Dissertations and Placements
Our PhD graduates go on to careers primarily at colleges or universities as faculty and hold prominent academic positions; others have chosen successful leadership careers in industry. We have a long-standing PhD program that boasts a strong record of academic and professional placement. In the last decade, we have placed graduates in a variety of positions around the globe. For information on what our graduates are doing currently, read our Alumni Stories.
Recent Graduates
2023
Mark Brenden
"Composition's Terms of Use: The Pedagogical Implications of Learning Management Systems"
Advisors: Patrick Bruch & Tom Reynolds
Placement: Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin - River Falls (WI)
Brandi Fuglsby
"Including Critical Feminist Approaches in the Technical Communication Classroom: An Autoethnography throughout Changing Rhetorical Ecologies"
Advisor: Ann Hill Duin
Placement: Assistant Professor, Austin Peay State University (TN)
2022
Alexander Champoux-Crowley
"Negotiation & Translation in First Year Composition WPA Work: Transformative Professional Knowledge to Composition Practice"
Advisor: Patrick Bruch
Placement: Lecturer, University of Southern Maine (ME)
Katlynne Davis
"Writing Across Layers of Precarity: Professionals’ Digital Social Media Labor in Mental Health Advocacy"
Advisors: Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch & Ann Hill Duin
Placement: Assistant Professor, University of St Thomas (MN)
Evelyn Dsouza
"The Rhetorical Ecology of an Urban Wetland Complex"
Advisors: Donald Ross & Dan Card
Placement: Technical Editor, WSP (NJ)
Danielle Mollie Stambler
"Eat Well to Work Well: Oppression, Risk, Power, and the Rhetorics of Employee Wellness"
Advisors: Molly Kessler & Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Placement: Assistant Professor of Technical Communication, Arizona State University (AZ)
Ryan Wold
"Design, Business Models and Embedded Values: Developing a Mentor Program Management Platform as a Model of Humane Technology"
Advisors: Ann Hill Duin & Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Placement: CEO at Tablmakr, Researcher/Entrepreneur
2022
Alexander Champoux-Crowley
"Negotiation & Translation in First Year Composition WPA Work: Transformative Professional Knowledge to Composition Practice"
Advisor: Patrick Bruch
Placement: Lecturer, University of Southern Maine (ME)
Katlynne Davis
"Writing Across Layers of Precarity: Professionals’ Digital Social Media Labor in Mental Health Advocacy"
Advisors: Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch & Ann Hill Duin
Placement: Assistant Professor, University of St Thomas (MN)
Evelyn Dsouza
"The Rhetorical Ecology of an Urban Wetland Complex"
Advisors: Donald Ross & Dan Card
Placement: Technical Editor, WSP (NJ)
Danielle Mollie Stambler
"Eat Well to Work Well: Oppression, Risk, Power, and the Rhetorics of Employee Wellness"
Advisors: Molly Kessler & Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Placement: Assistant Professor of Technical Communication, Arizona State University (AZ)
Ryan Wold
"Design, Business Models and Embedded Values: Developing a Mentor Program Management Platform as a Model of Humane Technology"
Advisors: Ann Hill Duin & Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Placement: CEO at Tablmakr, Researcher/Entrepreneur
2021
McKinley Green
"User Resistance in HIV Technology Design: Toward a Critical Participatory Rhetoric for Technical and Professional Communication"
Advisor: Pat Bruch
Placement: Assistant Professor, George Mason University (VA)
Jeremy Rosselot-Merritt
"Fertile Grounds in Technical and Professional Communication: Identity, Legitimacy, Power, and Workplace Practice"
Advisor: Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Placement: Lecturer, Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
Chakrika Veeramoothoo
"Investigating the Online Presence of Immigration Organizations: Understanding the Role of Social Justice and Technical Communication"
Advisors: Ann Hill Duin & Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Placement: Assistant Professor, University of Houston-Downtown (TX)
2020
Kari Campeau
"The Rhetorical Making of an Illness: Medical Refusal, Trope, and Improvisation in a Somali Women's Health Center"
Honorable Mention, Arts & Humanities Category, UMN Graduate School Best Dissertation Award, 2021
Advisors: Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch & Mary Schuster
Placement: Assistant Professor, University of Colorado - Denver (CO)
Nicole Ciulla
"Temporal Rhetorics of Local Climate Action"
Advisor: Tom Reynolds
Placement: Assistant Professor of English, Saint Mary's University (MN)
Trent Kays
"Authority in Digital Space: Exploring the Case of the Green Pea Galaxy"
Advisor: Laura Gurak
Placement: Assistant Professor, Augusta University (GA)
2019
Ryan Eichberger
"Imaging Environmental Belonging in a Wounded World: Toward a Visual Rhetoric for the Anthropocene"
Best Dissertation Award in Arts and Humanities, UMN Graduate School, 2020
Advisor: Daniel J. Philippon
Placement: Adjunct Assistant Professor, Saint Olaf College (MN)
Juliette Lapeyrouse-Cherry
“Composing the Gulf Coast: Narratives of Environmental Toxicity, Racial Injustice, and Carbon Energy Across Modalities”
Advisor: Daniel J. Philippon
Placement: Adjunct Academic Faculty, Saint Catherine University (MN)
Placement: Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University (TX)
2018
Sarah Puett
“Critical Community Literacy: Looking With Local Resistance”
Advisor: Thomas Reynolds
Placement: Assistant Professor, Regis University (CO)
Jarron Slater
“Style Unbounded: Embodied Formal Identification, Play, and Sublimity in Technical Communication”
Co-advisors: Richard Graff & John Logie
Placement: Visiting Assistant Professor, Valparaiso (IN)
2017
Stephen Brasher
"A Rhetoric of Divinity: The Nicene Creed as Disciplined Discourse"
Co-Advisors: Donald Ross & Melissa Sellew
Placement: Property Claims Professional, Travelers Insurance
Kira Dreher
"Plain Language Revision and Insider Audiences: A City Charter Case Study"
Advisor: Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, Montclair State University (NJ)
Current position: Assistant Teaching Professor of English, Carnegie Mellon University Qatar
Chris Lindgren
"Ways with Data: Understanding Coding as Writing"
Advisor: Christina Haas
Placement: Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech (VA)
Brigitte Mussack
"Voice in Composition Theory and Practice: The Epideictic Function of Metaphor in Radical Writing Pedagogies"
Advisor: Patrick Bruch
Placement: Lecturer, University of Minnesota (MN)
Rachel Tofteland-Trampe
"Developing Digital Literacies: Engaging Technical Communication at an Urban Community Technology Center"
Advisor: John Logie
Initial placement: Visiting Lecturer, Hamline University (MN)
Current position: Assistant Professor, Hamline University (MN)
Anne Wolfe
"Breaking out of the Ghetto: The Theory and Practice of Using Critical Embodied Writing to Build Inclusive Spaces of Identification and Alternative Notions of Progress in Writing Studies"
Advisor: Thomas Reynolds
Placement: Office of Education Equity and Outreach, Alachua Public Schools (FL)
2016
Ashley Clayson
"Distributed Writing: A Study of Tools, Artifacts, and Bodies in the Workplace"
Advisor: Christina Haas
Placement: Postdoctoral researcher, University of West Florida (FL)
Edward Hahn
"Belief and Practice in Composition: Engaging The Rhetorical Problem of Racism"
Advisor: Patrick Bruch
Placement: Visiting Assistant Professor of English, University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire (WI)
Shuwen Li
"Ethos as Dwelling: The Construction of Corporate Ethos in an IPO"
Advisor: Donald Ross
Placement: Lecturer, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (MI)
Michael Madson
"Updating globalization: An integrative review and geosemiotic analysis"
Advisor: Christina Haas
Placement: Assistant Professor, Medical University of South Carolina (SC)
Jacqueline Schiappa
"Two 'Actually Existing' Networked Counterpublics: The Rhetorics of the Feminist Blogosphere and Political Black Twitter"
Advisor: Patrick Bruch
Initial placement: Postdoctoral writing fellowship, Macalester (MN)
Current position: Lecturer, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (MN)
J. Thomas Wright
"Darwin, Huxley, and the Nineteenth-Century Rhetoric of Science"
Advisor: Carol Berkenkotter
Placement: Lecturer, University of Central Florida (FL)
2015
Abigail Bakke
"A Rhetorical Perspective on Trust in E-Health Websites"
Advisor: Laura Gurak
Placement: Assistant Professor, Minnesota State University, Mankato (MN)
Brian Larson
"Gender/Genre: Gender Differences in Disciplinary Communication"
Advisor: Mary Schuster
Placement: Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology (GA)
Current position: Associate Professor of Law, Texas A&M University School of Law (TX)
Aaron Little
"Rhetorical Diplomacy and US International Influence: The Path of Democracy in Burma"
Co-Advisors: Ronald Greene & Tun Myint
Laura Pigozzi
"Exploring the Gap Between a Morally Valid and a Legally Adequate Consent: Investigating Latino understanding of an informed consent conference"
Advisor: Ann Hill Duin
Initial placement: Lecturer, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (MN)
Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Northwestern University (IL)
Jenni Alita Swenson
"Understanding Ethical Concerns in the Design, Application, and Documentation of Learning Analytics"
Advisor: Ann Hill Duin
Placement: Dean of Business and Industry, Lake Superior College (MN)
2014
Karin Goettsch
"Understanding Intercultural Communication on Global Virtual Teams: Exploring Challenges of Language, Culture, Technology, and Collaboration"
Advisor: Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Placement: Manager, Global Talent Management, The Mosaic Company (MN)
Keith Harms
"Maybe Another Colony: And Yet Another Critique of the Assessment Community"
Advisor: Thomas Reynolds
Initial placement: Post Doc Research Assistant, University of Arizona (AZ)
Current position: Assistant Professor, University of Arizona (AZ)
Timothy Oleksiak
"Listening Language and Student Interaction in Online Writing Spaces"
Advisor: Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania (PA)
Current position: Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston (MA)
2013
Dawn Armfield
"From Traditional to Digital: Understanding Remediation of the Postcard through the Case of PostSecret.com"
Advisor: Laura Gurak
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, Frostburg State University (MD)
Current position: Assistant Professor, Minnesota State University, Mankato (MN)
Joseph Bartolotta
"Laboring Literacy: Rhetoric, Language, and Sponsors of Literacy in Worker's Education in the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union, 1914-1939"
Advisor: Thomas Reynolds
Initial placement: Visiting Assistant Professor, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (NM)
Current position: Associate Professor, Hofstra University (NY)
Andrew Virtue
"Digital Struggles: Fostering Student Engagement in Online Writing Courses"
Advisor: Laura Gurak
Placement: Assistant Professor, Western Carolina University (NC)
Joshua Welsh
"The Rhetoric of the Patent Wars: How Technology Becomes 'Common Sense'"
Advisor: Mary Schuster
Placement: Assistant Professor, Central Washington University (WA)
Joseph Weinberg
"The Rhetoric of Facebook Icons: General Principles and Examples of How Icons Impact and Form Identity in Social Networking"
Advisor: Donald Ross
Placement: Lecturer, University of Minnesota - Crookston (MN)
2012
Paul Anheier
"Stasis, Change, and Pedagogic Struggle in the Teaching of Technical Writing: A Cultural Study of Houp and Pearsall's Reporting Technical Information"
Bernadette Longo
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin - Stout (WI)
Current position: UX Researcher / Consumer Experience Technology, Amazon (WA)
Robert Baron
"Pressures on Play: Rhetoric, Virtual Environments, and The Design of Experience in Virtual World Computer Games"
Advisor: John Logie
Placement: Assistant Professor, Austin Peay State University (TN)
David Kmiec
"Displacement and Equilibrium: A Cultural History of Engineering in America Before its Golden Age"
Advisor: Bernadette Longo
Placement: Lecturer, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJ)
Olga Menagarishvili
"Dictionaries of Science as Participants in Scientific Knowledge Economy"
Advisor: Bernadette Longo
Initial placement: Instructor, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellows, Georgia Institute of Techology (GA)
Current position: Assistant Professor, Metropolitan State University (MN)
Kimberly Thomas-Pollei
"Shaping a Discipline: Science and Medical Education Reform in Britain, 1770-1858"
Advisor: Richard Graff
Initial placement: Lecturer, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (MN)
Current position: Principal Clinical Risk, Boston Scientific (MN)
Matthew Williams
"Bartleby Goes to College: A Pragmatist Critique of Writing in Schools"
Advisor: Thomas Reynolds
Placement: Faculty, Inver Hills Community College (MN)
2011
Roopa Sukumaran Berzins
"'Stagecoach Island': Persuasive Lessons in Consumption in the Virtual World"
Advisor: Bernadette Longo
Placement: Assistant Academic Advisor, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (MN)
Elizabeth Kalbfleisch
"Beyond the Tradition: British Rhetoric and Modernity, 1756-1783"
Advisor: Robert L. Brown
Initial placement:
Current position: Associate Professor, Southern Connecticut University (CT)
Maggie VanNorman
"Body Burden and Newborn Cord Blood: A Case Study in Material Rhetoric"
Advisor: Mary Schuster
Initial placement: Sr. Organizational Learning Specialist, Park Nicollet Health Services (MN)
Current position: Sr. Instructional Design Consultant, Independent Consultant (MN)
2010
Grace Coggio
"Agency, Socio-Cultural Context, and the Role of the Technical Communicator During IT Adoption: A Case Study in Innovation Diffusion Across Cultures"
Advisor: Bernadette Longo
Placement: Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin - River Falls (WI)
Brenda Hudson
"'Democratizing' Clinical Research? Efficiency and Inclusiveness in an Electronic Primary Care Research Network"
Advisor: Carol Berkenkotter
Matthew Kaplan
"Greening the Gamescape: How Virtual Game Worlds Can Represent Real-World Environmental Values"
Advisor: Dan Philippon
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, Stephen F. Austin State University (TX)
Current position: Social Worker, US Department of Veterans Affairs (CA)
Merry Rendahl
"Moving First Year Writing Online: Applying Social Cognitive Theory to an Exploration of Student Study Habits and Interactions--Two Case Studies"
Advisor: Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota - Duluth (MN)
Current position: Teaching Specialist, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (MN)
Chris Scruton
"The Rhetorical Potential of Images in Popular Accounts of Historical Events"
Advisor: Billie Wahlstrom
Placement: Director of Academic Technology for Faculty Education, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (MN)
Erin Wais-Hennen
"A Textual Analysis of the American Journal of Chinese Medicine: From Spirituality to Science"
Advisors: Carol Berkenkotter & Arthur Walzer
Placement: Lindsey Wilson College, KY
Brett Werner
"Pragmatic Ecocriticism and Equipments for Living"
Advisor: Daniel Philippon
Placement: Centre College, KY
Christopher Scott Wyatt
"Online Pedagogy: Designing Writing Coruses for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders"
Advisor: Laura Gurak
Placement: Assistant Professor, Robert Morris University (PA)
2009
Anthony Arrigo
"Imaging the Dam: The Visual Rhetoric of Hoover (Boulder) Dam in Popular and Public Print Media, 1920-1975"
Advisor: Richard Graff
Placement: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Krista Kennedy
"Textual Curators and Writing Machines: Authorial Agency in Encyclopedias, Print to Digital"
Advisors: Laura Gurak and John Logie
Placement: Assistant Professor, Syracuse University (NY)
Gregory Schneider
"Science in the Science Museum: Representing Science for the Public"
Advisor: Arthur Walzer
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, Kettering University (MI)
Current position: Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin - Stout (WI)
2008
Smiljana Antonijevic
"Rhetoric, Culture, and Avatars. A Microethnographic Analysis of Nonverbal Communication in Multiuser, 3D Virtual Environments"
Advisor: Laura Gurak
Initial placement: Research Fellow, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Current position: Sr. UX Researcher, Wallgreens Boots Alliance (IL)
T. Kenny Fountain
"'A Matter of Perception': Rhetoric, Embodiment, and Visual Practices of Anatomy Laboratory Education"
Advisor: Mary Schuster
Placement: Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University (OH)
Cristina Hanganu-Bresch
"Faces of Depression: A Study of Antidepressant Advertisements in the American and British Journals of Psychiatry, 1960-2004"
Advisor: Arthur Walzer
Placement: Assistant Professor, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (PA)
Brent Heffron
"The Psychology Novel: Polyphony in William James's Principles of Psychology"
Advisor: Arthur Walzer
Placement: Faculty, Century College (MN)
Salma Monani
"Nature Films and the Challenge of Just Sustainability"
Advisor: Dan Philippon
Placement: Assistant Professor, Gettysburg College (PA)
2007
Paula J. Lentz
"Positioning and Identity in the Small-Story Narratives of RN-to-BSN Students in an Online BSN Management and Leadership Course"
Advisor: Carol Berkenkotter
Placement: Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire (WI)
Jennifer Novak
"Rhetoric, Medicine, and the Impact of Technologies on Subjects and Statements"
Advisor: Mary Schuster
Placement: Assistant Professor, Tarleton State University (TX)
Amy Propen
"The Map, the Mill, and the Memorial: A Rhetorical Study of the Visual and Material"
Advisor: Mary Schuster
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, York College of Pennsylvania (PA)
Current position: University of California - Santa Barbara (CA)
Aimee Whiteside
"Exploring Social Presence in Communities of Practice within a Hybrid Learning Environment: A Longitudinal Examination of Two Case Studies within the School Technology Leadership Graduate-Level Certificate Program"
Advisor: Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch
Initial placement: Research Fellow, Digital Media Center, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (MN)
Current position: Assistant Professor, University of Tampa (FL)
2006
Gretchen A. Haas
"Subject to the System: The Rhetorical Constitution of Good Internet Citizenship in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Campaign"
Advisor: Laura Gurak
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, Minnesota State University, Mankato (MN)
Current position: Owner, Sweetland Orchard (MN)
Marianallet Mendez
"Maintaining and Enhancing Political Power via the MAss Media: The Rhetoric of H.R. Chavez, President of Venezuela"
Advisor: Victoria Mikelonis
Placement: Assistant Professor, St. John's University (NY)
Amy M. Patrick
"Apocalyptic or Precautionary? Revisioning Texts in Environmental Literature"
Advisor: Dan Philippon
Placement: Assistant Professor, Western Illinois University (IL)
Clancy Ann Ratliff
"'Where are the Women?' Rhetoric and Gender in Weblog Discourse"
Advisor: Mary Schuster
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, East Carolina University (NC)
Current position: Associate Professor, University of Louisiana at Lafayette (LA)
Jessica Lee Reyman
"Rhetoric, Law, and the Regulation of Intellectual Property on Peer-to-Peer Networks: The Case of MGM Studios v. Grokster"
Advisor: Laura Gurak
Placement: Assistant Professor, Northern Illinois University (IL)
Wendy Lee Winn
"Visualizing Science: A Semiotic Analysis of Visual Representations in Ornithology Journals, 1859-2003"
Advisor: Alan Gross
Placement: Assistant Professor, Appalachian State University (NC)
2005
Kelly Christine Ball-Stahl
“Environmental Values in American Popular-Culture Narratives”
Advisor: Dan Philippon
Initial placement: Associate Director of Sponsored Programs, St. Norbert College (WI)
Current position: Institutional Researcher, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (WI)
Helen Rose Constantinides
“A Pragmatics of Power Using Jurgen Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action”
Advisor: Alan Gross
Placement: Freelance technical writer and editor
Constance E. Kampf
“Kumeyaay Online: Dimensions of Rhetoric and Culture in the Kumeyaay Web Presence”
Advisor: Victoria Mikelonis
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, Aarhus School of Business (Denmark)
Current position: Associate Professor, Aarhus BSS - Aarhus University (Denmark)
2004
Timothy D. Giles
“The Role of Metaphor in the Technical Communication Classroom”
Advisor: Victoria Mikelonis
Current position: Associate Professor, Georgia Southern University (GA)
Kari Kay Kruempel
“Distance Working: A Rhetorical Analysis of Engineering Email Collaboration”
Advisor: Laura Gurak
Placement: Lockheed-Martin
Joan L. Pougiales
“Little Ethiopia: The Colonization of a Multicultural American Workplace”
Advisor: Robert L. Brown, Jr.
Placement: ESL teacher
Matthew W. Segaard
“Creating and Evaluating an Interdisciplinary Writing Program: A Case Study”
Advisor: Earl E.McDowell
2003
Tori Sadler
“Rhetoric, Technology, and the Military: The Death of a ‘TopGun’”
Advisors: Carol Berkenkotter & Mary Lay Schuster
Placement: Assistant Professor, Metro State University (MN)
Doreen Starke-Meyerring
“Re-Visioning Higher Education on the Internet: A Cross-Cultural Rhetorical Study of Higher Education Policy in Germany and in the United States”
Advisors: Ann Hill Duin & Victoria M. Mikelonis
Placement: Assistant Professor, McGill University (Canada)
2002
David E. Beard
“Douglas Walton, Informal Logic, and the Uses of the New Dialectic for the Rhetoric of Inquiry”
Advisor: Arthur Walzer
Placement: Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-River Falls
Current position: Associate Professor, University of Minnesota - Duluth (MN)
Amy Lynn Koerber
“U.S. Breastfeeding Education and Promotion 1978-1999: A Feminist Rhetorical Analysis”
Advisor: Mary Schuster
Placement: Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University (TX)
Sam Racine
“Changing (Inter) Faces: A Genre Analysis of Catalogues From Sears, Roebuck to Amazon.com”
Advisor: Laura J. Gurak
Placement: Unisys
Kirk Richard St. Amant
“Culture, Conflict, and Cyberspace: A Case Study of EU-US Negotiations Over the EU Data Protection Directive and the US Safe Harbor Principles”
Advisor: Laura Gurak
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, James Madison University (VA)
Current position: Professor and Eunice C. Williamson Endowed Chair of Technical Communication at Louisiana Tech University (LA)
2001
David W. Norton
“The Strategic Technical Communicator: A Critical Action Inquiry of Information Architecture”
Advisor: Billie Wahlstrom
Initial placement: Vice President, Yaramoto-Moss (MN)
Current position: Founder, Stone Mantel (CO)
2000
Ruth J. Cronje
"Communicative Rationality and the Future of Science"
Advisor: Alan Gross
Placement: Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire (WI)
1999
Gail Woodward Lippincott
“Ellen Swallow Richards: Rhetorical Strategies of a Nineteenth-Century Technical Communicator”
Advisor: Mary Schuster
Initial placement: Assistant Professor, University of North Texas (TX)
Current position: Grant Writer and Technical Writer, IDignity (FL)
1998
Sara Newman
“Aristotle and Metaphor: His Theory and Its Practice”
Advisor: Alan Gross
Placement: Assistant Professor, Kent State (OH)
1997
Andreea Deciu Ritivoi
“The Debate Between Rene Descartes and Pierre de Fermat: A Pragma-dialectical Analysis”
Advisor: Alan Gross
Placement: Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University