Student Profiles - Student Scholarship - Alumni - Dissertations by Program Graduates

Students in the Rhetoric & Writing program are intriguingly diverse group, coming to BGSU from all over the country and beyond. Their interests, research and otherwise, are equally diverse, revealed as much by the short biographies below as by their e-portfolios. The latter of these are an important part of all Rhetoric & Writing students' professional development; here is a link providing more information about e-portfolios and their significance.

Suzan Aiken (2007)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~saiken/
Suzan recently completed a Master of Arts in the Teaching of English at Western Michigan University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education with Major in English and Minor in Communication. Suzan is a certified secondary teacher in the State of Michigan and taught at the middle and high school level for three and half years. A teacher consultant with the Third Coast Writing Project (Kalamazoo’s branch of the National Writing Project), Suzan is also co-director of the TCWP’s Camp for Young Writers. As part of a four-teacher team, Suzan co-wrote a grant for and co-directed the Youth Poetry Slam Workshop Series for three years in Kalamazoo. Her research interests surround technology in the classroom, teacher affect and ideology in the classroom, and postmodern education pedagogy. A giant fan of comics, Neil Gaiman, and Joss Whedon, Suzan is interested in cultural and popular media depictions of adolescent language and behavior patterns so she likes to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.

Amira Akl (2007)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~aakl/
As a first generation Lebanese-American heavily influenced by the Arab community in the Toledo area and as a frequent traveler to the Middle East, Amira cannot shut up about Arab American-ness and multiculturalism. She received her BA and MA at UT, where she researched various aspects of the Arab and Arab American student populations and their integration into English classes. She joined the BGSU Rhetoric and Writing Program so she could continue her research into the rhetoric used to describe people of Arab heritage, especially in the contexts of war and terrorism. Since then, her focused interests have been completely discombobulated by new and growing interests in discussing the "othering" of Arabs in more contexts such as feminist perspectives and gender issues, race identification issues, and teaching effectively with technology. While she often spends her spare time complaining about students that complain about the amount of writing assigned in a writing class, Amira is also newly wed, so recently, she has been noticing really ugly wallpaper and really cute babies.

Jen Almjeld (2004)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~jalmjel/
Jen hails from Kentucky, and received her MA in English from Eastern Kentucky University, where she also taught journalism for two years before coming to Bowling Green. Jen currently serves as an assistant to the Director of the General Studies Writing program at BGSU. With her prelims recently behind her, Jen is pursuing her research interests including women's rhetorics, visual literacy, and computers and composition. In her spare time she is an avid shoe shopper, loves to watch movies, and travel whenever possible.

Stephanie Anderson (2006)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~stemand/
Hailing from Toledo (that great city to the North), Stephanie 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.

Florence Bacabac (2004)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~florenb/portfolio/
Florence received her BA and MA in English Language from the University of the Philippines and MA in TESL from Bowling Green State University. Her current research interests include computers and writing, writing across the curriculum & writing in the disciplines, second language writing, critical discourse analysis, and feminism. She finds Jimi Hendrix's riffs and Raymond Red's shorts fascinating.

Emily Beard (2007)
From Huntington, West Virginia, Emily holds an MA in English emphasizing Composition and Rhetoric and BA in English (Literature), both from Marshall University. Her interests include non-traditional students, especially first generation college students, in addition to feminist and visual rhetorics and body studies. Not only a student of the university, Emily has taken ballet for over 24 years, taught and choreographed for 15 years, as well as danced in The Nutcracker ballet. In her spare time, she practices Pilates and Yoga.

Beth Church (2005)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~echurch/
Beth, from Perrysburg, Ohio, teaches Composition and Technical Writing part-time at Owens Community College, and also serves as the editor of a weekly newspaper in a suburb of Toledo. Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from BGSU and an MA in theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville. Her ever-changing research interests include media and literacy, writing and metaphor, women’s rhetoric and technology in writing. Her hobbies are just about as eclectic as she enjoys traveling, organic gardening, and currently is learning to use power tools for home improvement projects and how to knit (not at the same time).

AnDrea Cleaves (2004)
AnDrea received both her BA in Communication and her Master of Education from the University of Toledo. She has worked in radio, hosting her own one-hour show, Toledo Concerns, and served as the Off-Campus Program Coordinator for UT. If a TV viewer is particularly perceptive, AnDrea can be seen and heard in many local commercials. Her real joy, however, is teaching writing at Owens State Community College. AnDrea is still in the process of distilling her interests, but her current loves are Black British Rhetoric of Victorian England, New Woman writers of the fin-de-siecle - particularly Ella Hepworth Dixon.

Toby Coley (2007)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~tfcoley/
After earning his BA in Biblical Studies and English with a minor in the History of Ideas from Southeastern College in Wake Forest, North Carolina, Toby went on to earn his MA in English,
specializing in composition and rhetoric, from North Carolina State University. Though Toby is currently researching the intersections of digital mediation in the teaching of writing, including aspects of modality, space, literacy, and rhetoric, his reading and research interests are broad and include many aspects of theory (postmodern, rhetorical, and philosophical) and praxis (assessment, response, and curriculum development). When not reading/researching, Toby can usually be found actively pursuing his love of the outdoors and his wife (both pursuits require nurturing).

Brittany Cottrill (2006)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~bcottri/
Brittany 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.

Vanessa Cozza (2007)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~vcozza/Vanessa/
Vanessa earned a BA in Literature and an MA in Literary Studies from West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include composition and rhetoric studies, writing center pedagogy, basic writing, multiculturalism, code-switching, critical pedagogy, memetics, and popular culture. She has taught Developmental English and Composition I & II at both Delaware County Community College for two years and at Neumann College for one year. She also has tutoring experience with both native speakers and ESL students.

Erin Dietel McLaughlin (2005)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~edietel/
Prior to attending BGSU, Erin completed her undergraduate study in English literary studies at Eastern Washington University, where she also worked as a public relations aide, writer, and editor in EWU's Division of University Relations. A McNair Scholar herself, she was pleased to serve as an academic assistant to the McNair Scholars Program before going to work for a newspaper in her hometown of Spokane, Washington. While she is still working toward focusing her research interests, she is currently fascinated with the intersections of technology, literacy, gender, identity, and space, as well as continued interest in (some might say unhealthy obsession with) writing pedagogy. When she isn't studying, teaching, or writing, Erin enjoys scrapbooking, games, amateur volleyball, playing with her two spoiled cats, and discovering new things to do in Bowling Green with her spouse and partner in crime, Clint.

Joe Erickson (2007)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~jjerick/
Joe comes to Bowling Green from the port city of Duluth, MN, which is located on the western-most tip of Lake Superior. He holds a BA and an MA in English studies from the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he taught freshman writing for three years. In addition to his teaching at UMD, Joe recently taught two online writing courses for Axia College of the University of Phoenix, which he found both professionally rewarding and completely fascinating. Joe’s interests in rhetoric and writing partially stem from his background in information design, which involved courses in visual rhetoric, new media writing, and Web design & digital culture. While he comes to this program with an interest in many things, he particularly looks forward to studying how technology has and continues to influence the act of writing. On a more personal level, Joe is lover of books; he enjoys reading them, talking about them, collecting them, displaying them, and even cataloguing them. He is also a frequent, if not especially talented, bowler.

Elizabeth Fleitz (2005)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~efleitz/
Elizabeth 's research interests are broad, spanning from research on eating disorders to areas such as feminist media studies, trauma, gender, and body studies. Past papers and presentations include topics such as 9/11, Advanced Placement English, Margaret Atwood and Bridget Jones. She recently published a book review for the CEA Forum on computerized essay-scoring programs. A connoisseur of everything French, she completed the language requirement while in the Loire Valley region of central France last summer. This means she is now addicted to Nutella and good cheese, but not necessarily in combination. Other obsessions are clothes, Bollywood movies, and chick-lit novels. She also likes herbal tea, and if you knock on her office door she just might share some with you.

Christine Garbett (2007)
From Minnesota, Christine earned her MA in Teaching College English and BA in Writing from St. Cloud State University. Although the list is ever growing, her research interests include feminist rhetoric, cultural studies, disability studies, and the intersections thereof. Most of her past work has revolved around fairy tales as tools of social construction, cultural studies and feminist pedagogies, and representations of marriage and motherhood. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with friends, watching movies and television, doing various crafts, reading, and window-shopping.

Meredith Graupner (2006)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~mgraupn/
From Ypsilanti, MI, Meredith received her MA in Written Communication with an emphasis on teaching writing from Eastern Michigan University, and her BA in English from the University of Michigan. Her research interests include computer mediated communication, strategies for using multimodal writing assessment, and methods for integrating technology throughout graduate education and faculty development. In her spare time, she enjoys trying new recipes, decorating cakes, playing volleyball, and traveling when money permits.

Robert Graves (2005)
From Derby, KS, Robert holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a BA in English, both from Wichita State University. His interests include epic poetry, the rhetoric of SciFi, Latin and the Romance languages, mythology, Jungian psychology, witchcraft, Taoist meditation and its relationship to the Golden Bough and the composition classroom, and the divine nature of Shakespeare's work. His teaching experience includes three years with both Cowley College and Wichita State. Currently, he is piloting an outcomes study for the William T. Jerome Library and teaching Composition for the General Studies Writing department. Rob has been quoted as saying, "Grad school is like a 'Go Navy!' commercial: nothing but gritty montages and heavy metal power chords."

Abbey Kanzig (2006)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~akanzig/
Abbey 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 University and an MA in English/Composition track from the University 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 (hmm, I’m sure that happens at some point) she’s watching Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Boston Legal or reading.

Bobby Kuechenmeister (2007)
Bobby received his BA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and his MA from Texas A&M University. His primary research interests are visual rhetoric, narrative, and popular culture with an emphasis on comic books. His secondary interests include literary theory, film, video games, document design, and usability. He is a workaholic notorious for his research on Superman and asserts that Aristotle is his buddy. However, he may geek out at any moment.

Ann-Gee Lee (2004)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~leea/
A native of California, Ann-Gee chose BGSU simply because she was accepted. Her MA in English with a concentration of TESOL and Rhet-Comp comes from California State University Stanislaus, where she also received her BA in English with TESOL and minor in Spanish. After receiving her BA, Lee taught high school sophomore English for a year and then went back for her master’s degree at CSUS. Lee has over ten years of experience as an on/off campus tutor, mentor, and instructor, working with students of all ages in not only English, but subjects as diverse as chemistry, philosophy, and the Chinese language. Lee has taught first-year writing at both CSUS and BGSU. Lee’s interests are teaching/learning languages, reading contemporary novels, writing, music, fashion, technology, art, and design. In the next four years, she hopes to publish some professional and creative work and teach/train English language learners abroad. Her research interest lies in secret female rhetoric. Lee is also Chair of Academic Affairs of the Graduate Student Senate and is open to problems or concerns any graduate students may have. Besides publication and travel, Lee’s biggest ambition is to become the US Secretary of Education someday!

Eden Leone (2007)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~eleone/
Eden is from Duluth, MN where she earned a BA in psychology and sociology from the College of St. Scholastica and an MA in English Studies from the University of Minnesota Duluth. She has taught courses in freshman writing, college learning, and rhetoric of popular culture, which she enjoyed very much. Her research interests here at Bowling Green include a wide range of inquiries, but she is currently thinking about issues of electronic media in the writing classroom. For example, her current line of research questions how the shift in popular television shows from scripted comedies and dramas to unscripted reality-based shows might influence students’ notions of narrative and storytelling as they manifest themselves in college writing. Eden also enjoys reading mystery stories, shopping for shoes, and engaging in lively conversations with her many new and old friends.

David McClure (2007)
David, born and raised in Indiana, earned his BA and MFA from Purdue University. After working in an electronics factory and teaching composition, technical writing, and creative writing at Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington, IN, he decided to pursue a PhD in Rhetoric and Writing. Luckily, BGSU accepted him. His interests include First Year Composition, Transfer, Activity Theory, and Working Class Rhetoric. So far, he remains stunned at the vast cultural differences between Ohio and Indiana.

Heather E. Pristash (2006)
BGSU is the last stop in Heather's 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 elsewhere 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.

Sergey Rybas (2004)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~srybas/eng728/
Sergey received his MA in Scientific and Technical Communication from BGSU and his BA in Teaching English and German from Taganrog State University in Russia. His research interests include use of technology in written communication, study of usability, as well as intercultural and interpersonal communication. He has a passion for traveling and has experience living and working in Russia and Thailand in addition to the U.S.

James Schirmer (2004)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~jschirm/INDEX.HTM
James came to BGSU by way of Texas A&M in Corpus Christi, where he received a Master of Arts in Rhetoric and Composition. His research interests include old Greek words (techne, phronesis, praxis), composition pedagogy, multimodality and multiliteracies. Beyond this, James is an active blogger, aspiring rock guitarist, avid video gamer and acts as advisor for the BGSU Dodgeball Club.

Jeremy Schnieder (2006)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~jschnie/
Originally from Colorado, Jeremy 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.

Yvonne Schultz (2005)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~yschult/
Yvonne's day job—and also night, as she teaches in Adult and Graduate Studies as well—is as an assistant professor of English at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Her MA is from the University in Akron in English/Composition track, which she finished after doing half a master’s in literature from Villanova University in Pennsylvania. She says she’s from western Kansas because she graduated high school there, but she’s lived in seven states, so home is where her husband Dennis and two college-age daughters are. Yvonne is enjoying being back in class right now, doing whatever research projects her profs will let her, but she’ll focus eventually, maybe on journalism portfolio assessment, maybe on rhetoric in contemporary literature, maybe on some feminist stuff. Before entering academia, Yvonne was a free-lance writer and editor; newspaper, magazine, and newsletter editor; and staff copywriter. She loves to vegetable and flower garden; bike, walk, and cross-country ski with Den; and eat ethnic food with friends, followed by attending a concert or play.

Bethany Noelle Snyder-Morse (2005)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~bnsnyde/bethany728project/homepage.htm
Bethany received her BA/BS in Spanish and advertising from the University of Illinois-Urbana, and an MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. She taught basic English at orphanages in Ecuador and India, and she helped tutor students at an English college for the handicapped in China. She also taught composition and creative writing in Michigan. She has an interest in local history (mainly Midwest), John Deere tractors and genealogy. She is a volunteer CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) for foster children and is currently training for a foster parent license.

Ruijie Zhao (2006)
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~rzhao/
Ruijie Zhao earned her BA in English and MA in Literature at Xian International Studies University in China. IShe came to the states in the year of 2003 and became a fulltime student in the STC program in BGSU in fall 2004. She earned an MA in STC last summer. Being an international student in BGSU is quite exciting since she is looking for a change after six years of teaching in a Chinese university. Currently a tutor in the writing center, Rujie 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, if possible, traveling.