Research Interests
History of rhetoric and literacy in the U.S., qualitative study of literacy, research ethics
Education
- Ph.D., University of California, San Diego, 1989
- B.A., University of California, San Diego (Revelle College), 1983
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Professor, English
External Links
Highlighted Publications
Daniell, B., & Mortensen, P. (Eds.) (2007). Women and Literacy: Local and Global Inquiries for a New Century. (NCTE-Routledge Research Series). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003064503
Eldred, J. C., & Mortensen, P. (2002). Imagining Rhetoric: Composing Women of the Early United States. (Pittsburgh Series in Composition, Literacy, and Culture). University of Pittsburgh Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5vkg2d
Mortensen, P., & Kirsch, G. E. (Eds.) (1996). Ethics and Representation in Qualitative Studies of Literacy. National Council of Teachers of English.
Recent Publications
Eldred, J. C., & Mortensen, P. (2023). Returning to Literacy Narratives. College English, 85(6), 471-497. https://doi.org/10.58680/ce202332617
Mortensen, P. L. (2015). Afterword. In S. Webb-Sunderhaus, & K. Donehower (Eds.), Rereading Appalachia: Literacy, place, and cultural resistance (pp. 199-212). (Place matters: new directions in Appalachian studies). University Press of Kentucky. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183pf7d.13
Mortensen, P. (2012). The work of illiteracy in the rhetorical curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 44(6), 761-786. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2012.730282
Mortensen, P. (2012). Thirty-five questions. Advances in the History of Rhetoric, 15(1), 109-118. https://doi.org/10.1080/15362426.2012.657062
Anson, C., Cooper, M., Desai, G., Gere, A. R., Gilbert, P. K., Gilyard, K., Harris, J., Lee, V., Miller, S., Mortensen, P. L., Shumway, D., Sommers, N., & Vitanza, V. J. (2011). Symposium: How I Have Changed My Mind. College English, 74(2), 106-130. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23052355