Susan Carlton

After 18 years of work in the University Writing Program (then called General Studies Writing), Susan Carlton retired. Read about her work in this interview.

Susan Carlton has a B.A. with a double major in English and Philosophy from BGSU (1976), and a M.A. (1977) and Ph.D. (1984) in English from the University of Michigan. Before joining the BGSU’s General Studies Writing Program full-time teaching staff in 2000 she was a full-time lecturer in the University of Michigan’s Department of English Language and Literature for twelve years. At Michigan, she was also employed by the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts to prepare new graduate student teachers enrolled in its cross-disciplinary Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Development Program.  Her interests include composition pedagogy, writing and community engagement, literary theory, and gender/cultural studies.

Dr. Carlton was a frequent participant in the Center for Faculty Excellence faculty learning communities, participating in eight year-long communities across her eighteen years at BGSU.  She was nominated by the Writing Program for the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Instructor/Lecturer Award (2011) and for the Faculty Excellence Award in Service Learning (2012). She was twice nominated by the Student Alumni Connection for their Master Teacher Award (2014, 2017).  Upon her retirement in the spring of 2018, BGSU granted her the status of Emerita Senior Lecturer. She is a member of the AAUP, the CCCC’s, and a lifetime member of the MLA.

Book: Patrick J. Slattery and Susan R. Carlton, Reading, Thinking, and Writing with Sources.  Macmillan, 1993.

Selected Presentations

“Deliberative Research on Campus Issues in the First-Year Writing Classroom” presented with one of my students from spring semester 2017 as part of the session “The Art of Service Learning: Creative Models in Course Design.” Ohio Campus Compact Conference, Ohio State University, Aug. 2017.

“Transdisciplinarity as an Extension of WAC/WID.”  Session: “Speaking and Writing Across Difference.” 13^th International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, University of Michigan, June 2016.

“Looking-Glass Selves in Advertising: Analyzing Media Constructions of Identity.” Panel: “Specialized Approaches to Teaching Composition.” College English Association of Ohio, University of Toledo, Apr. 2015.

“Partnering Purposefully: Advocacy in the First-Year Writing Course.” Panel: “Beyond the Classroom:  Faculty, Students, and Community Organizations Connecting via Writing.” North Carolina Symposium on Teaching Writing, North Carolina State University, Feb. 2013.   

“Speaking with Silent Witnesses against Domestic Violence: Contesting Rhetorical Agency in the First-Year Composition Class.” Session: “Making Space for Service-Learning Projects within a Portfolio-Based Writing Program.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Atlanta, Apr. 2011

“Balancing Acts for Junior Faculty: Cross-Pollination and the Power of Positive Peer Pressure.” The 2^nd Annual International Conference on Faculty Learning Communities, Miami University, Oxford OH, June 2004.