Alexis Teagarden

faculty

Alexis Teagarden, PhD

Associate Professor / Writing Program Administrator

English & Communication

Contact

508-999-8287

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Liberal Arts 339

Education

2014Carnegie Mellon UniversityPhD
2008Johns Hopkins UniversityMA
2005Georgetown UniversityBA

Teaching

  • First-Year Writing
  • Rhetorical Theory and Methods
  • Teaching Methods
  • Composition Theory and Pedagogy

Teaching

Programs

Teaching

Courses

Advanced study of rhetorical communication within a specific genre, field, historical period, or community. Focus will change with instructor, but may include such topics as: Social Activism; Photography and Iconography; Music; Public Policy; more. Course may be repeated for credit with a change in topic.

First semester. Graded CR/NC (upon approval of completed thesis or project).

Research

Research interests

  • First-Year Composition
  • Information Literacy/Research Skills
  • Intellectual Risk
  • Student Evaluations of Teaching
  • Faculty/Professional Development

Curious about rhetoric writ large and small, Alexis Teagarden’s research follows three questions: How do national and local publics interact, how does language shape public policy, and how do we negotiate US education’s many competing values? Her current work focuses on where these questions intersect: the lively, highly argumentative reform called charter schools. She also grounds her research in classroom practice, asking how college writing pedagogy, assessment, and program administration can better foster student development. To that end she is currently examining the role intellectual risk can and should play in the writing classroom. She teaches courses in the First Year English program, which she also directs.

She holds Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University and a Masters of Teaching (Secondary English) from The Johns Hopkins University. She is an alumna of Teach for America and did her undergraduate work at Georgetown University.