University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Faculty Member, English
Director, Writing-Based Inquiry Seminars
Thesis Title: Enacting and Interrogating the "Academic" in Undergraduate Language and Literacy Practices
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Paul Prior
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About
My Ph.D. dissertation research investigates the tensions between the diverse literate practices of academics and the homogeneous representations of academic writing that we communicate to student writers through our pedagogical materials and practices. I argue for pedagogical and research practices that engage students in professional-level discussion of academic language and literacy practices, and I conduct longitudinal studies of former students in order to examine both how they negotiate the shifting demands of academic writing and how continued conversation can help them in these negotiations. In my research, I am guided by sociolinguistic, anthropological linguistic, and sociohistoric theories; feminist research methods and pedagogies; and a tradition of writing studies scholarship on academic writing and language diversity.
My research is driven by my passion for teaching. I am especially devoted to working with students who might be labeled basic writers, particularly those from language backgrounds other than Standardized English. I am currently a consultant and a trainer of new undergraduate consultants at the UIUC Writers Workshop; I also frequently teach lower-division composition courses, for which I won a highly competitive campus-wide teaching award in 2009. I have related interests and experience with writing program administration, having served as Assistant Director of UIUC's Academic Writing Program (our "basic writing" sequence) and Composition Coordinator in the Summer Bridge Program (for "at-risk" incoming first-year students), as well as with writing across the curriculum, having assisted with WAC workshops and served on the Advisory Committee for UIUC's Center for Writing Studies. My interest in diverse language practices, meanwhile, stems from my undergraduate B.A. in English linguistics.
