New Students - Recent Student Publications
New Faculty - Recent Faculty Publications
Some NSF Reports

As a traditional beginning to our fall issue of Rhetoric & Writing Notes, we asked new students in the program to write something about themselves, their interests and the projects they may be working on.

Stephanie Anderson
Stephanie Anderson is a first-year PhD student who hails from Toledo (that great city to the North). She earned a bachelor's degree in English with a creative writing concentration from the University of Toledo and an M.Ed. in curriculum and teaching from BGSU. Currently, Stephanie works part time as an academic skills coordinator for TRiO students (under the McNair Scholars Program) at Lourdes College in Sylvania, providing writing and study skills assistance. At this time, her research interests are still aging like a fine Bordeaux. With a little more fermentation, she will narrow down her topic. In addition to reading and teaching, Stephanie enjoys eating eggs benedict at the City Diner (Jeff's) in Toledo, cheese fondue, yoga, and watering her menagerie of flora.

Brittany Cottrill
Brittany Cottrill is a first year PhD student. This summer she earned her MA in literature at the University of Toledo and holds a BA from the University of Findlay in creative writing. She grew up in west central Ohio but can't seem to leave the lovely winter weather. Her broad research interests include technology in the classroom, especially in terms of blogs, literacy, and communication. She spends her free time watching movies with her two dogs and writing about herself in third person.

Meredith Graupner
Meredith Graupner is a first-year PhD student from Ypsilanti, MI. She received her MA in Written Communication with an emphasis in teaching writing from Eastern Michigan University, and her BA in English from the University of Michigan. She is interested in bridging the gap between teachers at the secondary and post-secondary levels, and researching computers and composition. In her spare time she enjoys trying new recipes, decorating cakes, playing volleyball, and traveling when money permits.

Abbey Kanzig
Abbey Kanzig, a first-year PhD student, recently relocated with her husband and cat (treated like a spoiled child) to Perrysburg from Mansfield. She earned a BA in Business Management and Marketing from Ashland U. and an MA in English/Composition track from the U. of Akron, where she also earned certificates in Literature and Gender and Conflict. Abbey worked as an adjunct instructor at N.C.S.C. and partnered in their fledging peer mentoring/tutoring program. Of special interest: feminism and rhetoric, composition and computers, and dialects and composition. She also enjoys exploring Perrysburg and Bowling Green and especially enjoys plays, musicals, and dinner theater. When she’s not working (which happens at some point) she’s watching Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Boston Legal or reading.

Heather E. Pristash
Heather E. Pristash is a first year PhD student. BGSU is the last stop in her All-Ohio Educational Tour, which includes Oberlin (high school), Kent (BA, English with Writing Certificate), and Dayton (MA, English/Writing Focus). After this, she hopes to spend some time in another state for a change. Heather’s research interests include third-wave feminism, the rhetoric of craft (particularly knitting), graphic novels, the writing process, popular culture, and felt sense. If she still had free time, she would use it for knitting, comics, video games, and obsessive focus on the Joss Whedon oeuvre.

Jeremy Schnieder
Jeremy Schnieder is a first year PhD student in the Rhetoric and Writing. Originally from Colorado, he received his MA from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and a BA from Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado. Jeremy spent the past four years teaching at UNK and running its writing center. While hoping to narrow his interests over the course of the year, he has long had an affinity for writing assessment, writing centers, and hockey. When not in class, he enjoys spending time with his lovely wife, Elizabeth, usually playing hockey in some form, watching hockey, reading about hockey, or talking about hockey.

Ruijie Zhao
Ruijie Zhao received her BA in English and her MA in Literature from Xian International Studies University in China. She came to the states in the year of 2003 and became a fulltime student in BGSU's STC program in fall 2004, earning her MA this past summer. Being an international student in BGSU is quite exciting for her as she seeks a change after six years of teaching in a Chinese university. Currently a tutor in the writing center, she enjoys working with student writers in person. Her major research interests are computer and composition and visual rhetoric. In her spare time, she enjoys reading stories to kids, talking with friends, googling and traveling if possible