Current Students
Our students are the heart and soul of our program and our greatest strength. Dedicated scholars and teachers and good departmental citizens, our students stand out for the professional support they offer each other. One of the highlights of our program is our weekly Chalk and Cheese lunch, an informal professional development seminar run by the third-year cohort for the benefit of the first- and second-year students.
Our students also work together on dissertation writing groups, and many are closely involved in campus and community groups. Explore the exciting work our students are doing or, to learn more about life in the program, contact our program ambassadors.
Jathan Day
Jathan’s research interests include online pedagogy, digital literacies, and disability studies. His most recent work examines course management systems as sponsors of accessibility….Read more
Megan Garver
Megan’s background in the sciences and healthcare communication inspired her to join Michigan’s interdisciplinary E&E program and pursue research in writing in the sciences, scientific and medical rhetoric, and examining how to better support women in the sciences.
James Watson Hammond
James Hammond’s research centers on the social and intellectual histories of writing assessment, and on educational measurement history and theory; his interests and influences include critical theory, education reform rhetoric, critical race theory, critical historiography…Read more
Michael Hoffman
Michael is looking forward to spending his time in the E&E program thinking about how peer response can help students not only with their writing skills, but also with social and emotional learning.
Sarah Hughes
Sarah Hughes is committed to supporting students’ linguistic and discursive identity development, and her research interests include composition/rhetoric, pedagogy, and sociolinguistics.
Rusi (Ruth) Li
Ruth Li’s research interests include composition pedagogy, digital literacy, and new media studies…Read more
Naitnaphit Limlamai
Naitnaphit Limlamai is a second-year doctoral student in JPEE. Her research interests include a focus on curriculum and instruction, writing pedagogy, and social justice as a result of 13 years of teaching high school English in public and private schools in Florida, Georgia, and New York…Read more
Ryan McCarty
Ryan McCarty’s research focuses on the ways that translation impacts much of the learning that students do, from its effects on multilingual students, to its role in developing disciplinary knowledges and identities… Read more
Andrew Moos
Andrew is interested in exploring the social nature of responding to student writing.
Cassandra (Casey) Otemuyiwa
Casey is interested in teacher education and the linguistics of writing development in secondary English language arts and college composition classes….Read more
Molly Parsons
Molly Parsonsis a doctoral candidate in JPEE. Originally from Minnesota, she earned her BA in English from Carleton College, where she also worked as a writing center consultant for three years. After that, she trained with Teach for America and taught middle and high school English in Las Vegas while earning her M.Ed, …Read more
Adrienne Raw
Adrienne’s research interests in fan and media studies are founded in a lifelong interest and involvement in fandom and fan culture. She is also interested in corpus linguistics, adaptation theory, and the pedagogical theories and practices of teacher training…Read more
Kendon Smith
Kendon Smith is a first-year student in the Joint Program in English and Education. His research interests include writing pedagogy, teacher education, and sociolinguistics. This involves exploring what teachers know and believe about language and the extent to which these beliefs and knowledge are reflected in teaching practices.
Michelle Sprouse
Michelle Sprouse is a doctoral student in the Joint Program in English and Education. Originally from Ohio, she holds her BA in English Literature from Miami University and MAT in Secondary Education from Western New Mexico University…Read more
Elizabeth Tacke
Elizabeth Tacke’s experience teaching 7th and 8th grade English in Oakland, CA helped to solidify her interests in studying questions of identity and writing….Read more
Kathryn (Katie) Van Zanen
Katie is interested in writing as social action, the right to speak, the construction of authority in first year composition.
Kristin vanEyk
Kristin’s research examines language ideologies and difference-centered approaches in the writing classroom. Before beginning her doctoral work, Kristin spent nine years as a high school composition teacher…Read more
Kelly Wheeler
Kelly’s research interests include composition and rhetoric with an emphasis in multimodality, new materialism, and visual rhetoric.
Emily Wilson
Emily Wilson spent 11 years as a high school English teacher at schools in Florida, Colorado, and California, and she completed her master’s degree at Colorado State University…Read more
Elizabeth (Adelay) Witherite
Adelay’s interests in critical pedagogy and cross-cultural communication extend from her experiences as an EFL teacher, program coordinator, and teacher educator in South Korea…Read more
Crystal Zanders
Crystal is interested in literacy studies and race-related rhetorical analysis.