New Doctoral Students (2011-2012)

Martha McKay Canter

Martha McKay Canter is a first-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition and a Teaching Assistant in the First-Year Composition Program. She earned both her B.A. in English and her M.A. in English Education at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Martha’s research interests include feminism and women’s writing. She is married, has two daughters, an endless parade of family pets, and has practiced yoga for several years.

Molly Daniel

Molly Daniel is a first year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition and a Teaching Assistant in the First Year Composition Program. She graduated with both her B.A. in Literature and a minor in Dance and her M.A. in English—Rhetoric and Composition from Marshall University in West Virginia. Her research interests focus upon the representation of student voice in writing, the "I" within digital spaces, feminist rhetoric, and the intersections of rhetoric and dance. Outside of academics, Molly is a classically trained dancer in ballet and modern, in addition to other genres, with a keen interest in choreography.

Catherine DeLazzero

Catherine DeLazzero is a first-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition and a Teaching Assistant in the First Year Composition Program. Her research interests include writing pedagogy, assessment, and the rhetorics and representations of teachers, student writing, and education. Catherine received an M.A. in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and a B.A. in English from Oberlin College. Prior to joining FSU's community, she coordinated the Writing Center at The College of New Rochelle and taught English at high schools in the Bronx and Cape Town, South Africa. She has presented on topics related to writing pedagogy at annual conventions held by the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the National Council for the Teachers of English, and the International Writing Centers Association; she has also served as a guest lecturer at Iona College, Queens College, and Columbia University. Catherine loves learning about writing with her students, participating in triathlons, and practicing yoga and meditation.

Christine Maddox

Christine Maddox is a first-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition and a Teaching Assistant in the First-Year Composition Program. Christine was born in South Florida but has spent most of her life living in Ohio. She received her B.A. from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio and her M.A. from the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. Christine is excited to return to Florida to pursue her Ph.D. focusing on the intersections between print/visual texts, gender, sexuality, and body image. She also enjoys running, yoga, and playing the piano.

Bret Zawilski

Bret Zawilski is a first-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition, a Teaching Assistant in the First-Year Composition Program, and a Tutor in the Digital Studio. Bret graduated from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania with B.A. in Music and English. He earned his M.A. in Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication from James Madison University, where he also taught courses in First-Year Composition and Technical Communication. His research interests include first-year composition pedagogy, learning transfer, and digital rhetoric. He is also an avid fan of science fiction, creative writing, and jazz performance.

Continuing Doctoral Students

Katie Bridgman

Katie Bridgman is a second-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition, a Teaching Assistant in the Editing, Writing, and Media Program, and the current Director of the English Department's Computer Writing Classrooms. Katie received her B.A. from the University of North Carolina-Asheville and her M.A. here at FSU. She is delighted to have remained at a research institution where she can continue to work in our program while dabbling across campus in Geography and, more recently, Geographic Information Systems. Her interests are currently focused on the intersection of identity, location, and text.

Leah Cassorla

Leah Cassorla is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in Rhetoric and Composition, currently teaching Article and Essay Technique. Leah holds a B.A. in journalism, an M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition, and an MFA in Fiction. Her dissertation looks at the libel case of John Peter Zenger (a colonial publisher) and the recent uproar surrounding Shirley Sherrod to explore the rhetoric of authority in American journalism as well as issues of libel in the face of digital convergence. She hails from just about everywhere, but was born in a tiny town in the Negev Desert in Israel. Leah left teaching journalism and advising The Spectator at Valdosta State University to move to Tallahassee and work full time on her Ph.D. She will be at NCTE presenting "DeComposition: Making Traditional Writing Classes Creative" in November. Her three great loves--her honey, her puppies, and her books--reside with her.

Matt Davis

Matt Davis is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition and teaches in the Editing, Writing, and Media program. He is the Editorial Assistant for College Composition and Communication and his dissertation, Rhetorical Composing: A Multimodal, Multimedia Model of Literacy, received a graduate dissertation research grant. Matt graduated from the University of Kansas with a B.A. in English and German and from North Carolina State University with an M.A. in English Literature. Matt's research interests include literacy studies, technology and composition, composition theory and pedagogy, and collaborative learning &amo; writing. He has presented at NCTE, CCCC, and Computers & Writing and has a co-authored piece with Chris Anson and Domenica Vilhotti in Teaching With Student Texts (2011) and another with Kristie Fleckenstein and Kathleen Yancey in Undergraduate Writing Majors: Nineteen Program Profiles (under contract). Matt spends his free time traveling, playing sports, and enjoying German language and culture.

Leigh Graziano

Leigh Graziano is a second-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition and a Teaching Assistant in the Editing, Writing, and Media Program. Leigh graduated from the University of Delaware with an M.A. in English, focusing on both 19th and 20th Century American literature and Rhetoric and Composition, and completed her B.A. at St. John Fisher College in English and Adolescent Education with certification in grades 7-12. Her research interests include the intersection of composition and literature, narrative theory, and classroom pedagogy. Outside academics, Leigh is interested in creative writing and painting.

Rory Lee

Rory Lee is a third-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition, a Teaching Assistant in the Editing, Writing, and Media Program, and the Assistant Director of the new Digital Studio in the Johnston-Williams Building. Rory graduated from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with a B.A. in Rhetoric and Composition and a minor in English; during the summer of 2009, he earned his M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition at Florida State University. Rory is interested in critically incorporating emerging technologies into the composition classroom and studying how technology affects both composing and literacy practices. In his free time, Rory voraciously consumes anything and everything associated with the World Champion Green Bay Packers. Much to his friends' and colleagues' chagrin (or amusement), he's a professional wrestling fanatic, and being from Wisconsin, he also possesses an affinity for cheese and meat.

Stephen J. McElroy

Stephen J. McElroy is a second-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition and a Teaching Assistant in the Editing, Writing, and Media Program and Assistant Director of the Digital Studio's Williams location. Stephen graduated with a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Western Kentucky University and an M.A. in English with a concentration in writing from Belmont University in his hometown of Nashville, TN. He worked in the Information Technology department at Vanderbilt University Law School for four years prior to coming to FSU. His research interests include the critical analysis and incorporation of cloud technologies and culture in the classroom. He is a big-time fan of Bob Dylan, David Foster Wallace, and the Tennessee Titans.

Josh Mehler

Josh Mehler is a third year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition, Assistant to the Director of the Rhetoric and Composition Program, and a Teaching Assistant in the Editing, Writing, and Media program. His research interests focus on the intersection between rhetoric, space, place and mobility, particularly emphasizing digital technology's role in constructing the affordances of space. Josh graduated from the University of Windsor, Ontario, with an Honors B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in English with a focus on Rhetoric and Composition. He is occasionally spotted around Tallahassee wearing a Canadian flag as a cape.

Kendra L. Mitchell

Kendra L. Mitchell is a third-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition and a Teaching Assistant in the Reading/Writing Center (RWC), where she serves as the Assistant Director and an experienced Writing Tutor. Her research interests focus on the rhetoric, epistemologies, and pedagogical practices unique to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), much of which stem from her tutorial work and educational experiences at her alma mater, Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University (FAMU). While she has presented her ideas on these topics in regional writing center conferences, she has recently shared these topics as a featured panelist at the 2011 Conference on College Composition and Communication, as well as at the 2011 Writing Program Administrators Conference. She also has published an essay in the anthology, Postcolonial Composition Pedagogy: Using the Culture of Marginalized Students to Teach Writing. In her "spare" time she volunteers on the Literacy Volunteers of Leon County Board of Directors and dances weekly at her local church.

Jennifer O'Malley

Jennifer O'Malley is a second year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition, Assistant to the Director of the First-Year Composition Program, and a Teaching Assistant in the Editing, Writing, and Media Program. Originally from Ormond Beach, Florida, Jennifer graduated from Jacksonville University with a B.A. in English and a minor in writing. In 2010, she earned her M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition at Florida State University. Jennifer's research interests focus on the intersection of technology, gender, and communication, specifically how blogging affects student writing. She also enjoys playing tennis, following the PGA Tour, and boating with her family.

Ruth Outland

Ruth Outland (formerly Ruth Kistler) is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition. During her tenure at FSU, she has taught courses in the first-year composition program and the Editing, Writing, and Media undergraduate English major, as well as serving as a research assistant for the NCTE president and as an editorial assistant for the incoming editor of CCr. She was also a Florida State University fellow for two years. Her research interests and dissertation focus on undergraduate composition pedagogy and curriculum, with particular emphasis on the ways in which rhetorical theory and practice have informed and might inform the teaching of composition in both conventional and writing-across-the-curriculum programs. Ruth worked as one of the guest editors of a 2009 special issue of Across the Disciplines on Writing Across the Curriculum and Assessment and co-authored the introduction to that issue. She has also presented at conferences such as CCCC, IWACC, SAMLA, and RNF.

Elizabeth Chilbert Powers

Elizabeth Chilbert Powers is a second-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition and a Teaching Assistant in the First-Year Composition Program. Elizabeth graduated from Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, with a B.A. in Creative Writing, and from Boise State University with an M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition. Her research interests include writing centers, environmental rhetoric, and religious rhetoric. She has presented at CCCC and WPA, and has published in Praxis: A Writing Center Journal.

Rebecca Furlow Skinner

Rebecca Furlow Skinner is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition. Her current activities include writing, teaching writing and undergraduate writing tutors, tutoring at FSU's Reading/Writing Center, and researching nineteenth century American women journalists' role in the rise of the New Woman. Her other occupations include professional housekeeping, making art in many mediums from glass to fabric, and developing a gallery/studio space in Tallahassee's Railroad Square Art Park, "sharing" as much Eminem as can possibly be tolerated and then (piteously, tearfully) begging 14-year old Mary: "Can we listen to NPR now?" in the car (they commute about 2 hours daily from their demesne in the next county). Also, taking care of family and pets and, oddly, for a feminist perhaps, sincerely enjoying domestic tasks such as dusting, wiping, mending, re-arranging, ironing curtains, baking bread—etc. Plus as a special treat (!) reading the New York Review of Books and London Review of Books... a guilty pleasure.

Natalie Szymanski

Natalie Szymanski is a third year Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition, Assistant to the Director of the First-Year Composition Program, and a Teaching Assistant in FSU's Editing Writing and Media Program. Natalie was born and raised in Racine, Wisconsin and graduated with honors from University of Wisconsin La-Crosse in 2007 with her B.A. in English with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition. She received her M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition from Florida State in 2009. Professionally, her interests focus on the ways digital and visual communications are changing the educational landscape and the ways in which composition is taught. This year, she will be completing her course work and exploring further the scholarly fields of photography and identity construction through social networks, as she looks towards her prelims and dissertation. In her "spare" time, Natalie revels in trashy vampire literature and soaks up as much Florida sunshine as possible.