Below is a list of CWS alumni's dissertations, complete with dissertation titles, mention of chairs and committee members, and dates of defense.
CWS has print dissertations—defended through 2015—available to check out in our office (English Building 288). We stopped printing hard copies of dissertations in the following years, but all dissertation work listed below is available online through IDEALS.
2023
Carrie Lynn James
A Journey of Becoming: Tracing Preservice English Teachers' Practice (Sarah McCarthey, Chair; Paul Prior; Mary Kalantzis; Michael Tissenbaum) April 2023
2022
Logan Middleton
Literacy, Pedagogy, and Prisons: Tracing Power in Higher Education in Prison Contexts (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Josue D. CIsnero; Carolyn Wisniewski; Erin Castro) April 2022
Ryan Ware
Dialogic Tracings of Lifespan Literate Activity and/on Trajectories of Semiotic (Un)Becoming (Paul Prior, Chair; Lindsay R. Russell; Michele Koven; Kevin Roozen) July 2022
2021
Paul Beilstein
Basic Writing Without Basic Writers (Kelly Ritter, Chair; Paul Prior; Anne Dyson; Christie Toth) May 2021
María Paz Carvajal Regidor
"I'll find a way to make my voice heard": Transformational Literacies of Latinx Students (Paul Prior, Chair; Kelly Ritter; Lindsay Rose Russell; Mark Pacheco) May 2021
Lisa Chason
Second Language Academic Writing: What's the Target? (Cameron McCarthey, Chair; Catherine Prendergast; Pradeep Dhillon; Randall Sadler) May 2021
Allison Kranek
From Dorm Room to Classroom: Writing Center and Writing Program Partnerships with Residence Halls (Kelly Ritter, Chair; Carolyn Wisniewski; Paul Prior; Peter Mortensen; Douglas Hesse, University of Denver) May 2021
Rashid Robinson
Learning On-Demand: Massive Open Online Courses and the Privatization of the Educational Experience (Christopher Higgins, Chair; James D. Anderson; Yoon Pak; Peter Mortensen) December 2021
Niki Turnipseed
Supporting Liberatory Literate Praxis Across Disciplines and Institutions (Paul Prior, Chair; Anne Dyson; Peter Mortensen; Maisha Winn, University of California Davis) May 2021
Autumn West
Storytelling as an Epistemic Framework for Composers of Social Justice Education (Sarah McCarthey, Chair; Paul Prior; Liora Bresler; Monica Ybarra Gonzalez) May 2021
2020
Chelsea Catt
Incarcerated Writers Search for Narrative Connections Beyond Prison Walls in Hope of Writing a More Humane and Just World (Karla Möller, Chair; Sarah McCarthey; Catherine Prendergast; Rebecca Ginsburg) December 2020
Evin Groundwater
The Divergent Archive and Androcentric Counterpublics: Public Rhetorics, Memory, and Archives (Kelly Ritter, Chair; Peter Mortensen; John Gallagher; Jessica Enoch) May 2020
Annie Kelvie
Rearticulating Religious Rhetoric: Literate Activity and Semiotic Remediation in Progressive Churches (Paul Prior, Chair; Kelly Ritter; Lindsay Rose Russell; Mary Juzwik) May 2020
2019
Sarah Durst
Disciplinarity and Literate Activity: Tracing Pathways of Becoming, Writing, and Practice (Paul Prior, Chair; Anne Haas Dyson; Liora Bresler; Robb Lindgren) May 2019
Melissa Forbes
Architecture and the Record: Negotiating Feminism in the Jezebel Comments (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Lindsay Rose Russell; Dànielle Nicole DeVoss) June 2019
2018
Dominique Clayton
Language, Race, and Space: What It Means to be a Speaker of African American English in Higher Education Spaces (Adrienne Dixson, Chair; Anne Dyson; Bernice Barnett; Catherine Prendergast) April 2018
2017
Amanda Cash
A Considerable Distance: The Role of Writing Studies in Online Learning at Community Colleges (Gail Hawisher, Chair; Peter Mortensen; Paul Prior; Burks Oakley) May 2017
Scott Filkins
Understanding the Transition from High School to College for Eight Student Writers (Mark Dressman, Chair; Sarah McCarthey; Chris Mayo; Catherine Prendergast) May 2017
Katherine Flowers
Local Language Policy: Shifting Scales in the English-Only Movement (Paul Prior, Chair; Dennis Baron; Spencer Schaffner; Michele Koven) May 2017
Katrina Kennett
Experienced Teachers' Planning Practices: Orienting, Inventing, and Envisioning (Sarah McCarthey, Chair; Paul Prior; Liora Bresler; Emma Mercier) July 2017
Jennifer Ann (Jenn) Raskauskas
"We gotta put our name on it": Second and Third Grade Writers' Negotiations of Authorship and Ownerships (Anne Dyson, Chair; Catherine Prendergast; Patrick Smith; Addrienne Lo) August 2017
Pamela Saunders
Navigating 'Normal': The Writing Lives of Students on the Spectrum (Catherine Prendergast, Chair; Cara Finnegan; Lindsay Rose Russell; Melanie Yergeau) May 2017
Maggie Shelledy
Against Social Death: Rhetorical Resilience at the Intersection of Higher Education and the Prison (Spencer Schaffner, Chair; Paul Prior; Rebecca Ginsburg; Kate Viera) July 2017
Kaia Simon
Rewriting Hmong Womanhood: Literacy that Mediates Borders (Catherine Prendergast, Chair; Susan Koshy; Eric Darnell Pritchard; John Duffy) May 2017
2016
Yu-Kyung Kang
English—Only When Necessary: Literacy Practices of Korean Undergraduate Students at a 'Global' University (Paul Prior, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Peter Mortensen; Nancy Abelmann) May 2016
Thomas McNamara
Dreams and Disappointments: Chinese Undergraduates and Investment in the US Writing Classroom (Cathy Prendergast, Chair; Kelly Ritter; Susan Koshy; Nancy Abelman; Soo Ankwon) May 2016
2015
Alexandra Cavallaro
The Curriculum of Coming Out: Queer Pedagogies, Literacies, and Rhetorics in LGBTQ Lives (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Richard Rodriguez; Gail Hawisher; Kate Vieira) May 2015
Eileen Lagman
Literacy Remains: Learning and Loss in the Brain Drain of Filipino Migrant Labor (Cathy Prendergast, Chair; Martin Manalansan; Mary Arends-Kuenning; Kate Vieira) May 2015
Kaitlin Marks-Dubbs
Recruiting Composition: Examining the Social Relations in Promoting Text Circulation (Paul Prior, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Spencer Schaffner; Peter Mortensen) June 2015
Jonathan Stone
Listening to the Lomax Archive: The Sonic Rhetorics of American Vernacular Music in the 1930s (Peter Mortensen & Spencer Schaffner, Co-Chairs; Cara Finnegan; Ned O'Gorman) May 2015
2014
Sonia Kline
Offline Mediators Online: Writing Activity in Two Middle School Classes (Sarah McCarthey, Chair; William Cope; Jennifer Greene; Paul Prior) August 2014
Ligia Mihut
"Stories from Our People": Immigrants, Brokers, and Literacy as Affinity (Catherine J. Prendergast, Chair; Anne Haas Dyson; Keith Hitchins; Kate Vieira) May 2014
Andrea Olinger
Styling Academic Discourse: A Sociocultural Account of Writing Styles Across Disciplines (Paul Prior, Chair; Peter Mortensen; Gail Hawisher; Michele Koven) May 2014
Julia Smith
"My Makyng Thow Wryte More Trewe": Rhetorical Chorus in Medieval and Digital Spaces (Martin Camargo, Chair; Dennis Baron; Ned O'Gorman; Spencer Schaffner; Bonnie Mak) October, 2014
2013
Vanessa Isabel Rouillon Calderon
Reconfiguring Racial Uplift: Church-Sponsored African American Rhetorical Work in the Early Twentieth Century (Catherine Prendergast & Peter Mortensen, Co-Chairs; Alice Deck; Gesa Kirsch) June 2013
Heather Blain Vorhies
A Physiological Definition of Style: Science, Religion, and Women's Writings in the Early American Republic (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Ted Underwood; Bob Markley; Ned O'Gorman) January 2013
Rebecca Woodard
"Writing Teachers Must Write": Tracing Trajectories of Teacher Participation Across Professional and Everyday Practices (Sarah McCarthey, Chair; Anne Haas Dyson; Paul Prior; Kevin Roozen) June 2013
2012
Jessica Bannon
Capitalizing on Literacy: Federal Adult Education Policy in the 20th Century (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Cathy Prendergast; Paul Prior; Kate Vieira) March 2012
Lauren Marshall Bowen
Rewriting the Aging Body: Literacy, Technology and History (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Paul Prior; Gail Hawisher; Melissa Littlefield) April 2012
Amber Buck
Life, Learning, and Literacy on the Social Network: Digital Participatory Culture (Gail Hawisher, Chair; Paul Prior; Spencer Schaffner; Lisa Nakamura) April 2012
Michael Burns
The Rhetorics of Community Space: Critical Events in Champaign-Urbana's Black Freedom Movement (Cathy Prendergast, Chair; Peter Mortensen; Rebecca Ginsburg; Clarence Lang) December 2012
Amelia Herb
Disciplinary Discourse: Explicating Rhetorical and Sociolinguistic Networks in the Archive and Library (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Janet Keller; Kathryn Labarre) December 2012
Cory Holding
Rhetorical Gestures in British Elocutionism (Debbie Hawhee, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Paul Prior; Rick Powers; Ted Underwood) July 2012
Martha Webber
Crafting Citizens: Material Rhetoric, Cultural Intermediaries, and the Amazwi Abesifazane South African National Quilt Project (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Catherine Prendergast; Spencer Schaffner; Mimi Thi Nguyen) December 2012
2011
Hannah Bellwoar
Sociocultural Studies of Biomedicine and Healthcare in Everyday Literate Lifeworlds (Paul Prior, Chair; Peter Mortensen; Debra Hawhee; Melissa Littlefield) May 2011
Patrick Berry
Beyond Hope: Rhetorics of Mobility, Possibility, and Literacy (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Paul Prior; Cathy Prendergast; Anne Dyson) April 2011
Rebecca Bilbro
Engineering Literacy: The Practice of Discipline (Paul Prior, Chair; Spencer Schaffner; Dale Bauer; Robert Markley) June 2011
Samantha Looker
Enacting and Interrogating the 'Academic' in Undergraduate Language and Literacy Practices (Paul Prior, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Spencer Schaffner; Sarah McCarthey) March 2011
2010
Young-Kyung Min
Culture, Cognition, and Context: Situated Literacy Practices of L1 and L2 Writing Programs (Paul Prior, Chair; Sarah McCarthey; Fred Davidson; Gail Hawisher) May 2010
Christa Olson
Constitutive Visions: Indigeneity, Visual Culture, and the Rhetorics of Ecuadorian National Identity (Debra Hawhee & Ralph Cintron, Co-Chairs; Peter Mortensen; Cara Finnegan; Amalia Pallares) May 2010. Winner of the 2011 RSA Dissertation Award
Nicole Walls
Where Language is Made: Language Planning at the Intersections of National and International Literacy and Language Work (Catherine Prendergast, Chair; Peter Mortensen; Dennis Baron; Cameron McCarthy) May 2010
2009
Steven Fraiberg
English, Israel, and Globalization: A Sociohistoric Study on Language and Cultural Shift (Paul Prior, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Michele Koven; Ralph Cintron) October 2009
Melissa Tombro
Performance Studies and the Reinvention of "I" in Composition: Moving Myself Beyond a Textual Model (Debra Hawhee, Chair; Spencer Schaffner; Julia Walker; Norman Denzin) December 2009
2008
Marcia Buell
The Interplay of Voice, Identity, and Response Among Five EAL University Writers (Paul Prior, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Sarah McCarthey; Peter Mortensen) May 2008
Kory Ching
Out of the Shadows: Rethinking Response Through the Instructor-Led Peer Conference (Paul Prior, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Peter Mortensen; Sarah McCarthey) May 2008
Carrie Lamanna
Disciplining Identities: Feminism, New Media, and 21st Century Research Practices (Gail Hawisher, Chair; Paul Prior; Nan Elizabeth Googin; Ramona Curry) December 2008
Derek Van Ittersum
Reassembling Writing Technologies: Historical and Situated Studies of Rhetorical Activity (Gail Hawisher, Chair; Paul Prior; Chip Bruce; Peter Mortensen) August 2008
2007
Elizabeth Baldridge
Medicalized Illiteracies: Learning Disabilities, Contentious Histories, and Writing Studies (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Spencer Schaffner; Cathy Prendergast) May 2007
Katherine Gossett
From Manuscript to Multimedia: Illuminating Memory and Re[image]ning Composition (Gail Hawisher & Martin Camargo, Co-Chairs; Anne Hedeman; Joseph Squier; Joyce Walker) August 2007
Kim Hensley Owens
Rhetorical Labor: Writing, Childbirth and the Internet (Debbie Hawhee & Peter Mortensen, Co-Chairs; Gail Hawisher; Cathy Prendergast; Leslie Reagan) May 2007
John Hudson
Silent Readers, Silenced Readers: LGBT Student Perceptions of LGBT Representation in Composition Readers (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Cathy Prendergast; Cheryl Cole) May 2007
Janine Solberg
Pretty Typewriters: Gender, Technology, and Literacy in Career Advice Literature for Women (Peter Mortensen & Gail Hawisher, Co-Chairs; Paul Prior; Debbie Hawhee) May 2007
Amy Wan
Producing Good Citizens: Literacy and Citizenship Training in Anxious Times (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Paul Prior; Debbie Hawhee) May 2007.
2006
Sunday Cummins
Examining the Complexities of "Kidwatching" in a Context for Teacher Inquiry (Sarah McCarthey, Chair; Karla Moller; Bonnie Armbruster; Janet Gaffney) December 2006
James P. Purdy
Digital Archives and the Turn to Design (Gail E. Hawisher, Chair; Cara Finnegan; Debra Hawhee; Peter Mortensen) May 2006
2005
Lance M. Massey
Using Complexity Theory to Investigate Disciplinarity: A Historical, Theoretical, and Ethical Inquiry into Composition’s Ethical Turn (Peter Mortensen, Chair; Debbie Hawhee; Cathy Prendergast; Gail Hawisher) May 2005
Kevin Roozen
Mapping Critical Connections: Tracing Undergraduates’ Literate Lives (Gail Hawisher, Chair; Paul Prior; Peter Mortensen; Catherine Prendergast) May 2005
Jody Shipka
Remediating Rhetoric and Composition: An Activity-Based Multimodal Framework for Composing (Paul Prior, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Peter Mortensen; Geoffrey Sirc) May 2005
2004
Steven J. Lamos
Sponsoring Educational Opportunity: Race, Racism, and Writing Instruction at the University of Illinois (Cathy Prendergast, Chair; Paul Prior; Robert Jimenez; Laurence Parker) May 2004
Faye Spencer-Maor
Lifting Word by Word: Ideologies of Literacy, Education and Feminism in the Rhetoric of Two Nineteenth Century African-American Women (Gail Hawisher, Chair; Chester Fontenot; Cathy Prendergast; Peter Mortensen) May 2004
2003
Tom Lugo
Working-Class Black Male First-Year Writers and Their Composition Teaching Assistants: Negotiating Power and Authority in the Basic Writing Classroom (Gail Hawisher, Chair; Emily Watts; Jim Hurt; Chester Fontenot, Jr.) May 2003
Karen J. Lunsford
Distributed Argumentative Activity: Redefining Arguments and Their Re-Mediation from a Sociohistoric Perspective (Paul Prior, Chair; Peter Mortensen; Gail Hawisher; Chip Bruce) May 2003
Joyce R. Walker
Standing at the End of a Road: Death and the Construction of Cyborg Relationships (Gail Hawisher, Chair; Joseph Squier; Andrea Press; Catherine Prendergast) May 2003
2002
Elizabeth E. Rohan
Imagined Communions: One Woman's Spiritual Journey (Gail Hawisher, Chair; Peter Mortenson; Paul Prior; Bill Kelleher) July 2002
Jo Williamson
Teachers as Change Mediators in Educational Reform (Chip Bruce, Chair; Liora Bresler; James Levin; Paul Prior) October 2002
2001
Kimberly K. Gunter
Queering Composition and Identity: Moving Beyond Inclusion in Composition Classrooms and the Field (Paul Prior, Chair; Amanda Anderson; Ann Blakeslee; Gail Hawisher; Peter Mortensen) May 2001
2000
Mary P. Sheridan
Discourse and Subjectivity in the GirlZone: How Literate Activities Construct a Community Organization (Paul Prior, Chair; Gail E. Hawisher; Cathy Prendergast; Amanda Anderson) August 2000
Gregory Waddoups
Deploying Identities in E-Worlds: K-12 Teachers Extending, Adopting, and Defending Their Practitioner Identities (Jim Levin, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Jacquetta Hill; Sandra Levin) May 2000
1999
Maureen Hogan
What is C.A.R.E.? The Birth and Identity Formation of an Alternative Public Middle School (Chip Bruce, Chair; Cameron McCarthy; Paul Prior) December 1999
Kevin Leander
Classroom Discourse, Identity, and the Production of Social Space (Chip Bruce, Chair; Jim Wertsch; Peggy Miller; Paul Prior) May 1999
1998
Kerry Ose
The Educational Experiences of Evangelical College Students: An Ethnographic of Pedagogy, Literacy and Learning (Dennis Baron, Chair; Greg Colomb; Chip Bruce) May 1998
Patricia Webb
Computing Cultures:Information Technologies and Narratives of Self (Gail Hawisher, Chair; Paul Prior; Amanda Anderson) May 1998
1997
Caroline Cole
Woman, Feminist, Lesbian: Negotiated Identities in Working With Man Made Academic Discourse Conventions (Cheris Kramarae, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Ann Blakeslee) May 1997
Kathy Evans
Teacher Response to Student Writing: Communication, Context & Pedagogy (Greg Colomb, Chair; Gail Hawisher; Paul Prior) October 1997
Guy Moyer
The Practical Application of Bakhtin & Related Theory to Language Education (Clifford Christians, Chair; Bertram Bruce; Bonnie Armbruster) May 1997
Joyce Simutis
Toward a Writing Theory of Transition (Gail Hawisher & Greg Colomb, Co-Chairs; Paul Prior; Ann Blakeslee) October 1997
1996
Philip Eubanks
A War of Words in the Discourse of Trade: A Case Study of Metaphor (Greg Colomb, Chair; Nina Baym; Dennis Baron; Paul Prior) October 1996
Sibylle Gruber
Contextualizing Nontraditional Students' Appropriation of Virtuality and Reality (Gail Hawisher, Chair; Alice Deck; George Hendrick) October 1996
1994
Mary Hocks
Technotropes of Liberation: Reading Hypertext in the Age of Theory (Robert Parker & Gail Hawisher, Co-Chairs; Greg Colomb; S. Star) October 1994