense and sensibility of the 19th-Century fantastic." Advisors: Kathe Davis and Margaret Shaw. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1382975086. Dr. Hanes is an Adjunct Instructor at Youngstown State University. 

Hall, Alexander C. O., "Reel Hope: Literature and the Utopian Function of Adaptation." Advisor: Willie Harrell, Jr. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1372450824. Dr. Hall is an Adjunct Instructor at Kent State University. 

Barbara Karman, Kent State University Director: Sara Newman 19th Women and Humor: The Emergence of Feminist Humor.

Lindsay Steiner, University of Wisconsin LaCrosse Director: Pamela Takayoshi The Available Means of Design: A Rhetorical Investigation of Professional Multimodal Composing. 

Courtney Werner, Hope College Director: Pamela Takayoshi Disciplining New Media: Rhetoric and Composition's Disciplinary Development through the Case of New Media 2000-2010.

Nicole Caswell, Eastern Carolina University Director: Brian Huot Reconstructing Emotion: Understanding the Relationship between Teachers' Emotions and Teachers' Response Practices.

Holly Wells, East Stroudsburg University Director: Sara Newman Picture a Scientist: A Visual Rhetoric Approach to the Problem of Gender Disparity in Stem Fields.

Jennifer Cunningham, Kent State University, Stark Director: Brian Huot "jus showin sum luv 2 yo page!": The Features, Functions, and Implications of Digital African American Language.

Diana Awad Scrocco, Youngstown State University Director: Sara Newman An Examination of the Literate Practices of Resident Physicians and Attending Physician Preceptors in a Residential-Run Internal Medicine Clinic.

Jill Hawkins Director: Pamela Takayoshi Sounds Write: Embracing Multimodal Texts as Literate Composition.

Melissa Selby, Stark State University Director: Ray Craig Expanding the Definition of Multimodality: Identifying Key Processes in Students' Designing.