Alumni Dissertation Titles

Ph.D. Students, Dissertation Titles, Advisers, Year Defended

  • Monsivais, Jeannette. “People of Color’s Ongoing Odyssey Toward Legitimacy in US Education and Culture: The Case of The Mexican American Studies Program in Tuscon, AZ.” Patti Wojahn, 2020.

  • Samuel, Diane. “Female Division 1 Athletics Directors and Credibility in a Historically Male-Dominated Location: A Feminist Rhetorical Analysis.” Patti Wojahn, 2020.

  • Tierney, Robyn. “Diversity Rhetorics Undone: Pardoxes, Disciplinarity, Different, and Defiant Orientations.” Kerry Banazek, 2020.

  • Bauer, Deborah. “The Art of Making the Impossible Possible: An Exploratory Study of Rhetorical Silence and Rhetorical Listening as Rhetorical Arts in the 2016 Presidential General Election Campaign Debates.” Kellie Sharp-Hoskins, 2019

  • Chulick, Randy. “Literacy in a Material World of Story.” Lauren Rosenberg, 2019.

  • Surya, Kavita. “Narrating Identity in Technical and Professional Communication.” Kellie Sharp-Hoskins, 2019.

  • Al-Khateeb, Mais. “Narrating Bodies of Syrian Refugees: Towards a Methodology of Transnational Feminist Rhetorical Encounters.” Tony Stagliano, 2019.

  • Arzu Carmichael, Felicita. “Online Writing Instruction in the Posthuman Humanities: Why We Need Theories of Place in the Online Writing Classroom.” Kellie Sharp-Hoskins, 2018.

  • Diab, Kefaya. “Online Writing Instruction in the Posthuman Humanities: Why We Need Theories of Place in the Online Writing Classroom.” Tony Stagliano, 2018.

  • Retzinger, Dylan R. “i2i: The Poetics of Identification.” Kellie Sharp-Hoskins, 2018

  • Whitney, Kelly. “Prevention, Intervention, Communication: Medical Processes and Making Bodies that Matter.” Kellie Sharp-Hoskins, 2018.

  • Medina-López, Kelly. “Coyolxauhqui is How I Know: Myth as Metholodogy.” Kellie Sharp-Hoskins, 2017.

  • England, Jennifer, “Playing with the Environment: Rhetorical Representations of Nature and Sustainability in Digital Game Spaces,” Patti Wojahn, 2016

  • Goldstein, Lauren, “Multimodal Invention and Rhetorical Velocity: Students (Re)Define Composing and Themselves as Composers in a Gen-Ed Writing Course,” Patti Wojahn, 2015

  • McCulloh, Gerri, “Toward an Acoustic Rhetoric: Vital Materialism’s Diffractions,” Monica Torres, 2015

  • Scott, Jennifer, “Injurious Speech, Scientific Boundaries, and Institutional Orthodoxy: The Rhetoric of the Vaccines-Autism Controversy,” Monica Torres, 2014

  • Powell, Rebecca, “Flood, Drought, and Normal Conditions: Twelfth Graders’ Writing Experiences and Values in a Time of Texts, Tests, and Uneven Terrain,” Chris Burnham, 2014

  • Myers, Seth, “The Reflective Practice of Reflective Practice: An Inquiry into Multimodal Pedagogy,” Chris Burnham, 2013

  • McGuire, Meg, “Commemoration in 140 Characters: How Twitter is Remediating How We Commemorate Resonant Events,” Jenny Sheppard, 2013

  • Scott, Marc, “Epistemologies, Relationships, Values, and Practices: Reconfiguring Writing Assessment through Feminist Qualitative Methodologies,” Chris Burnham, 2012

  • Wood, Susan, “Basic Writers’ Perceptions of Writing Assessment Practices,” Chris Burnham, 2012

  • Klein, Sipai, “Digital Architectonics: A Case Study of Educator Designed Multimodal Texts,” Jenny Sheppard, 2012

  • Garcia, María Pilar Milagros, “Self-Assessment Activities in a Second Language (L2) Writing Class: Potential Spaces for Student Negotiations,” Kathryn Valentine, 2011

  • Fricke, Elizabeth, “A Case Study Investigation of Methods Used to Gather and Apply Feedback from Players in the Design of Video Games,” Barry Thatcher, 2011

  • Chemishanova, Polina, “Writing Process and Writing Knowledge: A Cast Study of Four Aspiring Engineering Students’ Composing Process,” Chris Burnham, 2010

  • Verhulsdonck, Gustav, “Virtual Chironomia: A Multimodal Study of Non-Verbal Communication in a Virtual World,” Barry Thatcher, 2010

  • Clason, Susanna, “Rhetorical Strategies in Closing Arguments: A Case Study of a Southwest U.S. Federal Public Defender Office,” Barry Thatcher, 2008

  • Shalamova, Nadezhda, “Accreditation in a College of Engineering Rhetoric of Self-Study Reports,” Stuart Brown, 2008

  • Caire, Carlos, “Chicanos in Higher Education: Oral Testimony as Social Justice,” Monica Torres, 2007

  • Torres (Betancourt), Andrea, “A Multiple Case Study of Professional Bicultural Processes, Motivations, and Practices,” Barry Thatcher, 2007

  • Loskot, Lydia, “Literacy Practices and Strategies of Communication of the Mopan Maya of Belize: A Rhetorical Analysis,” Barry Thatcher, 2007

  • Melton, James, “Professional Communication in Global Contexts: A Case Study of the Rhetorical Competencies of an International Training Team,” Barry Thatcher, 2007 

  • Lanier, Clinton R., “A Case Study Investigating the Social-Rhetorical Aspects of Program Source-Code Comments at One Small Organization,” Patti Wojahn, 2006

  • Rojas, Clara E., “The Rhetoric of Dismissal: Theorizing the Fronteriza/Juarenses’ Political Activism from a Feminist Rhetorical Perspective,” Stuart Brown, 2006

  • Mendoza, Margaret Anne Jendro, “Enabling Pedagogy: Mentoring Undergraduate Researchers Writing in the Remodeled Margin,” Patti Wojahn, 2005

  • Green, Susanne, “Teacher and Student Identity: Pedagogy and Reiteration in First-Year Writing,” Chris Burnham, 2004

  • Harvey, Erin, “A Case Study of Graduate Assistants’ Reactions to Students’ Writing,” Stuart Brown, 2004

  • Loy, Steve Paul, “‘Find Something Worth Doing’: The Preaching of William Sloane Coffin, Jr., 1977-1987: The Hermeneutics of Socially Responsive Homiletics.”  Chris Burnham, 2004

  • McCool, Matthew, “Information Architecture in the Sonoran Biosphere,” Barry Thatcher, 2004 

  • Sideris, Jeremy, “First-Year Composition Course Descriptions and Writing Program Pedagogy: A Taxonomy,” Stuart Brown, 2004

  • Tun, Isabel, “Post-Colonial Institution Building: Researching the Effects of Change, Power, Structure and Agency,” Chris Burnham, 2004

  • Bernick, Phillip, “Habitability in Search Engine Interfaces: Characteristics Identified through Formative Evaluation,” Patti Wojahn, 2003

  • Ford, Dwedor Morais, “Computers and Composition in English Studies: Attitudes and Issues Concerning Writing Teachers and Writing Program Administrators,” Patti Wojahn, 2003

  • Stachera, (Caley) S. Allison, “Tongue Tied: Coming to Terms with Our Writing Center Practice,” Patti Wojahn, 2003

  • Fury, Kristina, “Unmasking the Freshman Composition Phantom: A Survey of Student Attitudes Toward the First-Year Writing Class at New Mexico State University,” Stuart Brown, 2002

  • Brodkin, Lori C., “Rhetorical Training for Physician Assistants Reuniting the Science of Medical Care and the Art of Medical Rhetoric,” Stuart Brown, 2002

  • Nardone, Carroll Ferguson, “Ways of Knowing Ideology and Representation in American Girl Texts,” Carl G. Herndl, 2002

  • Simon, Julie Clark, “Refiguring the Chronot[r]ope of Time and Space in a Feminist Writing Center,” Carl G. Herndl and Rebecca L. Jackson, 2002

  • Brumberger, Eva R., “The Rhetoric of Typography: Five Experimental Studies of Typeface Personality and Its Effects on Readers and Reading,” Stephen A. Bernhardt, 2001

  • Dyke, Julie Lynn, “Knowledge Transfer across Disciplines: Tracking Rhetorical Strategies from Technical Communication to Engineering Contexts,” Stephen A. Bernhardt, 2001

  • Nahrwold, Cynthia A., “Negotiating Praxis in Multi-Authored Scholarship,” Carl G. Herndl, 2001

  • Ortiz, Lorelei Amanda, “Cruzando las Fronteras de la Comunicaciol en Professional entre Meijico y los Estados Unidos: A descriptive Context-Sensitive Rhetorical Text Analysis of the Form, Function, and Emerging Hybrid Discourse of Professional Communication on a US/Mexico border—El Paso/Juarez,” Stephen A. Bernhardt, 2001

  • Sapp, David Alan, “Globalization and”Just” Pedagogy: A Description, Interpretation, and Critique of English Composition Pedagogy in China, Brazil and Spain,” Amanda J. Cobb, 2001

  • Baake, Kenneth R., “Metaphor and Knowledge: The Rhetorical Challenges at a Postmodern Science Think Tank,” Stephen A. Bernhardt, 2000

  • Baca, Isabel, “English, Spanish or los dos?: Examining Language Behavior among Four English/Spanish Bilingual Families Residing on the El Paso, Texas/Juarez, Mexico border,” Stuart Brown, 2000

  • Kramer, Robert W., “Technical Writing as Multi-Tasking: Teaching Visual and Verbal Synthesis in a Web-based Project Space,” Stephen A. Bernhardt, 2000 

  • French, Mary, “Development of a Responsive and Constructivist Portfolio-based Assessment of a Writing-to-Learn Curriculum in Introductory Astronomy: A Case Study,” Chris Burnham, 1999

  • Guzy, Annmarie, “Writing in the Other Margin: A Survey of and Guide to Composition Courses and Projects in College and University Honors Programs,” Charles Bridges, 1999

  • Holmsten, Victoria Lynn, “I Choose to Learn: A Teacher-Research Project in Evaluation in a Community College Writing Classroom,” Chris Burnham, 1999

  • Chiaviello, Anthony Robert, “Narrative, Metaphor, and Fantasy themes in Environmental Rhetoric: Critiquing a Livestock-Grazing Conflict in the American West,” Stuart Brown, 1998

  • Durack, Katherine Thomas, “Documentation and Domestic Technology: Household Sewing Technologies and Feminine Authority,” Stephen A. Bernhandt, 1998 

  • Bauer, Danny Alan, “Negotiating Cultural and Social Barriers through Confrontation: The Textual Force of Liberation Theology and AIDS Rhetoric,” Carl G. Herndl, 1997

  • Farmer, Bruce Warren, “How Writers Learn the Organization: Synthesizing Research in Organizational Socialization and Workplace Writing to Understand the Transition from the Academy to the Workplace,” Stephen A. Bernhardt, 1997

  • Hager, Thomas Lorenz Udo, “Knowing the Users of a Corporate Website: Gaining a Sense of Audience in a New Medium,” Stephen A. Bernhardt and Carl G. Herndl, 1997

  • Jackman, Mary Kathryn, “Telling Stories: Narrative Negotiations of Identity and Performance in a University First-year Writing Classroom,” Carl G. Herndl, 1997

  • Muir, Clive, “Metaphoric Cluster Analysis of a Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility: The Rhetoric of “The CEO Versus the Nun,” Stephen A. Bernhardt and Stuart Brown, 1997

  • Nims, Cheryl Alexandre, “‘You and Me, Babe’: An Inquiry into Applications of Rhetoric to Mediation and Empowerment,” Charles W. Bridges, 1997

  • Price, Carol Miller, “Changing the Rhetoric of Failure in Writing Classrooms: An Investigation of Teachers’ Responses to First-year Writing Students,” Charles W. Bridges, 1997

  • Vickrey, Carolyn S., “Collaborative Planning with Groupware: Case Studies of Student Writing Teams in an Advanced Technical Writing Class,” Stephen A. Bernhandt, 1997

  • Seton, Julie Anne, “Analyzing Narrative: A Model for Revealing Praxis using Ernest Thompson Seton’s ‘Lobo,'” Stuart Brown, 1996