Graduate Student Profiles: A to C

Name and Profile

Olivia Abernethy is a MA student in English, with a specialization in Literature. She is currently studying under the LSJE program focusing on 20th CE American Literature.  LSJE

Melissa Aday is an MA student in English, with specialization in American Literature, focusing on cultural studies and postcolonial theory. Her research interests focus on multi-cultural literature and education, often placing special focus on children's literature.  LSJE

Konstanze Alex-Brown is a PhD student in Technical Communication & Rhetoric, focusing her dissertation research on the impact of corporate blogs and micro-blogs on organizational social capital and knowledge sharing.  She has presented papers at the 2008 and 2009 IEEE conferences and the 2009 ATTW conference; and her article, co-authored with Dr. Craig Baehr, on the results of a study on a corporate blog at Dell Inc. was accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. TCR 

Shenai Alonge is in the English MA program specializing in Comparative Literature with an emphasis on religious texts. Her research interests include religious myth among the Yoruba of Nigeria and various studies of Hebrew narrative.

Christopher Andrews is a PhD student in Technical Communication and Rhetoric; he is studying the convergence of digital literacy, networked communication, scholarly discourse, and theoretical and pedagogical paradigm shifts within composition-rhetoric. TCR

Kenneth Angell is an MA student in English, specializing in Linguistics.

Lora Arduser is a PhD student in Technical Communication & Rhetoric specializing in medical rhetoric; her dissertation topic will focus on rhetorical agency in current models of diabetes care. She is also interested in online pedagogy and business writing and has published a co-authored article on collaborative assignments in Business Communication Quarterly. TCR

Shon Bacon is a PhD candidate in the Technical Communication & Rhetoric program, focusing on race, gender, and identity in digital spaces. Her dissertation research examines the identity (re)construction and blogging practices of African-American mommy bloggers. Shon’s had a commentary published in Intercom and an entry published in the Encyclopedia of Social Networks. Currently, she’s the president of TTU’s STC chapter. TCR

Jessica Badger is an MA student in TCR. Her interests include scientific and online publishing. TCR

Joshua Ryan Barron is a PhD student considering research on the impact of technical communications, particularly new media, in the lives of high school and new college students through the transitional period from high school into the university environment.

Time Barrow is a PhD student in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric program studying new media and orality. Specifically, he is researching the use of the online video conversation in the asynchronous online classroom and has presented on this topic in 2009 at ATTW and at the Tenth Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association; his article, “New Media in the Online Classroom,” was published in the August, 2009 edition of the Rocky Mountain Communication Review. TCR

Andrea Beaudin

Hannah Beavers

George Bendele

Jeannie Bennett is a PhD student in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric program. Her interests include the visual rhetoric, interplay of technology, culture and rhetoric, discourse analysis and the rhetoric of healthcare, with a special interest in rhetoric and mental illness. TCR

Matthew Betz is an MA student, studying Technical Communication and Rhetoric, particularly typeface rhetoric, power structures, and issues of accountability in technical communication. TCR

Cathy Blackwell is a PhD student in English specializing in nineteenth-century British and American literature, particularly sensation fiction's treatment of contemporary legal and sociopolitical trends. She has  published articles on women writers in Soren Oak Review and Arete; her article on Louisa May Alcott's first novel Moods is forthcoming in Women Writers and the Artifacts of Celebrity (Ashgate 2010). NCS | BH

William Block

Leigh Bonds is a PhD student in English, studying nineteenth-century British literature, particularly Romantic writers and print culture. She has developed a rare books exhibit for the 2010 International Conference on Romanticism and contributed to the Romantic Women Writers Reviewed series (Pickering 2012ff), editing reviews of women appearing in Town and Country. She currently serves as the graduate student coordinator of the Book History Special Interest Group.  NCS | BH

Matthew Bonnitt is an MA student in English, studying comparative literature, particularly game studies.

Elizabeth Bowen is a PhD student in TCR whose interests include composition and rhetoric.  She is also the Assistant Director of the University Writing Center. TCR

Laura Brandenburg is a PhD student in Technical Communication and Rhetoric, specializing in Composition and Rhetoric. Her research interests include composition theory, as broadly as how, why, and when we write and as narrowly as teaching and assessing student writing, particularly in terms of grammar as it relates to composition and simultaneously complicates it as a field. TCR

Richard Brandt is an MA student in Technical Communications with an interest in medical communications. TCR

Newton Buliva

Tom Burns is a PhD student in Technical Communication specializing in visual rhetoric with a focus on three-dimensional expression for static artwork and immersive environments. He has used 3D techniques to illustrate two major hardware manuals along with dozens of product inserts, and his guide to 3D illustration for technical communicators was recently published in “Intercom” magazine. TCR

Maggie Callahan is a first year MA student in English, with a specialization in Literature. Her research interests include Modernism, Post-Modernism, and Theory.

Karen Brown Campbell is a PhD student specializing in late Medieval Literature.  She is currently working on a dissertation that explores the post-human aspect of interspecies communications between horses and humans during the late Middle Ages (1100-1500) and how this communication led to the development of the code of chivalry.

Erin Castle is an MA student in English; she is specializing in Creative Non-Fiction Writing.

Chelsea Cawthon is an MA student in Technical Communication. Her interests include technical editing, document design, and new media. TCR

Christiana Christofides, J.D. is a Doctoral Candidate in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric program. She is writing her dissertation on Medieval rhetorics of economics, society, and law.. TCR

George David Clark is a PhD student in English, studying Creative Writing (poetry). In 2008, he was awarded the 25th annual Guy Owen Prize from Southern Poetry Review, and his recent poems can be found in such journals as The Cimarron Review, Hayden's Ferry, New Ohio Review, West Branch, and Quarterly West.

Sean Cleveland is a PhD candidate in English with a specialization in Victorian literature and film studies. His dissertation examines the impact of narrative in all of its disparate forms upon Victorian hero-worship.

Kate Crane