Education
PhD in Rhetoric, 2009
Carnegie Mellon University
Committee: Barbara Johnstone (Chair), Andreea Ritivoi, and Michael Witmore
Dissertation title: The “Excited Utterance” and the Rhetorical Agent: How Language Ideology Shapes Agency in the American Law of Evidence.
MA in English,
New Mexico State University
Rhetoric and Composition Program, 2003
Thesis advisor, Stuart Brown; Thesis: “Compositions”
BA in English, University of Utah, 2001
Publications
“A Legal Discourse of Transparency: Discursive Agency and Domestic Violence in the Technical Discourse of the Excited Utterance Exception to Hearsay.” Invited manuscript for special issue of Technical Communication Quarterly on Technical Communication and the Law, co-edited by Mary Lay Schuster and Jessica Reyman, forthcoming.
“The Language Ideology of Hearsay and the Admissibility of the Excited Utterance in Anglo-American Law of Evidence.” Language and Communication, 29.4 (October 2009), 312-327.
“Beyond Texts in Context: Intercontextuality and the Co-production of Texts and Contexts in the Legal Discourse, Excited Utterance Exception to Hearsay.” Under Review at Rhetoric Society Quarterly
“The Excited Utterance: Constructing an Essential Link between the Event and the Statement in Anglo-American Hearsay Doctrine.” Texas Linguistic Forum, 51 (2007).
“Mobility, Indexicality, and the Enregisterment of “Pittsburghese”” (second author with Barbara Johnstone and Andrew Danielson). Journal of English Linguistics, 34.7, (2006) 77-104.
Paideia: VI. (curriculum and reader for the first-year writing program at New Mexico State Unitersity). Eden Prairie, MN: Outernet Publishing, 2004. (First Editor with Paromita Mukherjee and Joyce Sloper)
Book Reviews
Review of Courtroom Talk and Neocolonial Control (2008), by Diana Eades. Language in Society, forthcoming.
Book Note on The Discourse Reader, 2nd edition (2006), edited by Adam Jaworski and Nikolas Coupland. Language in Society 37.3 (June 2008).
Book Note on Language and the Law (2007), by Sanford Schane. Language in Society 37.3 (June 2008).
Presentations
“From Event to Text: The Effects of Entextualization in/on the Excited Utterance Exception to Hearsay.” Upcoming National Communication Association. Chicago, IL, November 2009. Selected for the best papers in Communication and Law panel.
“The Speaking Individual: The Effects of Institutional Discourses and Text Production on Discursive Agency.” Upcoming National Communication Association. Chicago, IL, November 2009.
“The (De)Construction of Identity: The Role of Narrative in the Excited Utterance.” Rhetoric Society of America, Seattle, WA, May 2008.
“Managing the Hysterical Woman: Discursive Agency, Domestic Violence, and the Excited Utterance Exception to Hearsay.” Rhetoric Society of America, Seattle, WA, May 2008.
“The Excited Utterance: Constructing an Essential Link between the Event and the Statement in Anglo-American Hearsay Doctrine.” Symposium about Language and Society—Austin, XV, Austin, Texas, April 2007.
“Representing Reality: Institutional Event and the Excited Utterance.” National Communication Association, Boston, MA, November 2005.
“Standardizing a Vernacular, (Re)mediating a Fragment: The Rhetorical Construction of Pittsburghese” National Communication Association, Boston, MA, November 2005.
“Discursive Violence: The Teacher’s Body and the Discourse of Rape in the April Fools Edition of a University Newspaper” (First author with Rebecca May.) National Communication Association, Boston, MA, November 2005.
“Globalization and the Enregisterment of ‘Pittsburghese’” (second author with Barbara Johnstone), Language and Global Communication Conference, Cardiff, Wales, 2005.
“Whose Social Meaning?: Pittsburgh Monophthongal /aw/ in Perception and Production,” (second author with Barbara Johnstone, Anna Macadam Schardt, Dan Baumgardt, Carnegie Mellon University; Scott F. Kiesling, University of Pittsburgh) New Ways of Analyzing Variation, Ann Arbor, MI, 2004.
“Assessing the Student: Primary Traits Assessment and Fair Grading Practices,” New Mexico Higher Education Assessment and Retention, Las Cruces, NM, 2003.
Poster
“Local Orientation and Local-Sounding Speech in Pittsburgh: Complicating the Picture” (second author with Scott Kiesling, Neeta Bhasin and Barbara Johnstone), New Ways of Analyzing Variation, New York, October 2006.
Workshops
“Fieldwork Ethics” (second presenter with Barbara Johnstone), New Ways of Analyzing Variation, Ann Arbor, MI, 2004.
“WebCT: Online Classroom Technology in First-Year Writing at New Mexico State University,” Graduate student instructor orientation, 2003.
“Publish Don’t Perish.” Peer writing workshop group leader. New Mexico State University, Fall 2002-Spring 2003.
Local Presentations
“Exam Petitions and Dissertation: Prospectuses in LCS and Rhetoric." Panelist with Thora Brylowe, Barbara Johnstone and Kristina Straub. Professionalization Seminar Series, Carnegie Mellon University, November 2008.
“In My Spare Time: Gender, Family and the Academy.” Roundtable discussion with Thora Brylowe, Kathy M. Newman, Laurie R. Wiengart, and Jennifer Church. MOSAIC Gender in Focus Conference, Carnegie Mellon University, February 2007.
“Mobility, Indexicality, and the Enregisterment of ‘Pittsburghese’” (second author with Barbara Johnstone), English Department Colloquium, Carnegie Mellon University, November 2006.
“Negotiating Gender in Collegial Relationships during Graduate School.” Women’s Graduate Student Organization Seminar, Carnegie Mellon University, Fall 2006.
“Language Ideology and Reflective Practice: English as a Second Language in the First-Year Writing Classroom.” The Communication Symposium at Carnegie Mellon, June 2006. http://english.cmu.edu/research/symposium/past/2006/index.htm
Teaching Experience
Argument, Carnegie Mellon University (Fall 2009):
This class provides students with the resources to recognize, engage, question, analyze and evaluate the arguments that they are confronted with every day. It also provides them with the resources to respond to those arguments orally and in writing using well reasoned, grounded arguments that are appropriate to a specific audience and context. This class involves a significant amount of writing, critical reading, and critical thinking. I operate on the fundamental assumption that we are all part of a number of communities (university, city, region, religious, political, social etc.) and that we care about the issues facing those communities. The arguments that affect our lives happen in and between such communities. Thus, in this class, we will work with arguments as they are embedded in communities, rather than working with arguments in the abstract.
Rhetoric and Gender, Carnegie Mellon University (Spring 2009):
In this upper-division course, we will survey the kinds of research on gender that is specific to the field of rhetoric. To that end, we will begin with the movement in the history of rhetoric to reclaim the voices of female rhetoricians in the tradition of rhetoric and in political and speech rhetoric in the 19th and 20th Centuries. We will use that as the foundation for a discussion of agency and gender in postmodernity.
Writing for the Professions, English 270, Carnegie Mellon University (Fall 2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2008):
Writing in the Professions is specifically designed for juniors and seniors in all majors other than English. In this course, the student is given instruction in developing the writing skills they will be expected to have as they make the transition from student to professional. The course covers resume writing, proposal writing, writing instructions, writing for general and specific audiences, and analysis of visual aids in various texts. The course requires that students work both independently and in groups.
Interpretation and Argument, English 101, Carnegie Mellon University “Mediating Representations” (Fall 2004) “Television Families: Gender in the Culture of the Situation Comedy” (Summer 2004), “Labor in America, 1880 to Present” (Fall 2003, Spring 2004): I have taught this course using the three different content modules listed above. This course gives students a comprehensive grounding in communication processes using an “expert” model. A topic is taught along with writing skills to give students a sense of the ways that academic writing is engaged in a conversation and that in order to join the conversation, the newcomer must be familiar with the big ideas. Students develop interpretation and argument skills by reading and understanding the important issues and arguments regarding a particular topic.
Rhetoric and Composition, English 111, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM (Spring 2002, Fall 2003, Spring 2003):
This class is based in a traditional rhetoric and composition model in which different modes of writing are taught with a heavy emphasis on argument and persuasion in which students were introduced to a variety of argument styles. The guiding heuristic was ethos/pathos/logos. A portfolio method of instruction and assessment was used. The primary goal of the course is to give students a set of skills that they will be able to apply and manipulate in a number of situations, both academic and professional.
General Composition, General Education 110, Dona Ana Community College, Las Cruces, NM (Fall 2001, Summer 2002):
This composition course provided students with basic writing skills needed in order to be successful in a first-year writing course. With an emphasis on taking a position rather than just reporting ideas, this class focused on basic structure, paragraphing, grammar and rhetoric skills. This course also used a portfolio method for assessment and placed a heavy emphasis on revision.
Academic Reading, College 108, Dona Ana Community College, Las Cruces, NM (Fall 2001-Summer 2003):
This is a study skills course that teaches students to read and interpret a variety of different academic texts and to then apply that information in a variety of communicative situations from other classes to a job interview.
Contemporary Rhetorical Theory: Professor Andreea Ritivoi, Carnegie Mellon University (Fall 2008):
"The Excited Utterance, the Body and Discursive Agency"
For this class, I facilitated discussion of Michel Foucualt's Archaeology of Knowledge. I introduced my approach to the use of theory as an analytical tool that can be used to do understand empirical work. The focus was the materiality of discourse and the role of institutions in hiding the material implications of discourse while making their effects felt in the real lives of individuals.
Narrative Theory Seminar: Professor Andreea Ritivoi, Carnegie Mellon University (Spring 2007): “Narrativity and the Excited Utterance: Evaluating Oppositions”
In this lecture, I constructed a definition of narrative in opposition to excited utterance and discuss some implications of the oppositions using narrative theory from Ankersmit and Mink. One result of the construction of an utterance made while the speaker’s reflective faculties were stilled is that it is assumed that an event can produce a representation more accurate than a speaker and that speaker narratives are always already fallible.
New Teacher Training: Professor Danielle Wetzel, Carnegie Mellon University (Fall 2004): “Developing and Using Primary Traits Rubrics in First-Year Writing”
In this presentation, I presented my own assessment rubrics to the new teachers and trained them in using them for their first semester of instruction. I urged them to use the rubric as a starting point that they would need to develop as they reflected on their teaching goals and practices.
Teaching Practicum: Professor Stuart Brown at New Mexico State University (Fall and Spring) 2002: 5 lecture series: “Primary Traits: Assessment in the First-Year Writing Classroom,”
In this 5 class series, I explained how I developed my grading rubrics by analyzing student writing and reflecting on my expectations as a teacher and the expectations of the University. Using primary traits theory, I helped new graduate student instructors to develop their own rubrics grounded in the institutional practices and needs of the university, the actual writing of their students, their perception of the strengths and weaknesses of student writing, and the goals they had for their students.
Research and Editorial Positions
Editorial Assistant for Language in Society, edited by Barbara Johnstone, Summer 2006-present
• Work with editor in day-to-day running of journal
• Process all incoming manuscripts
• Organize and maintain manuscript and author databases
• Communicate with authors of articles, book reviews and book notes regarding status of submissions, general questions about procedure, and the like
• Communicate with copyeditor and publisher regarding the content and management of issues
• Work with authors and publisher to gather and input proof corrections
Pittsburgh Speech and Society: Barbara Johnstone, Primary Investigator: Carnegie Mellon University, Summer 2004-Spring 2007
Research assistant: Transcribed audio files, completed field interviews, updated database, completed linguistic coding and assisted with discourse analysis for the Pittsburgh Speech and Society project, a project that is gathering linguistic data from the Pittsburgh area and interested in questions linking place, language and identity. This project is funded in part by NSF grant # BCS-0417657.
New Mexico Alliance for Minority Participation: Michele Auzenne, Program Manager, New Mexico State University, Summer 2003: Edited first-year writing curriculum used in the Science, Technology, English, Mathematics learning cluster program.
Academic Inquiry: Chris Burnham, Primary Investigator, New Mexico State University, 2002-2003
Research assistant on a committee of first-year writing instructors piloting a first-year writing program that overlapped writing process with the scientific method. I also helped to gather data used to assess the project and apply the findings in the first-year writing program at NMSU. This project was funded by NSF grant #DUE-9752238.
Awards and Honors
•Graduate Student Conference Funding, Carnegie Mellon University, 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, $500.
Competitive grant to pay for conference travel.
•Graduate Student Small Project Help, Carnegie Mellon University, 2007-2008, $500.
Competitive grant to help cover research costs. Used to purchase trial transcripts required to complete my dissertation.
•Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society
•Graduate Student Conference Funding, Carnegie Mellon University, 2004-2005, $500.
Competitive grant to pay for conference travel.
•English Department tuition scholarship, Carnegie Mellon University, 2003 to present.
Academic Service
• Graduate Peer Mentor, Fall 2006 to present
Answer questions from new and returning graduate students: areas of specialty are balance of family and school, collegial relationships, choosing and working with an advisor, gender issues on campus
• Graduate Student Campus-Wide Orientation, Summer 2007, Summer 2008, Summer 2009
Facilitated small group discussion regarding cross-cultural communication; Panelist for a research and advisor
Q/A session
• Student Representative to Rhetoric Faculty, Fall 2005-Spring 2006
• English Department Colloquium, Fall 2004-Spring 2005
Graduate student committee that organized a series of talks
•Paideia, 5e, 2002-2003. Chair
This committee revised the NMSU first-year writing textbook according to the findings of Chris Burnham’s academic inquiry project.
Professional Affiliations
Rhetoric Society of America
National Communication Association
National Council of Teachers of English
Law and Society
Coursework
Contemporary Rhetorical Theory
History of Rhetoric
Language Theory for Rhetorical Studies
Discourse Analysis
History, Theory and Practice in Pedagogy
Discourse and Gender
Narrative Theory
Independent Study in Historiography
Independent Study in Corpus Analysis
Seminar on Identity and Writing
Directed Study in Sociolinguistics
Industry Employment
Blain Olsen White Gurr, Advertising, Salt Lake City, UT 1997-2001
Print Production Manager
References
Barbara Johnstone
Dept. of English, Carnegie Mellon University
bj4@andrew.cmu.edu
Andreea Ritivoi
Dept. of English, Carnegie Mellon University
aritivoi@andrew.cmu.edu
Michael Witmore
Dept. of English, University of Wisconsin, Madison
witmore@wisc.edu
Danielle Wetzel, director of first-year writing
Dept. of English, Carnegie Mellon University
dfz@andrew.cmu.edu
Nancy Klancher, Director of Graduate Student Programs
Carnegie Mellon University
klancher@andrew.cmu.edu