Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD

Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) programs are an educational initiative that aim to support faculty in implementing writing into their classrooms and engaging students in their learning through writing. WAC courses are typically those outside standard English and Literature courses at postsecondary institutions. This project investigates perspectives at a Midwestern University to explore practices and definitions of WAC, writing, advocacy, and feedback. Specifically, the research focuses on two questions: 1. What are the current understandings and practices of WAC, writing, advocacy, and feedback at Midwestern University? 2. How do WAC programs benefit from collaboration with Writing Centers and community connections from a sustainability standpoint? Using humanistic approaches, this study focuses on the shared experiences of a History WAC faculty member, History WAC student, and the Writing Center Coordinator at Midwestern University. Data was collected through a series of interviews with each participant and coded according to a Grounded Theory approach. The findings from each participant's interviews are represented as an individual chapter sharing their stories as perspectives important to ongoing conversations regarding how WAC is understood, writing is defined and experienced, and advocacy is identified, as well as practices of WAC instructor written feedback on student writing. The project draws connections between WAC, writing, feedback practices, and advocacy discourse as important concepts to WAC sustainability and concludes with potential implications for WAC programs, WAC scholars, and writing instructors. Focusing on inclusionary practices, this study pulls from the experiences at Midwestern University to provide frameworks of race for WAC and self-reflective inclusive sentence-level training for faculty, students, and writing consultants. Furthermore, the study indicates that feedback practices in the WAC classroom should consider students' (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lee Nickoson Ph.D. (Advisor); Lisa Hanasono Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kimberly Spallinger M.A. (Committee Member); Neil Baird Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Pedagogy; Rhetoric

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD

This dissertation reviews major WAC scholarship from the four-year university/college level and extrapolates salient WAC protocols that impact sustainability. It constructs a series of eight heuristics based on Michelle Cox, Jeffrey Galin, and Dan Melzer's “Building Sustainable WAC Programs.” Deploying these heuristics within a systems theory matrix, it conducts a forensic analysis of data from two, two-year college WAC programs, one dormant and one active, and ultimately isolates WAC protocols that either enhance or reduce sustainability. The foreword presents a brief history of the two-year college movement. Chapter one thoroughly discusses the lack of scholarship at two-year institutions, reviews the history, theory and praxis of WAC at four-year colleges, develops a list of WAC protocols from the history, theory, and praxis, and presents an overview of this project. Chapter two discusses the types of data collection methods, the data types, their relevance to this project, collection procedures, and constructs eight data analysis heuristics from the protocols listed in chapter one and the sustainability scholarship developed by Cox et. al. Chapters three and four separately discuss the history and development of both campuses, presents the findings from both sites and briefly analyzes them within the context of their specific exigencies. Chapter five thoroughly analyzes the data from both sites at the local level and the field level and hypothesizes on the presence and absence of sustainability protocols developed in chapters one and two. The findings take note of three salient aspects of the protocols which the analysis heuristics revealed as most relevant to sustainability within these two programs: consensus on the concept of good writing, the degree of autonomy teaching faculty exercised over their respective programs, and the level of participation among faculty outside of the liberal arts/general education departments. The implications thus (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lee Nickoson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Kerri Knippen Ph.D. (Other); Neil Baird Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sue Carter-Wood Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Community College Education; Community Colleges; Composition; Education Philosophy; Sustainability

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2022, English

This project studies graduate writing support and graduate faculty development, considering the role writing across the curriculum (WAC) programming plays in enabling faculty as change agents to make long-term, structural change in systems of graduate writing. Scholarship on graduate writing support typically treats graduate students as the subjects and receivers of support, but in this dissertation, I pose faculty members as (also) subjects of graduate writing support. Drawing on cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), learning theory, and theories of institutional change, this project employs mixed methods of participant-observer case studies, a national survey, and secondary research on histories of graduate writing and its support to examine how graduate writing mediates graduate education, how faculty have historically supported graduate writers, how faculty are prepared to teach and mentor graduate-level writing, and how faculty can create changes to systems of graduate writing. Chapter 1 situates high-stakes writing like comprehensive exams and dissertations as mediating graduate education, overviewing how they are outdated and were designed in response to external stressors around gatekeeping. Chapter 2 highlights how the kinds of writing support we've developed in graduate programs and across writing support programs largely focus on ushering students through these outdated systems and not on critically re-examining and changing structures. Chapter 3 interrogates faculty expertise and preparation for mentoring graduate writing, highlighting how faculty are not always trained or fully-equipped to provide such structured and scaffolded support. Chapter 4 turns to faculty case examples to illustrate the contradictions inherent in the activity of graduate writing support and how WAC programming can help faculty navigate the messiness of these contradictions in order to make local and sustainable changes. Finally, Chapter 5 addresses implications of my r (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elizabeth Wardle (Committee Chair); Jason Palmeri (Committee Member); Jay Smart (Committee Member); Sara Webb-Sunderhaus (Committee Member); Elizabeth Hutton (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2021, English

In this project, I set out to understand the impact that writing-related faculty development programs can have on institutional cultures of writing, teaching, and learning. Scholarship in writing across the curriculum (WAC) has historically illustrated pedagogical and curricular changes that support student writers in higher education. Cultural change is necessary to do this work because institutional cultures are often influenced by persistent misconceptions of writing as a general, transferable skill that can be taught in one course and applied in another. In the 1960s and 1970s, the birth of WAC as both an institutional practice and as a disciplinary movement offered opportunities for individuals to share these ideas with higher education faculty from diverse fields. While many WAC leaders want to change institutional cultures of writing, little research illustrates how this transformation can occur or what role writing-related faculty development might play. Drawing on scholarship in writing studies, higher education change, and cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), this dissertation begins to address this gap. I argue for using a local|disciplinary methodology to understand what writing-related faculty development programs do and what changes result as faculty adopt principles and conceptions from these programs. Through my multi-institutional study, I found that changing faculty conceptions of writing is a key goal of writing-related faculty development work, but this goal is not always made explicit in program practices. Research at three case institutions illustrates how institutional history and location can influence program goals, practices, and leadership. In Chapter 1, I overview the cultural-historical prevalence of misconceptions of writing. In Chapter 2, I outline the local|disciplinary methodology that informs this research. Chapter 3 provides results from a national study that illustrates writing-related faculty development programs aim t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elizabeth Wardle (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Hutton (Committee Member); Jason Palmeri (Committee Member); Thomas Poetter (Committee Member); John Tassoni (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition

PHD, Kent State University, 2015, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies

The teaching of writing in elementary school settings has been well documented through research. However, when it comes to secondary schools settings, the literature reveals a gap in treatment of writing instruction in an urban school environment. This study adds to the literature guided by three major research questions: (1) What beliefs do secondary teachers across the curriculum hold about teaching writing in an urban high school? (2) What are secondary teachers' experiences with writing instruction in an urban high school? (3) What tensions emerge for secondary teachers with writing instruction in an urban high school that is implementing Common Core State Standards? The purpose of this interpretative qualitative study was to understand six secondary teachers' writing beliefs, experiences, and tensions in implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) with respect to writing instruction across the curriculum through a social constructivist framework. Purposeful Sampling and Responsive Interview Method procedures were utilized in this study. Teachers participated in interview sessions along with follow-up questions during a school semester. Data transcribed and coded using NVivo software. Themes and patterns identified as they emerged through analysis of statements and interpretation of data collected. The findings of this study suggest that teachers have limited skills and various challenges that prevent effective writing instruction in the classroom. These results prompted the presentation of numerous implications for teachers, administrators, school districts, and teacher educational programs.

Committee: William Bintz Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Lori Wilfong Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Susan Iverson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Steve Turner Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Curriculum Development; Education; Educational Leadership; Higher Education; Language Arts; Literacy; Minority and Ethnic Groups; School Administration; Secondary Education; Teacher Education; Teaching

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, History

In March 1945, a WAC (Women's Army Corps) detachment of African Americans stationed at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts organized a strike action to protest discriminatory treatment in the Army. As a microcosm of military directives and black women's assertions of their rights, the Ft. Devens strike provides a revealing context to explore connections between state policy and citizenship during World War II. This project investigates the manner in which state policies reflected and reinforced rigid distinctions between constructed categories of citizens, and it examines the attempts of African American women, who stood among the nation's most marginalized persons, to assert their rights to full citizenship through military service. The purpose of this study is threefold: to investigate the Army's determination to strictly segment its troops according to race and gender in addition to its customary rank divisions; to explore state policies during the war years from the vantage point of black women; and to recognize the agency, experiences, and resistance strategies of back women who enlisted in the WAC during its first years. The Ft. Devens incident showcases a little known, yet extraordinary event of the era that features the interaction between black enlisted women and the Army's white elite in accordance with standard military protocol. This protocol demanded respect all who wore the uniform, albeit within a force segregated by gender, race, and rank. It is this conflict that gave rise to one of World War II's most publicized courts-martial, the black Wac strike at Ft. Devens.

Committee: Judy Wu (Advisor); Susan Hartmann (Committee Member); Tiyi Morris (Committee Member); Peter Mansoor (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; American Studies; Armed Forces; Black History; Black Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Military History; Military Studies; Public Policy; Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2009, History

The focus of the study was to theorize and answer the question of why existing fashion theory in the U.S., as well as abroad, has not tackled the question of American womanhood and citizenship as evidenced in the images of the WACs and WAVES during WWII. Thorough examination of original source materials from pamphlets, recruiting booklets, memoirs, magazine articles, books, case studies,editorials, letters, photos and scrapbooks, a study of fashion has shown historical connections between existing gender systems, social orders, and political ideologies in WWII America. The present study focused on how women's relationships to fashion transformed the evaluation of women's roles and status during WWII and what clothing and adornment meant concerning women in the armed forces. The research also examined the concept of the new woman, and explored how the U.S. government successfully constructed a female appearance that satisfied both public and private concerns.The ways in which women's roles and status changed during WWII was the result of the government promoting visual identity that typified traditional gender ideology and feelings of national belonging as women contributed to an American victory in the armed forces. An evaluation of fashion was important to see how life in WWII America changed in ways that no other sources of material culture could show. The use of original research material and its application contributes to and builds upon existing scholarship on WWII as well the development of the WACs (Women's Army Corps) and WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service). Not only is cultural and social history examined through the creation of WAC and WAVE uniforms but the social conditions, the political power shifts, as well as how the civilian population and female military personnel viewed themselves. Research shows design changes in uniforms of the WACs and WAVES by a number of interested parties successfully reconciled the initial discord which ar (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Beth Griech-Polelle Dr. (Advisor); Susan Voso-Lab Dr. (Committee Member); Stephen Charter (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Armed Forces; Gender; History; Textile Research; Womens Studies