Programs and Areas

Rhetoric, Composition and Literacy

Archive of News from Rhetoric and Composition Alumni

Missed the last update from our alumni? Review this archive to find out what happened. Want to know the current news? Check out the Alumni page. Want to update us on what you've been doing? Fill out our online Alumni Update form OR email your update to: rhetcomp@osu.edu

Betsy Brown (Ph.D. '78) is currently working for the Office of the President at the University of North Carolina, which represents the 16-campus UNC system. She works with faculty development and support, international programs, teaching/learning/technology, and the University library forum.
Paula Foster Chambers (Ph.D. '00) and husband Gary have moved to California where Paula plans to start a consulting practice in business communication. Paula's listserv for academics seeking alternate careers (WRK4US) is drawing national attention. She has been interviewed by Vault.com, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The U.S. News and World Report
Cheryl Glenn (Ph.D. '89) and Jon Olson have moved their books and their big dog to central Pennsylvania after eight good and productive years at Oregon State. Although they miss their friends in Oregon (and still miss their friends from Ohio State), they are happily settled in at Penn State, working with a good group of colleagues and students. Cheryl recently finished a textbook, which should appear in early 2003, and continuing with her research on rhetorics of silence. The silence manuscript is nearly 300 pages, so it might break into two parts. Cheryl's biggest news is that she is now a grandma, which is the easiest job she's ever had. All is well.
Susan Kates (Ph.D. '95) has a book just out from Southern Illinois University Press entitled Activist Rhetorics and American Higher Education, 1885-1937.
Sandee McGlaun (Ph.D. '00) is alternately surviving and thriving during her first year as a faculty member at North Georgia College and State University, a small college located in Dahlonega, the site of Georgia's Gold Rush in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains (ya'll come and go gold panning, ya hear?). She is enjoying being back "home" in the sunny South, with parents and childhood pals close by. In February, Sandee presented a panel on applications of rhetorical theory at a First-Year Composition Conference hosted by Georgia Southern University and will be presenting again at 4C's. She looks forward to seeing everyone.
Gerald Nelms (Ph.D. '90) is the new Interim Director for Communications Across the Curriculum at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. He has a lot of ideas but welcomes those of others involved in WAC/CAC. This past year, he has also been involved in the curricular design of and tutoring in our new Problem-Based Learning Core Curriculum program, an alternative, problem-based, collaborative-learning program for entering first-year students. The students receive course credit but do not attend traditional classes. Instead, they work, with the guidance of tutors, in groups to solve problems and present their solutions, typically in written formats. Each problem is designed to help fulfill course objectives in our Core Curriculum. For example, groups just completed producing brochure text for an actual museum exhibit on the history of railroads in Illinois. For those interested in this kind of program, let me warn you�it is the most time- consuming, intense, student-oriented, satisfying, and dissatisfying teaching I've ever done.Gerald's new age music show, "Music from Beyond the Lakes," (Sundays, 8-10 pm, WDBX, 91.1 FM, Carbondale) is about to begin its sixth year, which first aired Easter evening of 1996. It continues to gather regular listeners. Recently, the station learned that it was garnering an audience rating of 1.1�that is, for every 100 radio listeners at any particular time, they have at least one listening to them. While this rating may seem modest, for a small community radio station, run by volunteers, such a rating is unheard of !! They will soon be expanding their power to cover all of southern Illinois and may even be going online!!! Gerald's eldest son, Taylor, went to state with his high school speech team. Taylor and his teammate performed a scene from Huckleberry Finn, with Taylor playing Huck. Gerald's youngest son, Emory, now plays sax in addition to piano. (And so, they've started a Coltrane collection.) Gerald's wife, Marcia Nahikian-Nelms, is in the process of completing a case study textbook for teaching clinical dietetics that he hopes will make us millions and allow him to retire�and anyone telling Marcia that I said that will be shot.

(4/03) Interim Director, Communication Across the Curriculum; Associate Professor, Department of English, Southern Illinois
University Carbondale, Carbondale, IL.

Professional News: Gerald Nelms remains the Interim Director of Communication Acrossthe Curriculum at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He is currently at work, collaborating with a colleague, Ronda Leathers Dively, on survey and focus group research and a book on the transfer of composition knowledge from a first-year composition sequence to non-composition course writing situations. Professor Nelms also has written 11 chapters of a writing textbook, based on a new research writing curriculum that he has been developing over the past six years.

Personal News: Jerry continues to co-host (with a colleague from Computer Science, Namdar Mogharreban) a popular, local newage and contemplative world music radio show, "Music from Beyond the Lakes" (Sundays, 8-10pm, WDBX, 91.1 fm, Carbondale, IL). Beyond the Lakes began airing on WDBX in 1996. Jerry's son Taylor is about to complete his first year at Ohio State.

(updated 04/03)
Rob Stacy (Ph.D. '99) is enjoying his second year as an Assistant Professor of English at Albertson College of Idaho where he is teaching Nature Writing, helping to build an environmental studies program, and leading a Writing Across the Curriculum movement. When he is not doing those things, he can be found mountain climbing, backpacking, or skiing in the surrounding mountains.
Rebecca "Becky" Taylor (Ph.D. '00) currently directs the Writing Program at Gustavus Adolphus College, which, she notes, means that she directs the Writing Center and Writing Across the Curriculum efforts. She also reports that "winter lasts for FIVE AND A HALF MONTHS" in Minnesota. On the homefront, Becky is happy to share that her son, Winston, has officially acquired language and that he now knows that she is a girl.
Andrea Williams (Ph.D. 2000) "The Rhetoric of Communications: A Case Study of an Employee Communications Program in the Canadian Subsidiary of a Global Financial Services Organization" Andrea accepted an Assistant Professor position in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. There she teaches a wide range of courses in Rhetoric and Composition, literacy studies, and literature in the university's undergraduate, M.A. and Ph.D. programs. Prior to taking up her position at Simon Fraser, she moved with her family to Hanover, New Hampshire, where her husband is working on an M.B.A. at Dartmouth.

Last Updated: Spring 2001

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