Macmillan Learning Announces Bedford New Scholars Advisory Board for 2019

[MarisaBluestone]

June 18, 2019 -- Bedford/St. Martin’s, an imprint of Macmillan Learning, today announced the 10 new graduate students chosen to become part of the 2019 Bedford New Scholars program, an advisory board of graduate students for English Composition. The Bedford New Scholars are a critical part of the broader education community that teaches Composition courses to students, helping them develop the skills and abilities that will lay the foundation for every other course they take. A recent study by the Association of American Colleges & Universities found that many of the skills taught in Composition, including written communication, decision making, and analytical reasoning, were cited by more than three quarters of hiring managers and company executives as a top skill for college graduates.

While Bedford/St. Martin’s has long been connected to the Composition community, the Advisory Board began in 2008 as an additional way for Bedford/St. Martin’s to understand teaching challenges and new research and practice in the field from promising graduate students. The dozens of previous Bedford New Scholars have given the editorial team feedback on the direction of new projects, ultimately contributing to the creation of some of the company’s new course and teaching materials for composition courses. They also contribute to the teaching community at large by creating assignments that engage students in writing and address teaching challenges for Composition instructors.

“Bedford/St. Martin’s has long understood that Composition is a critical part of the holistic development of students’ writing skills and workplace success,” said Edwin Hill, Vice President of Humanities, Macmillan Learning. “Our continued investment in this space and partnership with this community underscores the importance of this coursework to a student’s future and we look forward to learning from the Scholars.”

The Bedford New Scholars meet throughout the year at the company’s offices, at conferences, and at focus groups and are included in market research that informs product development. Throughout the program, the Scholars also gain insight into the publishing process, provide feedback on the direction of new books and projects in Bedford/St. Martin’s pipeline and foster lasting professional connections with other rising scholars and teachers in writing studies.

The 2019 Bedford New Scholars are:

Shannon Butts, a PhD candidate in English with a concentration in Rhetoric and Writing Studies at The University of Florida. Butts teaches courses on digital rhetoric, remix writing, augmented reality, multimodal composition, public writing, professional communication, technofeminism, and first-year writing.

Joshua Chase, a PhD candidate in the Rhetoric, Theory, and Culture program at Michigan Technological University. Chase serves as the composition program coordinator and teaches courses in composition, literature, and technical writing.

Nina Feng, a PhD candidate in English with an emphasis in Writing and Rhetoric Studies at the University of Utah. Feng teaches Intermediate Writing, Writing in the Social Sciences, and Write4U, a course for transfer students.

Misty Fuller, a PhD candidate in English with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition at Louisiana State University. Fuller currently teaches first-year composition courses and was previously nominated for the Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award and served as a member of reader and assignment committees for first-year writing courses at the University of North Florida.

Leah Beth Johnston, a PhD candidate in English with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Arkansas. Johnston’s research focuses on first-year composition administration and marginal rhetorics, and her dissertation is a book that explores the intersection of the two.    

Caitlin Martin, a PhD candidate studying composition and rhetoric at Miami University, where she also serves as a graduate assistant director of the Howe Center for Writing Excellence. Martin has taught courses in composition theory and business writing in addition to face-to-face and online first-year composition and advanced writing courses.

Marissa McKinley, an Assistant Teaching Professor of English at Quinnipiac University who earned her PhD in English with a concentration in Composition and TESOL at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). McKinley will teach classes in First-Year Writing and Research Writing and will assist with the revision of the writing program.

Salena Parker, a PhD candidate in Rhetoric with a concentration in World Literature at Texas Woman's University. Parker teaches Composition I and II and serves as an English professor at Collin College. She previously taught College Readiness Writing, Introduction to Humanities, and ESL abroad.

Karen Tellez-Trujillo, a PhD candidate in English with a concentration in Rhetoric and Professional Communication at New Mexico State University. Tellez-Trujillo teaches Rhetoric and Composition, Business and Professional Communication, Technical and Scientific Communication, and the Rhetoric of the Horror Story and also serves as a Writing Program Coordinator and Writing Program Mentor.

Carrie Wilson, an MA candidate in English at Appalachian State University. Wilson has taught Introduction to Writing Across the Curriculum and Expository Writing.

Find more information about the Bedford New Scholars here.

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