WRAC - Key Persons


Angela Hunt


Ann Crain

Job Titles:
  • Academic Specialist - Advising / Art, Art History, and Design Experience Architecture

Anne E. Porter

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor - Fixed Term

Barbara Gerber

Job Titles:
  • Instructor / Gerber / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Benjamin Goodwin


Bill Hart-Davidson


Brandon Pettit

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor / Pettit / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Bree Straayer

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor - Fixed Term / Straayer / Faculty Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Bump Halbritter


Casey McArdle


Casey Miles

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor Undergraduate Advisor

Catalina Bartlett


Cheryl Caesar

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor

Christina Boyles


Crystal VanKooten


Curtis VanDonkelaar

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor / VanDonkelaar / Faculty First Year Writing Professional and Public Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

David Medei


David Watson

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Dawn Burns

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor / Burns / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Dawn Opel


Delores Byrum Rauscher

Job Titles:
  • Instructor / Rauscher / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Denise Acevedo


Denise Troutman


Diana Shank


Dànielle Nicole DeVoss


Elizabeth Spence

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Emily Jenkins

Emily Jenkins is a dual major in Professional Writing and Comparative Cultures and Politics, completing her time at MSU with a 4.0 GPA. As a research assistant for the Cube, she has conducted award-winning research on digital publishing and is co-authoring an NEH grant with Dr. Kate Birdsall. Emily plans to use the Outstanding Senior Award toward her goal of pursuing a graduate degree in Comparative Linguistics, and we look forward to hearing more about her future educational adventures and work in the community.

Eric Hood

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Erin Campbell

Erin Campbell, an XA major with minors in Spanish & Digital Humanities, was the first-ever Digital Scholarship Lab intern. She had the opportunity to research a topic of her choice and use technology provided by the lab to put together a public presentation on her research. Throughout her semester-long internship she chose to research human trafficking and was responsible for organizing an event to showcase this research using DSL resources.

Everardo Cuevas


Ezekiel Choffel

Job Titles:
  • Instructor / Choffel / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Fedewa O'Connor

Job Titles:
  • Academic Specialist / Assistant Director of Undergraduate Programs / Fedewa / Experience Architecture Faculty First Year Writing Professional and Public Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures
  • Ex Officio
  • Specialist Associate Chair, Director

Geoffrey A. Johns

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Grace Pregent

Job Titles:
  • Writing Center Director / Pregent / Faculty Professional and Public Writing Rhetoric and Writing Writing Center Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Grace Walter

Job Titles:
  • Instructor - Fixed Term

Hanan Aly


Hannah Allen


Hillery Glasby


Ilse Schweitzer

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Janice Stryz

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor / Stryz / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Jeff Kuure

Job Titles:
  • Academic Specialist / Kuure / Experience Architecture Faculty Professional and Public Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Jill McKay Chrobak

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor / Chrobak / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

John McElroy

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Johnson Cheu

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor / Cheu / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Joyce Meier

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor Associate Director of the First - Year Writing Program

Julie Lindquist

Job Titles:
  • Professor / Director of First - Year Writing / Lindquist / Faculty First Year Writing Professional and Public Writing Rhetoric and Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures
  • Professor Director of First - Year Writing Graduate Faculty

Kate Birdsall


Kathleen M.B. Post - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman

Kathryn Houghton

Job Titles:
  • Academic Specialist

Kathy Hadley


Kimberly Priest

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor / Priest / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Kirk Astle

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor / Astle / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Kristen Pratt

Job Titles:
  • Instructor

Kristin Arola


Laura Jones-Pettit

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Leanne Kent


Lisa Richman

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Liza Potts

Job Titles:
  • Professor Associate Chair, Director of Graduate Programs Director of WIDE Research, Graduate Faculty

Lorelei Blackburn


LouAnne Snider

Job Titles:
  • GRADUATE PROGRAM ACADEMIC OPERATIONS COORDINATOR

MA, CSLP

The graduate programs in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures (WRAC) have a complicated history. Founded in 2002 as an independent graduate-level Rhetoric and Writing (RW) Program in the College of Arts & Letters (CAL), we mark our formal beginnings in Fall 2003, when our first five RW PhD students and seven Digital Rhetoric and Professional Writing (DRPW) MA students began their studies at MSU. Since that time, our program-and our national reputation-has quickly grown. In 2004, the English department's Critical Studies in the Teaching of English (CSTE) program joined us and became the Critical Studies in Literacy and Pedagogy (CSLP) MA program and PhD concentration. In 2010, we joined the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures, which is home to the Professional and Public Writing undergraduate major and to the university's first-year writing program.

Margaux Griffith

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Marohang Limbu

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor / Limbu / Faculty First Year Writing Professional and Public Writing Rhetoric and Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Marybeth Heeder

Job Titles:
  • Instructor / Heeder / Faculty Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Matthew Rossi

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Melissa Arthurton

Job Titles:
  • Academic Operations

Michael Copperman

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor / Copperman / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Michael Ristich

Job Titles:
  • Academic Specialist / Ristich / Experience Architecture Faculty First Year Writing Professional and Public Writing Rhetoric and Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Nicole McCleese

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor / Literary Studies Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies / McCleese / English Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Patrick Lebeau

Job Titles:
  • Professor

Peter Faziani


Rhonda Hibbitt


Robert Cummiskey

Job Titles:
  • Instructor / Cummiskey / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Robert Goldbort

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor / Goldbort / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Sara Allison


Sara Doan

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor - Tenure System

Sara McKinnon

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

Sarah Elizabeth Pearsall


Sarah Gibbons


Stephanie Amada


Steven Fraiberg

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor / Fraiberg / Faculty First Year Writing Global Studies in Arts and Humanities Jewish Studies Rhetoric and Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Stuart Blythe

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor
  • Associate Professor Assistant Director of Graduate Programs Graduate Faculty

Tania de Sostoa-McCue


Tracie Swiecki

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor / Swiecki / Faculty First Year Writing Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures

Trixie Long Smith


Violet Livingston

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor

William J. Beal - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman
  • Distinguished Professor
  • Interim Department Chairperson

Xinqiang Li

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor

Yuanfang Dai


Yvette Puga

Job Titles:
  • Academic Operations