University Writing Program
Faculty and Staff Directory
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Brad Benz
Since 2010, I have been a faculty member in the University Writing Program. I teach WRIT courses and FSEM and conduct WAC/WID outreach through the University Writing Center.
Teaching Professor
PhD, University of Washington
Office: AAC 380K
Phone: 303-871-7608
Email: bradley.benz@du.edu
Website: https://bpbenz.com -
Jennifer Campbell
In my teaching, I like to integrate the practical and the personal. My classes take a thoroughly practical approach to the study of rhetoric, research, and writing in the sense that students get a significant amount of hands-on practice in a variety of genres and in the sense that what they learn in my classes will be useful and applicable in a variety of "real world" situations. But I am equally concerned about my students as people with unique personalities, passions, and problems. I want us to consider not only academic and career success, but also personal well-being and how we can use writing to improve ourselves and our world.
Teaching Professor
PhD, Auburn University
Office: AAC 381B
Phone: 303-871-7698
Email: jennifer.campbell@du.edu
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Libby Catchings
For me, writing delivers both self-knowledge and "poetic world-making" (Warner 2002) - a techne that makes every classroom encounter an opportunity for re-imagining our potential as ethical rhetorical agents. I think teaching writing also requires a sense of play, and an awareness of the materiality of both our bodies and the writing process. For that reason, I incorporate a variety of visual, sonic, and kinaesthetic practices into class; more often than not, you'll find crayons and voice recordings a part of the classroom experience. That multimodal disposition also informs my community-engaged research in prisons, making use of rhetorical phronēsis as a methodological framework for both fieldwork and the curation of that research.
Teaching Assistant Professor
PhD, University of California, Irvine
Office: AAC 380F
Phone: 303-871-7520
Email: Elizabeth.Catchings@du.edu -
April Chapman-Ludwig
While I have many vested interests in visual rhetoric, women's literature, and writing in the social sciences, my passion for teaching starts with the opportunity to work with wonderful students who bring amazing experiences into my class. I encourage students to write what they are passionate about, to acknowledge there is much more to learn and to see how their words connect to the academic and civic community whether it is writing about a subculture, a fairy tale, mystery, or documentary.
Teaching Assistant Professor
MA, Illinois State University
Office: AAC 380R
Phone: 303-871-6620
Email: april.chapman-ludwig@du.edu -
Richard Colby
There is much to learn about writing, but what matters is what you can do with writing. In my classes, students build many different things mostly with words, but sometimes with video and cardboard, and carefully consider what it takes to do so. I teach about the rhetoric of games, technical and scientific communication, and disciplinary research. I research games, gaming, and gamers and the intersections with civic, academic, and professional domains.
Assistant Director of First Year Writing
Teaching Professor
PhD, Bowling Green University
Office: AAC 380X
Phone: 303-871-7702
Email: richard.colby@du.edu -
David Daniels
In the classroom, I try to create a friendly, nurturing environment that puts student processes of discovery and invention at its center. My side gig is writing and editing poetry, and I bring that spirit of collaboration and creativity into the classroom. My focus is less on producing "better writing" during the quarter but on creating better writers longterm, writers who are prepared to confront whatever writing situations their academic, civic, and professional lives might bring them.
Teaching Professor
MFA, Indiana University
Office: AAC 380G
Phone: 303-871-7803
Email: david.j.daniels@du.edu -
Rob Gilmor
In my teaching, I aim to connect traditional theories of rhetoric with the interests of contemporary students through exploration of challenging ideas, a wide range of writing situations, and the different ways we all experience life and learning. As a scholar, I'm most interested in the ways rhetorical theory illuminates and challenges the practices of scholarly rhetorics and other academic discourses.
Teaching Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Denver
Office: AAC 380N
Phone: 303-871-7725
Email: robert.gilmor@du.edu -
Sarah Hart Micke
Concerned with relationships between language and responsibility, my teaching and scholarship focus on the intersections of rhetoric and ethics. My teaching emphasizes writing for and listening to diverse audiences, often in community-engaged contexts, such as service learning projects at local schools. My scholarship explores rhetorical and ethical theories and their applications in arenas ranging from lyric poetry to pedagogy to civic life.
Teaching Associate Professor
PhD, Texas A&M University
Office: AAC 380D
Phone: 303-871-7966
Email: Sarah.HartMicke@du.edu -
Doug Hesse
I've taught writing for 40 years now, which signifies two things. One, obviously, is that I've been around awhile. But more important, I think is that writing is still endlessly fascinating, and teaching still endlessly important. One of my scholarly interests is creative nonfiction: memoir, personal essay, immersive journalism, profiles, travel writing and the like. I'm fascinated with the craft and possibilities of writing, the decisions available to writers, the consequences of those decisions: the aesthetics as well as the rhetoric. This fascination informs all my teaching. I'm a past President of NCTE; past Chair of CCCC; and past President of WPA and have held other leadership roles.
Executive Director of Writing and Professor of English
PhD, University of Iowa
Office: AAC 282B
Phone: 303-871-7447
Email: dhesse@du.edu -
Matthew Hill
I've been at DU for 11 years now and attempt to engage students in multiple media and genres of writing. Be it through remix and podcasts, or essays and research projects, or my current experiments with analogue/board games, I allow students opportunities to learn how writing works in different contexts. Outside the classroom my current projects include community writing instruction and a research project about the history of sound and rhetorical violence.
Teaching Associate Professor
ABD, Michigan Technological University
Office: AAC 380J
Phone: 303-871-7808
Email: matthew.a.hill@du.edu -
Megan Kelly
My approach to teaching writing centers on encouraging students to understand how language and rhetorical actions serve as tools for social change. I design opportunities for students to write in collaboration with change-makers on campus, including the DU Center for Sustainability and student organizations such as Divest DU, Students for Sustainable Food, and the DU Food Recovery Network. You'll often find me talking about writing in the University Writing Center.
Assistant Director of the Writing Center
Teaching Professor
ABD, University of Washington
Office: AAC 380E
Phone: 303-871-7507
Email: megan.j.kelly@du.edu -
Kamila Kinyon
In my teaching, I have experimented with different themes, genres, and approaches, ranging from the rhetoric of journalism to the teaching of ethnography, oral history, and visual culture. I like to keep course topics open-ended to allow students to draw on their individual backgrounds and interests. I am interested in issues of cultural diversity, and have presented pedagogical papers on topics such as multilingual writing, the first-generation student experience at DU, and the representation of Native American culture in contemporary and historical photographs, including those in DU's special archive collections. I have a background in Slavic studies, and have recently presented at the RMMLA on a work in progress for the University of Lisbon about Czech perceptions of Portugal in travel writing from different eras.
Teaching Associate Professor
PhD, University of Chicago
Office: AAC 380W
Phone: 303-871-7831
Email: kamila.kinyon@du.edu -
Heather Martin
In my classes, I encourage students to test their arguments with real audiences, both on campus and off. While writing is always the focus of my WRIT courses, I have taken up topics of comedic and visual rhetoric, environmental sustainability, progressive education, and the rhetoric of food.
Teaching Professor
PhD, University of Denver
Office: AAC 380B
Phone: 303-871-7837
Email: heather.martin@du.edu -
Juli Parrish
I've been reading the essays, stories, blog entries, response papers, final projects, newspaper columns, reviews, artist statements, research papers, unpublished journals, and other work that college students write for more than 20 years, and I'm not done yet. When I read student work, I read for possibility and potential, and that practice shapes my teaching. As the DU Writing Center Director, I particularly value conversations about writing: all writers need to talk about their work, and all students are writers.
Director of the Writing Center
Teaching Professor
PhD, University of Pittsburgh
Office: AAC 282C
Phone: 303-871-7431
Email: juli.parrish@du.edu -
Lauren Picard
In and out of the classroom, I strive to put student writing first. My open-ended assignments are designed to 1) allow students to develop and refine their writerly voices, and 2) encourage students to take ownership of their intellectual pursuits. I am also involved with many projects, both within the Writing Program and across the university, that showcase and celebrate the work of our undergraduate authors. I am a managing editor of WRIT Large, a journal of undergraduate writing and research, and the Director of DU IMPACT 2025's One Book, One DU program.
Teaching Associate Professor
MFA, Emerson College
Office: AAC 380P
Phone: 303-871-7505
Email: lpicard@du.edu -
Polly Reid
My teaching tends to focus on rhetoric in the real world – how techniques of persuasion influence our lives, from visual imagery to popular media to politics. In my research, I explore the history of rhetoric and media, particularly the visual rhetoric of early print. In both my teaching and scholarship, I am interested in how changes in media transform the way we express ourselves and form communities.
Teaching Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Georgia
Office: AAC 380T
Phone: 303-871-7573
Email: pauline.reid@du.edu -
Keith Rhodes
I seek to prepare my students for the wide variety of writing that they will do for the rest of their lives, and my main scholarly focus has been studying the best ways to accomplish that goal. I have split my working career between practicing law and being a scholar and professor of writing, so I bring to my classes both a workplace and an academic perspective. I find the study of writing and of persuasion deeply fascinating, and I hope to develop that same level of interest in my students.
Teaching Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; JD, University of North Dakota
Office: AAC 380R
Phone: 303-871-7484
Email: Keith.Rhodes@du.edu -
David Riche
As a teacher, I cherish every opportunity I have to support students' inquiry, especially as they become more fully aware of the traditional and nontraditional literacies they will (or already do) use in their daily lives. To encourage this kind of rhetorical consciousness, I teach assignments that prompt students to develop compositions across multiple genres and modes; previous students of mine have transformed their work into podcasts, dioramas, board games, mosaics, and even musical compositions. My research and teaching interests cross paths in the areas of multimodal composition, game design, and rhetoric as a way of experiencing vulnerability.
Teaching Assistant Professor
PhD, Louisiana State University
Office: AAC 380Z
Phone: 303-871-3259
Email: David.Riche@du.edu -
Casey Rountree
I find that teaching writing gives me an opportunity to develop students' critical thinking skills in ways that can potentially impact their lives far beyond the classroom. That's exciting to me. I also believe the 1990s TV show Twin Peaks is the finest work of art of the past century.
Teaching Associate Professor
ABD, University of Denver
Office: AAC 380V
Phone: 303-871-7518
Email: casey.rountree@du.edu -
Joseph Ponce
Office Manager
Office: AAC 282A
Phone: 303-871-7448
Email: writing@du.edu -
Carol Samson
Carol Samson
Teaching Associate Professor Emerita
Ph.D. English/Creative Writing
University of Denver
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Blake Sanz
As a teacher, I'm especially interested in cultures of remix and ways that research can be used for creative purposes beyond typical academic genres of writing. My fiction has been published in a variety of magazines, and I'm currently working on a couple of new creative projects. I'm from south Louisiana and when I'm not teaching, I can sometimes be found listening to embarrassing pop music on repeat or cooking a gumbo.
Teaching Associate Professor
MFA, University of Notre Dame
Office: AAC 380A
Phone: 303-871-7566
Email: msanz@du.edu -
Aubrey Schiavone
My writing courses are designed as workshop spaces that engage student writers in the process of writing. That means, students in my courses always research and write about topics of their choosing—topics that matter to them in their academic, professional, and personal lives. While the primary theme of my courses is always learning about writing, I also teach courses in which students research and write about contemporary food issues.
Additionally, my courses incorporate digital and multimodal composition—including blog posts and video projects—in order for students to practice communicating effectively in a digital age. Finally, my research focuses on supporting first-generation college students as they encounter specialized writing and speaking practices in college. I am also a first-generation college student myself and happy to mentor any undergraduate or graduate student who is navigating life as a first-gen. Feel free to email me :)Teaching Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Michigan
Office: AAC 380M
Phone: 303-871-7950
Email: Aubrey.Schiavone@du.edu -
Rebekah Shultz Colby
I study how the multimodality within games influences rhetoric, writing, and pedagogy. I published an article examining how the play within World of Warcraft (WoW) rhetorically influences argumentation on the WoW forums and another examining how writing teachers of technical writing and rhetoric and composition use game-based pedagogies. I also use games to teach writing: in one class, students use WoW as a research space to learn about disciplinary research and writing and in another they analyze and design games in order to learn more about rhetoric.
Teaching Professor
PhD, Bowling Green University
Office: AAC 380Y
Phone: 303-871-7597
Email: rebekah.shultzcolby@du.edu
Online Portfolio -
Daniel Singer
I aim to encourage and develop students' willingness to experiment, to invent, to take chances exploring writing that is meaningful to them and that can impact the world beyond the classroom. To do that, I work to make close, supportive connections with students in my classes and try to teach writing in ways that acknowledge its complexities and celebrate its potentials. My research is on writing and the "will to do good," primarily in terms of rhetorics of advocacy and volunteerism, and on public writing and futures-oriented rhetoric (with side-interests in suasive psychology, emergent genre ecologies, and multimodal/digital composition).
Teaching Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Denver
Office: AAC 380H
Phone: 303-871-7705
Email: daniel.singer@du.edu -
Angela Sowa
I enjoy helping students discover how to more effectively share their passions and perspectives through rhetoric. My classes often focus on genre theory and reflective practices as ways to promote transfer - I want students to use what the learn in my classes in contexts far beyond the bounds of their academic careers. My research interests include the relationship between gender and religious writing; social justice and literacy; and promoting writing transfer through self-assessment and reflective genres.
Teaching Associate Professor
PhD, Texas Christian University
Office: AAC 380C
Phone: 303-871-7704
Email: angela.sowa@du.edu -
Geoffrey Stacks
I am interested in teaching a class that emphasizes critical thinking and analysis. I enjoy challenging students to think better and more carefully about the choices they make when writing. My own scholarly interests include postmodern and contemporary American literature.
Teaching Associate Professor
PhD, Purdue University
Office: AAC 380L
Phone: 303-871-7607
Email: gstacks@du.edu
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Kara Taczak
I started teaching as an adjunct professor, and like most adjuncts I taught at several schools and thus taught a diverse group of students ranging in age, walks of life, social class, and writing abilities. Teaching so many different types of students helped me realize that I have the opportunity to give students something other disciplines cannot—an opportunity to take charge of their education. In light of this understanding, I design each of my classes with three distinct features in mind: theory, practice and reflection. These interlocking features help students take control of their education by giving them an awareness about who they are as a writers, thinkers, and knowledge-makers. It also encourages them to transfer their knowledge and practices about writing to other contexts -- the goal of any course should be to encourage transfer, but this is especially true for a writing classroom. Stemming from my award-winning research, I create classrooms that teach for transfer to offer students a solid starting point, so that they can progress forward in successful and effective ways in their educational careers.
Teaching Associate Professor
PhD, Florida State University
Office: AAC 380S
Phone: 303-871-7536
Email: kara.taczak@du.edu -
John Tiedemann
Writing allows us to think critically, to imagine, and to engage with world. In class, I encourage students to do all three of these things simultaneously.
Teaching Associate Professor
ABD, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Office: AAC 380U
Phone: 303-871-7609
Email: john.tiedemann@du.edu -
Zoe Tobier
My writing classes provide student writers with opportunities to explore new ideas, strategies, and techniques, all in service of developing critical thinking skills, creativity, self-awareness, and intellectual curiosity. In my classes, students explore the rhetorical power of narrative by writing stories about themselves and others, by analyzing the ways in which cultural narratives shape the media we consume, from documentary films to Snapchat to comics, and by creating impactful written arguments in a variety of media, for a variety of audiences.
In addition to my work as a teacher of writing, I have a professional background in indie film distribution, screenwriting, and contemporary art exhibition, and my classes offer students opportunities to study and curate art and media exhibitions here on campus.
Teaching Assistant Professor
MFA, Columbia University
Office: AAC 380Q
Email: zoe.tobier@du.edu
Adjunct Faculty
Our adjunct faculty members also teach courses in the University Writing Program, but their primary assignments or responsibilities are outside the school.
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Tor Ehler
PhD, University of Denver
Email: tehler@du.edu - Jon Fowler
- Samuel Knights
- Russell Brakefield
Interviews with Faculty
Individual interviews of University Writing Program faculty about their life and work—but with a twist.