Welcome statement (teaching/research/personal interests): I have two fields: American Literature and Rhetoric and Composition. With John Bean, I have written several composition and argumentation texts. On my own, I just published an argument reader on global issues. For my future research in Rhet/Comp, I am exploring how to use global issues to help students produce successful academic and civic writing. The intersection of science, sensationalism, politics, and rhetoric is another major interest. In American literature, I have published several articles on women’s writing about Western settlement and women’s challenges to the masculinist Myth of the Old West. I went to three different institutions for my graduate degree, and I have had three separate careers in the field of English: chair of the English Department in a private school in Los Angeles, grades 7-12; development editor for Prentice Hall, Inc. in New Jersey; and now a professor at Seattle University. I am a good person to talk to about careers.

B.A., Stanford University, with Distinction
M.A. in Education, Stanford University
M.A. in English Mills College
Ph.D. in Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Literature,
University of Washington