Dissertations and Placements

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

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