Biography
Originally from Mills River and Asheville, North Carolina, I became interested in rural literacies thanks to my Appalachian family's experiences with literacy workers who came to the mountains from "outside." I've extended that work to studying rural literacies in the northern plains. My primary interest is in the role of reading and writing--outside of classrooms--in rural sustainability. I research book clubs, history-writing groups, religious study groups, and other forms of "extracurricular" literacy practices.
I also have an interest in secondary education, and advocate teachers' starting their careers in rural schools. I've worked with the State of North Dakota on re-drafting the grades 9-12 English Language Arts standards and I've regularly offered professional development for K-12 teachers in the teaching of writing. For twelve years, I directed a site of the National Writing Project, whose mission is to improve the teaching of writing K-12 in all subject areas.
Outside of work I like to hike, kayak, or do anything else that reminds me of the mountains.
Composition I and II , Teaching College English, Science Writing, and special topics courses in rhetoric, composition, and literacy
Rural Literacies, Rural Education
Selected Publications:
Re-Reading Appalachia: Literacy, Place, and Cultural Resistance. Co-edited with Sara Webb-Sunderhaus.
Reclaiming the Rural: Essays on Literacy, Rhetoric, and Pedagogy. Co-edited with Charlotte Hogg and Eileen E. Schell.
Rural Literacies. Co-authored with Charlotte Hogg and Eileen E. Schell.
“Rural Literacies: Toward Social Cartography.” Co-authored with Michael Corbett. Journal of Research in Rural Education.
“Rural Literacies and Rural Mobilities: Textual Practice, Relational Space, and Social Capital in a Globalised World.” Co-authored with Bill Green. In International Handbook of Rural Studies.
“Metaphors We Lose By: Rethinking How We Frame Rural Education.” In Doing Educational Research in Rural Settings: Methodological Issues, International Perspectives, and Practical Solutions.
“Connecting Literacy to Sustainability: Revisiting Literacy as Involvement.” In Literacy, Economy, and Power: Writing and Research after “Literacy in American Lives.”
“Why Not at School? Rural Literacies and the Continual Choice to Stay.” In Rethinking Rural Literacies: Transnational Perspectives.
Ph.D. English, University of Minnesota
B.A., English, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill