English 201 Instructor Bios

Who Teaches Engish 201?

All sections of English 201 are taught by experienced Teaching Assistants or faculty members.

Instructor Biographies
(Spring 2007)

Cindy Au is entering her 5th year as a doctoral student in the English department at the UW. She has taught English 201 for 3 years, and her course, in the past, has focused on issues of race and politics, revolution, and comics. She is interdisciplinary in her methods and likes incorporating multi-media into her teaching. She is currently writing a dissertation on African American literature of the 1970s. She uses the phrase "currently writing" very loosely.

Scot Barnett is a PhD student in composition and rhetoric, interested in the ongoing transformation of rhetoric and writing in network media culture. He received a BA in English from Penn State University and a MA in rhetoric and composition from North Carolina State University. (Scot's course website.)

Maria Bibbs is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric. She recieved a B.A in English Literature from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and an M.A. in Afro-American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests include African American rhetorical traditions, the Black press, autobiography, visual rhetoric, critical race theory, and the educational philosophy of Paulo Freire. Her English 201 class is named after the Miguel Pinero poem "Seeking the Cause."

Rasha Diab is a Ph.D. student in composition and rhetoric, interested in discourse analysis, public sphere, contrastive/comparative/intercultural rhetoric, writing in different writing sites, writing program administration, language policy, English for Specific and Occupational Purposes, English as a Foreign Language, genre, and register in interaction (not ordered). She earned an M.A. (2002), in English Linguistics and Political Discourse Analysis at Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. Her B.A. is in English Language and Literature.

Rick Hunter is a third year Ph.D. student in the Composition and Rhetoric program, with a distributed minor including coursework in Games, Learning, and Society & Literacy Studies in UW-Madison’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction and in New Media Studies from Michigan Technological University. Rick earned his MA in Pedagogy (the teaching of reading and writing) and Creative Writing from Northern Michigan University (NMU) in 2004, where he conducted research for his masters thesis on the implementation of service-learning curricula in first-year writing. Prior to that, he studied literature and creative writing as a post-baccalaureate (BS, NMU, 2002), Persian-Farsi at the Defense Language Institute-Monterey (1997), and Art & Design (film and video) (BFA, NMU, 1996). (Rick's Course website) Tim Laquintano is a second year PhD student in rhetoric and composition. He holds degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and Rutgers. He has taught ESL in Ecuador, GED prep in New Jersey, and composition at Rutgers and UW. His main academic interests are rhetoric, literacy studies, digital literacy, critical theory, and the essay. His hero is Major Major.

Leah Mirakhor is a graduate student in the Deptartment of English. Her previous teaching experience is with the Integrated Liberal Studies Deptartment.

Corey Mead Info coming soon.

Mira Shimabukuro is a 3rd year PhD student in the Composition and Rhetoric program at UW Madison. Originally from all three of the West Coast states, Mira has been teaching writing for the past nine years in community colleges, Writers-in-the-Schools programs, alternative high schools, and at UW Madison. She also holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Washington, and when she is not trying to fulfill the requirements for her PhD, she continues to write both non-fiction prose and narrative poems dealing with themes related to social justice.

Katy Southern Info coming soon.

Christine Stephenson is pursuing her Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric. She earned her B.A. in 1999 from Waynesburg College in Southwestern Pennsylvania before moving to the south shore of Lake Superior, where she earned her dual-track M.A. in both Literature and Writing. Following the completion of the M.A., Christine began working on the MFA in Poetry. It was through her work in poetry that her interest in Rhetoric peaked. At the UW-Madison, Christine has taught both freshman and intermediate composition; her background and interest in poetics and classical rhetoric is often reflected in the courses she teaches.

Christopher Syrnyk is a Ph.D. student in Composition and Rhetoric interested in the intersection of rhetoric, literature, and ethics; applied ethics; rhetoric and the public sphere; moral politics; the animal question; classical and contemporary rhetorical theory; the history of ideas; rhetoric of voicelessness (how, why, and when we speak for others); work; rights-based thought; the rhetoric of medicine and bioethics; the essay; digital technology and culture; writing and tutorial program administration; as well as writing and rhetoric at the two-year college. And when Christopher's nose is not in a book he appreciates good cheeses; the outdoors; the Arts and Crafts movement; Mission-style furniture; single malt scotch from the Islay region; and his family, which now includes two daughters (so he is entirely outnumbered, for even the cat Scarlet is a female!). He has taught writing and literature for many years (English 100, English 169, etc.) and will be working in the Writing Center this fall for the first time.

Danielle Warthen is entering the third year of her doctoral program in the English department. Her research interests are in minority literacy and women of color fiction and feminist theory. She has taught freshman composition at the UW and at Virginia Tech, where she earned her M.A. Her interest in teaching lies in examining social ideas and mores and in re-imagining them by using texts that encourage students to look at things from different angles than what may be more easily accessible through, for example, the media.

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Professor Michael Bernard-Donals - Chair
Professor Jane Zuengler - Associate Chair
Professor Jacques Lezra - Director of Graduate Studies
Professor Sherry Reames - Undergraduate Director

English 201 / For Students

Who Teaches Engish 201?

Instructor Biographies (Spring 2007)

Instructor Biographies
(Spring 2007)