Writer's Workshop Staff

The Center for Writing Studies, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

	Elizabeth Morley, Director Directing the Writers Workshop has brought me to Illinois from the University of Kentucky where I taught writing courses at various levels and managed the Writing Center. Although my experience has been in writing, my Ph.D. is from the Educational Policy Studies department with an emphasis in Higher Education. My dissertation research was a study of the academic lives of five college sophomores, and I am following the same students as they graduate and move into jobs and professional schools. The Writers Workshop provides me the perfect opportunity to combine my interests in writing and in serving college students.

	Debrae Lomax, Manager Since August 2000, I have enjoyed working for the workshop. In addition, I hold a degree from Parkland College in Business Management.

Writers Workshop Consultants

	Alice I'm a recently-defended Ph.D. (graduating May 2008) in the Institute of Communications Research whose research interests include linguistic identity and difference, language as a cultural practice, and critical intercultural communication. Currently, I'm on the job market while I teach advanced composition (Intro to the Media) in the College of Communications and cultural diversity courses in the College of Education.

	Amy As a PhD student in the Center for Writing Studies and department of English, my research interests lie at the intersection of library and information science (subject analysis, category formation, and bibliographic instruction), composition, rhetoric, and anthropological linguistics. In previous semesters, I have taught Rhetoric 100, 101, 102, 105, and 233. I have also been a consultant at the University of Louisville?s Writing Center and taught English as an International Language in Le Puy-en-Velay, France. Currently, my Rhetoric 233 course explores writing processes from a Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) perspective, teaching students to analyze their own writing practices from this theoretical approach.

	Aneesha I am an international student majoring in Psychology. My home is all the way back in Bombay, India, but I have been thoroughly enjoying studying in the U.S. for the past two years. I am learning a great deal from my experiences as a peer-consultant at the Writers Workshop and I look forward to meeting and helping many people in the coming semesters!

	Edward While I am currently studying English Literature and History, my post-graduation plans include participating in the Teach for America program and, afterwards, focusing on postcolonial literature, theory, and history in graduate school. I am excited about working with, as well as learning from, international students who come from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

	Eric I am a PhD student in the department of Comparative and World Literature. My areas of interest include modern Chinese literature, modern French literature, film studies, and critical theory. I have my MA in East Asian Languages and Cultures from UIUC, and I have previously worked as a TA for Masterpieces of East Asian Literature as well as French and Comparative Cinema. Currently I am a TA for Literature of Africa and Asia.

	Fang-Ying I am a PhD student in the department of Speech and Hearing Science. My research interests include bilingual children's literacy development and first language acquisition. I have taught CHLH 243: Drug Use and Abuse in the previous semesters. I am currently teaching SHS 120: Children, Communication, & Language Ability.

	Hannah After receiving a degree in English Literature and Education from the U of I, I started my professional career as a high school English teacher in Chicago, where I taught British Literature and Film Studies. I then set my sights abroad, and ended up teaching English as a Foreign Language in the Paris, France region for a couple of years. I decided to return to the States to pursue graduate work in Writing Studies, and I'm currently interested in examining the intersection between identity, language, rhetoric (visual and otherwise), and power. In previous semesters, I have taught Rhetoric 103 and 104; this semester I am teaching Art 250: Writing with Video.

	Heejeong I am a PhD student in Educational Psychology. My research interests include language testing and evaluation. In previous semesters I have TAed courses in Assessing Student Performance in Educational Psychology for English majors.

	Helena I am a PhD student in the College of Education (Curriculum & Instruction). My research interest is ESL (English as a Second Language) writing. Currently, I am working on my dissertation that focuses on feedback of ESL students’ writing. In previous semesters I have taught Rhetoric 100, 101, 102,103, and 104. I have also taught Scandinavian 103 and 104, ESL 505, and in the Intensive English Institute. I have been a TA for the following courses: C & I (Curriculum & Instruction) 403/404 and C&I 475/476.

	Isabel I am a PhD student in the Department of English and I am starting to work on my dissertation. My project deals with contemporary Chicana/o and Native American literature and it also examines the value, limits, and potential of Border Theory. The literary texts I work with have been published in the last 20 years (since 1990 or so)--so they are relatively new! In previous semesters I have taught Spanish 101/ 103, Rhetoric 102/ 103/ 104 (Freshman Composition), English 109 (Introduction to Fiction—Advanced Composition), and I have been a TA for Introduction to African American Literature 259/ 260. This semester, while doing research and starting to write my dissertation, I am also working here at the Workshop and teaching an English 109 class again. I hope to see you in the Workshop soon!

	Lauren I am Ph.D. student in Writing Studies and the English Department. Although I am currently not teaching, I have taught several first-year composition courses at my alma mater (the University of Maine) and have worked as a writing consultant for five years. My research interests include interdisciplinary writing, writing pedagogy, writing as a social process, and feminist theory.

	Ligia I am a PhD student in the Center for Writing Studies, in the English department. Within writing studies, I am interested in multiliteracies, identities and writing pedagogy. At UIUC, I taught ESL 506 (Oral Communication for ITAs), and Academic Reading and Writing. I am currently teaching Rhetoric 103.

	Linda I am a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Psychology, Queries division. In my dissertation research I am reading the stories we tell of gender and technology to deconstruct these accounts and to develop an alternative ontological and theoretical perspective on the relationship between gender and technology. I was the TA for Thomas Schwandt's EPSY 577 and 578 qualitative inquiry classes for several years and have a particular interest in both the philosophy of interpretive methodologies and in teaching about QI. In my association with the Writers Workshop I also facilitate graduate student writing groups for students working on qualitative/interpretive dissertations in the humanities and/or social sciences. My background is in the arts and I hold MFA degrees in both sculpture and costume design and worked as an artist for many years in New York City. I also currently TA a section of EPSY 201.

	Lisa I am a third year MATESL student in the Division of English as an International Language and am working toward the Specialization in Writing Studies. I've taught all levels of reading, writing, listening, and speaking at the Intensive English Institute (IEI). Before coming to the U of I, I lived in Amsterdam, The Netherlands for 17 years where I worked as an editor and EFL teacher. My MA thesis is based on my experiences as an English-language editor in a non-English-speaking environment.

	Peter I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Curriculum and Instruction department, Language and Literacy division. My research interests include reading and second language acquisition. Prior to joining the Writers’ Workshop, I worked as research assistant evaluating the implementation of the No Child Left Behind initiative in the state of Illinois. I have also served as a TA for courses in the College of Education and the Intensive English Institute. Currently, I teach in the Developmental Reading Program at Parkland College.

	Rebecca I am a PhD student in Writing Studies (in the English Department). I study the ways in which people become enculturated into academic disciplines (particularly through writing). I've recently become interested in the experience of switching disciplines. I have taught several different Business and Technical Writing courses: BTW 250, BTW 261, and most recently, BTW 263, a special topics course concerning the relationship between technology, communication, and ethics.

	Samantha I came to the U of I from my nice, warm native state of Arizona, where I got my BA in English linguistics (with a minor in women's studies) from Arizona State University. While I was there, I spent three years as a Writing Center tutor and discovered that I love helping people improve as writers just as much as I love doing writing of my own. Thus, I feel right at home here in Writing Studies; I've now finished my first year of graduate scholarship and college- level teaching. I feel fortunate to be a teacher in the Academic Writing Program, since this has allowed me to nurture interests in basic writing pedagogy and diversity in the composition classroom. And because, in my biased opinion, we get the coolest students. :-) They constantly help me discover new reasons why I want to make teaching college writing my career.

	Sarah I am an undergraduate student in Psychology at the University of Illinois. I plan on continuing my education at Loyola University in Community Counseling with a concentration in women's advocacy. I am currently interested in understanding the similarities and differences between counseling and consulting in the Writers Workshop.

	Soo I am a MATESL student in the Division of English as an International Language(DEIL). My research interests include writing and second language acquisition. Currently, I am studying the effects of classroom instruction, computers, and feedback on the coherence of ESL(English as a Second Language) students' writing. In previous semesters, I have taught ESL 500: Oral and Written Communication for International Graduate Students. This semester I am teaching ESL 501: Introduction to Academic Writing.

	Vanessa I am a third year student in DEIL (Division of English as an International Language). My research interests include assessment of writing, discourse/conversation analysis, and writing studies. I am currently studying the criteria used by raters when grading placement compositions. I have taught grammar at the Intensive English Institute at UIUC, and have been a writing instructor for over a year (ESL 501).

	Will Currently, I'm a senior studying literature and creative writing. My academic interests span across all areas of English writing, language, and literature. I plan on attending graduate school next fall for writing studies, where I’d like to explore how individual structural and stylistic choices can empower beginning writers. I’m also interested in the relationship between sociolectical variation and academic writing.

	Xun I am a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois. I received my BA and MA in English Language and Literature in China. My research interest in the doctoral study is to examine the writing practices for English language learners in elementary schools. I am also volunteering in an Urbana public school helping ESL teachers in various writing activities.

	Young-Kyung I am a PhD student in Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education. My research interests include school ethnography, critical discourse analysis, second language writing, the theories of communication (especially sociohistoric theories), and qualitative research methodology. My dissertation examines the cultures of college writing programs: I am comparing the ESL (English as a Second Language) writing program and the NES (Native- English-Speaking) writing program at UIUC. I taught ESL 501 (Introduction to Academic Writing for International Graduate Students) for three semesters and the Advanced Grammar class for the MBA program for one summer. I also worked as a composition tutor for the Bridge program. Currently I am teaching Rhetoric 105.

	Young Woo I earned my MA degree in TESL from Division of English as an International Language (DEIL) in 2004. I am currently a doctoral candidate in educational psychology and also in the SLATE (Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education) program. My major research interest is to identify the cognitive processes involved in instructed second language acquisition and to develop effective pedagogic tasks and approaches to facilitate such processes. My current research project is an investigation of the relative effectiveness of two types of ESL learners’ spontaneous attention to form for learning. I also plan to embark on a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of instruction for second language learning. I have been teaching ESL academic writing courses in DEIL since 2004.