News, Awards, & Events

The Writing & Rhetoric Review is our new official newsletter! Click to learn more!

Improve your writing skills this semester! Make an appointment with tutors who are experienced across several disciplines.

The WRS and English departments welcome a new Academic Advisor. Click to learn more about Alex!

Our department is honored to introduce Professor Jennifer Andrus as our new chair. Click to read about the esteemed researcher and instructor!

The WRS department says goodbye to their exceptional Administrative Manager of 20 years.

Congratulations Professor Maureen Mathison and Utah Alumni Alexandria DeGrauw!! Their article, “Leveraging Grant-Writing for Transforming Students’ Normative Views of STEM” was just published in the latest issue of Across the Disciplines.

The Department of Writing & Rhetoric Studies is excited to announce a new publication in the journal "Teaching English in the Two-Year College"! Congratulations to Professor Christie Toth and students Emily Brown, Priscilla Hansen, Laura Burnham, Adriana Zarate, Aloyious Soranno, Trey Sanders, Kathryn Henderson.

We are proud to announce the winners of our 2024 Excellence in Writing Awards Ceremony. Click to read their bios and winning papers.

Join us for our department's annual Writing in Excellence Awards Ceremony where we celebrate students and instructors!

Pietera Fraser successfully defended her dissertation, "Multilingual Meditations: International Students' Identities and Experiences with Linguistic Diversity in Mindful First-Year Writing".

The Department of Writing and Rhetoric is delighted to welcome our new Administrative Manager!

The WRS Department congratulates Keola Kinghorn on her recent achievements. Keola received a College of Humanities Graduate Student Travel Award and will be presenting at future conferences.

Congratulations to all students, instructors, and professors on their recent achievements!

The Department of Writing and Rhetoric is pleased to announce the next speaker in the Thomas Huckin Distinguished Lecture series: Dr. Emily K. Suh

"Identity emerges in how people talk about themselves." Jana Cunningham and Aubrey Fochs feature Associate Professor Jennifer Andrus in "Perspectives."

Professor Maureen Mathison has been selected to receive the Distinguished Teaching Award

Our very own WRS graduate shares their experience as a transfer student from SLCC.

Department of Writing and Rhetoric is delighted to welcome our new Administrative Assistant!

Audra Carlisle, Instructional Design Consultant for the Center for Teaching Excellence, will lead a workshop on using principles of universal design to improve our Canvas course accessibility.

What have our graduate students been doing?

Faculty and Graduate student achievements Summer edition

This summer the Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies and Salt Lake Community College's Department of English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies successfully co-hosted the first-ever Salt Lake MLA Summer Institute on Reading and Writing Pedagogies at Access-Oriented Institutions.

Dr. Loni Manning -- a caring, committed teacher and valuable department colleague -- passed away on April 29, 2023. Obituary and memorial service information are linked.

Congratulations and thanks to our amazing colleagues in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies!

Let's celebrate our department members with September 2022's Good News!

Job applications are open for multiple Assistant Professor (Lecturer) positions in the Department of Writing & Rhetoric Studies. We look forward to welcoming new colleagues into the department!

Welcome to Alex Way, our newest career-line faculty member! We look forward to working with you Alex.

Come say hello to our new executive secretary! Theo Pilkington (they/them) is excited to be a part of this department in this role.

Here's some updates about what's been going on in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies!

Jon and Christie have both received tenure and been promoted to the position of Associate Professor. Congratulations!

Sabita Bastakoti will be attending the Denver Publishing Institute.

Congratulations to this year's DRWS graduating students! Come check out a slideshow featuring the bunch of amazing graduates our department has this year.

Recognizing another year of amazing students, instructors, and their writing!

We congratulate Sam Rivera Aguilar, a WRS and Kinesiology dual-major, for being selected as this year's UofU Commencement Student Speaker!

Our Executive Secretary, Kelli Borrowman, has accepted a new position with UOnline. Good luck on your future adventures, Kelli!

Nkenna Onwuzuruoha has been selected as one of ten previous CCCC presenter recipients of the 2022 Scholars for the Dream Travel Awards. Congratulations on your achievement!

We have some good news to share, to congratulate colleagues, & to help us ring in 2022.

Several announcements about appointments, awards, and presentations given throughout 2021.

Our colleagues continue to be quite productive in scholarly and creative performance.

This journal addresses issues that are relevant across global contexts, though they may be uniquely identified and experienced by individuals and groups.

The Department of Writing & Rhetoric Studies at the University of Utah announces its new stand-alone graduate program. Effective Fall 2021, we offer degrees through our department for the MA/MS & the Ph.D.

The Best WAC Article or Chapter Focused on Pedagogy, Theory, or Practice Award is awarded to Sundy Watanabe's chapter, "Intercultural Collaboration: Respect, Relationship, Responsibility, and Reciprocity."

The Department of Writing & Rhetoric Studies (DWRS) announces a new certificate in Professional & Technical Writing beginning in Fall 2021. The certificate was created to meet the demand for the need for successful writers.

Thank you to our high-achieving students and our colleagues! Here are some exciting accomplishments they've been up to!

Congratulations to all the winners. Come see who won and see a graduation slideshow video showcasing this year's graduates in Writing & Rhetoric Studies!

An amazing and incomplete list of publications and appointments from 2020.

An amazing and incomplete list of awards & nominations from 2020.

The goal is to provide a forum for creative and informative perspectives that educate, compel, and move. We request submissions that are mindful and provocative.

In recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct. 12 and Native American Heritage Month in November, the University of Utah is formally launching its Indigenous Land Acknowledgement.

Jon’s book project, Listening to the Lomax Archive, has recently received unanimous approval from the Faculty Executive Committee for the University of Michigan Press and will come out in both print and digital form.

Austin Memmott, one of our WRS majors (Class of 2017) and a transfer student from Snow College just graduated from the U's law school.

Natalie Stillman-Webb received an award for her incredible support of her colleges University-wide in setting up great online learning experiences for our students.

Honoring outstanding students and instructors for the 2019-2020 academic year. Congratulations Graduates!

Faculty member Romeo García continues to be quite productive in his scholarly and creative pursuits. Here is a small list of what he's been up to in 2019.

Jarrod Barben, a WRS major from the Class of 2018 who was also one of our first Writing Studies Scholars, has been admitted to the University of Utah's S. J. Quinney College of Law.

Join Joy Pierce, Ph.D. on 11/6 from 11:00am to 1:00pm at Google Fiber Space at Trolley Square.

DWRS Executive Secretary Kelli Borrowman shares her thoughts on the first annual Summer Program with Sun Yat-sen University.

Come learn about life after graduation with a degree in Writing & Rhetoric Studies. November 14th, 2019, 3:00pm in the CTIHB Jewel Box.

Available for Fall 2019 2nd Half, WRTG 2905 is a one-credit-hour, small-group tutorial course. It provides a supportive space for writers of all skill levels.

The Department of Writing & Rhetoric Studies and The Department for Continuing Education created the first-ever collaboration in the College of Humanities called Return to the U.

Jacque Thetsombandith, one of our majors and Writing Studies Scholars, has received a scholarship from the Utah Asian Charitable Foundation Scholarship, which is affiliated with the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce.

Published in Discourse Studies, the article title is "Identity, self and other: The emergence of police and victim/survivor identities in domestic violence narratives."

Jon Stone mentors the UofU Chapter for the Rhetoric Society of America.

The College of Humanities selected Jon Stone to receive this year's Rising Star Award. Congratulations!

Thank you to Alix and Rebecca for all of your hard work building and designing our new website.

Christie is an instrumental partner in the success of our students’ futures after they leave the institution, and we want to say thank you.

It is a pleasure to announce officially that Professor LuMing Mao will join the Department as Chair effective July 1.

Professor Joy Pierce of the Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies has agreed to join our College leadership team as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Alec Arbogast is a senior in the Writing and Rhetoric Studies department. He is also a published author with his debut Horror novel "The Last Odinian."

Faculty Member Max Werner has been awarded a grant from The Council of Dee Fellows.

Congratulations to Max who received this fellowship for research related to his project, "Wolf and Human Management: A Longitudinal Study."

Megan Tyler has been selected as one of ten Francis Family Foundation UROP Scholars for 2017-2018, for her project entitled “Gamification of Biology Literacy.” Congratulations Megan!

Romeo García, assistant professor in Writing & Rhetoric Studies is one of the editors of a new book "Rhetorics Elsewhere and Otherwise" Congratulations Romeo on such a great accomplishment.

Shauna Edson, an MA student in Communication and Writing & Rhetoric Studies, has been working with the Salt Lake City Public Library to help make our local communities more digitally inclusive.

"This exemplary volume will provide unparalleled assistance to those instructing in these types of interdisciplinary collaborative constructs.” —Liane Robertson, William Paterson University

The Department of Writing & Rhetoric Studies at the University of Utah is partnering with Edulinx, a US-based organization that provides learning opportunities to students around the world, to pilot a paid Teaching-Across-Borders Internship program for students majoring in or minoring in Writing & Rhetoric Studies in Spring 2019.

In his recently published book, Maximilian Werner, assistant professor, Writing & Rhetoric Studies, uses the vehicles of fly fishing, everyday experience, and some of our most sacred rituals to explore the origins and limitations of our behavior and ideas.

The Department of Writing & Rhetoric Studies is proud to showcase The Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Issues and Media. There is a current call for proposals for the next edition. The deadline is coming up on January 15th, 2019.

The U's Department of Writing & Rhetoric Studies is thrilled to announce the signing of a formal articulation agreement with Salt Lake Community College's new Associate of Science (AS) degree in Writing Studies.

Students, Jackson Kerbs and Ashley McFarland, worked with Faculty member Natalie Stillman-Webb to test the usability of our Departmental Website.

Faculty member Jon Stone has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his book "Listening to the Lomax Archive: The Sonic Rhetorics of American Folksong in the 1930s" Congratulations Jon!