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Composition & Rhetoric TA Bios

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	Jacob Babb Hi! My name is Jacob Babb, and as of fall 2008 I am a teaching assistant in the English Department at UNCG. I received my BA in European history from Western Carolina University in 2003. However, during my senior year, I realized I was more interested in pursuing an advanced degree in English, my undergraduate minor. So I stayed on at WCU and earned my MA in English in 2005. My master thesis was entitled Walkynge in the Mede: Chaucer’s Gardens and the Recasting of the Edenic Fall. (Really, it’s much more interesting than it sounds.) Once I completed my MA, I took a lecturer position teaching freshman composition and other assorted literature courses at WCU for three years. I enjoyed that job so much that I’m back in graduate school seeking my PhD in rhetoric and composition.
	Rose Brister I am a doctoral student studying Rhetoric and Composition. I am working on the All Freshman Read program and the One Book, Many Voices conference, and I recently presented a paper at CCCC, entitled "Visual Rhetoric in the Post-K Composition Classroom,"on the uses of visual rhetoric as means of accessing a "zone of recovery" for post-Katrina students.
	Mercer Bufter I am pursuing a PhD in English Literature after earning a B.A. in Creative Writng from Carnegie Mellon and an M.F.A. in Poetry from New York University. My main areas of interest are Renaissance British poetry, 20th Century Anglophone poetry and, by extension, rhetorics old and new. In the past I have studied Spanish and some 20th Century Spanish literature and am currently learning Latin in order to keep up with Dr. Donne.
	Daniel Burns I am a PhD student in twentieth-century American literature and culture with a minor in critical theory. My research interests include film aesthetics, adaptation studies, the novel and narrative theory, political philosophy, and American intellectual history. I received a BA in psychology and an MA in literature from Clemson University. Since graduating I have taught communications, composition and literature courses at Clemson, Greensboro College, and Elon University. When my wife Patti and I are not immersed in all things academic (she's a third year PhD candidate in French at UNC-CH) we enjoy spending time with our new daughter (and two pups, Mingus and Punchy).
	Rae Ann DeRosse I came to UNCG in 2006 to pursue my Ph.D. in postcolonial literature and theory. I received my M.A. in English literature from Brooklyn College in New York, where I also taught introductory literature and writing courses for several years. My research interests vary greatly, but I am particularly interested in Caribbean literature and representations of community/belonging and how they intersect with human rights issues and discourse. My secondary area of specialization is composition theory and pedagogy, which is absolutely essential to my teaching and research.
	Will Dodson I am a PhD candidate studying Rhetoric, Literary Theory, and Film Theory. My interests include interactionism, neurology and discourse studies. I earned a double BA in English and Philosophy from Guilford College in 2000, and an MA in English with a focus on Feminist Theory and a minor concentration in Classics.
	Scott Gibson I began my college career as a music recording major before switching to English my sophomore year. After earning my MA from Bucknell University in 2004, I took a two-year academic hiatus, travelling to Ecuador and working at a winery in New York State, before I started teaching at various colleges in Pennsylvania. I began the PhD program at UNCG in Fall 2007. Currently I teach English Composition, and I try to incorporate student-led discussions, writing assignments in different genres, frequent conferencing, and semester-long revisions processes in my courses. My research interests involve late 19th and 20th century American literature, multicultural theory, and its implications for the teaching of composition. I spend my rare, "free" moments with my wife, Cristina.
	Brandy Grabow I am a PhD student in the Rhetoric and Composition program. My interests are too many to count. I have no idea how I will focus them all into a dissertation. I received my MA with a focus in Teaching Composition from UNCG in the Spring of 2005. My undergraduate work was in Theatre Arts. I received my BA from Minnesota State University Mankato in 2002. When I get a chance to look up from the computer, I am usually refereeing the constant turf war between our two cats and the dog.
	Erin Houlihan I received a BA in English and Spanish from Guilford College in 2004 and then obtained an MA in English from UNCG in 2007. After four years of working as a Spanish interpreter for a Greensboro law firm, I decided to pursue a PhD in English with a focus on Twentieth Century American Literature. My areas of specialization include Mexican-American Literature and Postcolonial Theory. My research interests are Nineteenth Century Mexican-American women writers, Henry James, literary recovery and spatial/regional studies. I have previously served as TA for a survey class on Latino Literature and have tutored ESOL students as well. When I can steal away from writing papers, I enjoy playing piano, walking my dog and reading mushy, flowery, sentimental love poems from any region, writer, or time period.
	Laurie Lyda I am a PhD student specializing in 19th Century British Literature; my secondary areas are 20th Century British Literature and Literary Theory (with emphases in feminist and postcolonial). I hold a graduate certificate from UNCG's Women's & Gender Studies Program and previous degrees (BA, English; BS, Communication; MA, English) from Appalachian State University. Prior to beginning the PhD program and my Teaching Assistantship with UNCG, I was a faculty member of Catawba Valley Community College.
	Cheryl Marsh After graduating with a BFA in Film from The North Carolina School of the Arts, I promptly changed my direction and decided to go to graduate school in literature. As a result of this decision, I completed my master's at Western Carolina University in 2004 and now find myself here at UNCG's PhD program. My primary interests include Transatlantic Modernism with a specific emphasis on poetics, 20th Century American,19th Century American, and literary theory, especially aesthetics.
	Matt Mullins I did my undergraduate work at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, NC, where I majored in History of Ideas, a history of Western theology, philosophy, history, and literature. In 2007 I completed my MA in English at North Carolina State University with a thesis about the appropriation of 19th century narrative techniques in Ishmael Reed's Flight to Canada and Paul Muldoon's Madoc: A Mystery. I entered the PhD program at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the fall of 2007. My research interests lie mainly in literary theory and in the novel with an emphasis in the response to the events of September 11, 2001 in recent fiction. More broadly, I am interested in the effects of traumatic solidarity in American fiction throughout the 20th century, and especially since World War II. I also enjoy poetry and serve as Assistant Editor to International Poetry Review, a journal of original contemporary poetry and poetry in translation, published by the department of Romance Languages at UNC Greensboro for more than 30 years. I have published poetry in both print and online journals, including Asheville Poetry Review and RealPoetik, and enjoy attending poetry readings whenever possible. I realize I will have to give up watching football at some point to complete my graduate degree.
	John Pell I am a PhD student in Rhetoric and Composition, a field I came to by way of the theatre, the communications department and finally the study of ethnic literature. In the study of rhetoric I find a place in which my diverse interests work together. Currently I am interested in the intersections between classical rhetoric, interactionist theory, and North American Pragmatism. I have presented papers on topics from Frederick Douglass and polemic resistance to feminist critiques of Frank Luntz. As a teacher and pragmatist I see the classroom as a place to enact learning and change. That is to say, I hope to facilitate a space in English 101 or 102 that allows students to experience their relationship to language, to their world, and to each other.
	Mary Beth Pennington I am a Rhetoric and Composition PhD student. I am currently interested in the literacy practices of rural university students in light of Pragmatic theory and the Scandinavian and American folk school movements. My dissertation will use ethnography to further explore the complexities of rural student literacy. I find particular pleasure in the work of Jane Addams, John Dewey, George Herbert Mead and the poetry of Robert Frost and Marianne Moore.
	Kimberly G. Reigle I received my BSN through Winston-Salem State University and practiced as a Registered Nurse for several years before persuing my Master’s Degree. I received a MA in English from Appalachian State University in 2005 with an emphasis on literature. I am currently pursuing a PhD in English literature at UNCG. My areas of specialization are Renaissance, Medieval, and British Gothic literature. My research also incorporates my interests in gender studies, Renaissance Humanism and Neo-Platonism. I have presented my work at several conferences from the Popular Culture Association conference to the Renaissance Society of America conference. I am an active member of the English Graduate Student Association and have served as various committee chairs with the association. In 2007, I was an organizer for the EGSA Graduate conference. In 2008-2009, I will serve on the executive board of the EGSA. I spend my time away from the university volunteering with Girl Scouts, traveling, shopping, baking and enjoying the great outdoors.
	Melissa Richard I have been teaching in some capacity (at the secondary and college level) for nearly six years. I received her BS in Secondary Education (English) and MA in English Literature at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and am now a PhD student in the English department at UNCG. During my time as a TA, I have served as an editor of Writing Matters and English 102 liaison to the Speaking Across the Curriculum Committee. My major research interests include 19th and 20th century British Literature and Performance Studies; consequently, it's not uncommon for a Dickens novel to creep into my classes. I believe that writers learn best from the study of other writers, a belief that guides the structure of my courses.

	Belinda Walzer I am a PhD student with a focus in Rhetoric/Composition and Postcolonial Studies. Currently, I am most interested in Human Rights discourse, issues in Truth and Reconciliation and social justice, although I am not entirely sure how those are all going to come together in my dissertation. I am also hoping to get my certificate in Women's and Gender Studies along the way. I was fortunate enough to receive my MA at UNCG also and did my undergraduate work in English and Environmental Studies at Ohio Wesleyan University. I find refuge from the heat (and school!) during the summers on a ranch in Wyoming as a wrangler when I can and enjoy traveling when I can afford it as well.
	Cindy Montgomery Webb After completing a MA in Literature at Kent State University in 2006, I came to UNCG to pursue the PhD in Twentieth-century American Literature. Southern Literature and Literary Theory have become particular interests for my explorations of ethnic identity construction and economic social relations in narrative. Thus far I have published a headnote on H.D. in an anthology of American Literature. I have also presented at several multi-ethnic literature conferences on slave labor practices that enabled passing and eventually freedom for runaway slaves.
	Stephanie Womick I received a B.A. in English and Education from Wingate University in 2005 and will receive my M.A. in English at UNCG in the spring of 2007. I am currently taking course work for the PhD, teaching freshman English as a T.A., and serving on the EGSA board. My areas of interest are nineteenth-century British fiction, transatlantic studies, and domestic fiction. My “amateur” academic interests are oral traditions and word history, Appalachian literature and culture, and myth/fantasy in literature.