Discussions on Writing and Rhetoric

Episode 17: (Not So) Total Eclipse of the Arts 2024

For this episode, we are going to switch things up a little- to our very first episode sharing  live recordings of students on a campus event at  UCF. On Monday April 28th 2024 UCF hosted the Not So Total Eclipse event, organized by the Florida Space Institute, Department of Physics, and UCF Libraries in partnership with Office of Research. It was basically an eclipse watch party at the reflecting pond on our main campus.  Attendees could get safe Eclipse viewing eyewear and participate in a community oriented opportunity to, if not celebrate, at least witness this celestial event.  For our part, in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, we hosted a table for the College of Arts and Humanities Total Eclipse of the Arts. This included writing prompts related to the event created and executed by members of our Writing Center for participants to and share their thoughts and experiences with the eclipse and as well as live interviews capturing the thoughts and feelings in the moment.

Episode 16: Dr. Shane Wood - Director of First-Year Composition and Host of Pedagogue

Transcript: Episode 16
In this episode we talk with Dr. Shane Wood, our current Writing Program Administrator (WPA) and Director of First-Year Composition here at UCF. He is also the host of Pedagogue, a podcast about teachers talking writing featuring established and emerging scholars in rhetoric and composition. Dr. Wood’s podcast Pedagogue won the 2021 Kairos John Lovas Award along with the Computers and Composition Outstanding Digital Production Award in 2019. Dr. Wood is also the author of Teachers Talking Writing: Perspectives on Places, Pedagogies, and Programs, published in 2023. He has authored and co-authored more than a dozen articles and book chapters.

Episode 15: Knights Write Showcase 2024

At UCF, the Department of Writing and Rhetoric holds an annual event called Knights Write Showcase to celebrate the work of student writers. This event began in 2010 as a place to highlight and share the research and writing occurring in the first-year writing program, and has since become a multi-day event that encompasses work in composition courses, writing across the curriculum, our three departmental publications Stylus, Convergence, and Imprint, and also The University Writing Center, undergraduate, and graduate student work.
In this episode, we talk with the following students who participated in the event:
(0.00-15:24) Rosalind Rohrbaugh “Stephen King Is Right: We’re All a Little Nuts, and That’s Okay”
(15:25-32:49) Erick Rodriquez “How Course Requirements are Communicated to Students” / Imani Rodriguez “Online Identification of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Creators”
(32:50-52:59) Evonne Simpron “Beta Incels vs. The World” / Jenna Sutphin “Online Book Communities”
(53:00-1:11:45) Kaitlyn Pottinger “The Fool’s Journey to Enlightenment: How Tarot Cards Work” / Mikayla Crawford “Graphic Pathography” / Tasha Rentas “Graphic Journalism: The Stanton Energy Center”  
(1:11:46-1:31:59) Bella Love “Scrapbooking as Narrative”
Thank you to all the wonderful students who shared their experiences with us!
 

Episode 14: Natalie Madruga - Project POTENCIAL & Testimonio

Joining us for this episode is Natalie Madruga, Instructor in writing and Rhetoric at the University of Central Florida. 
Natalie’s research interests include eulogistic rhetoric, public memory and memorialization, critical race theory, cultural rhetorics, and writing pedagogy, with a pedagogical philosophy centered on a foundation in testimonio. Natalie was published in 2023 in Writers:Craft and Context with the article “ What it’s like to lose Papi: A counterstory on Grief''. Natalie was chosen for HSI Faculty Fellowship through the Office for Hispanic Serving Institution Initiatives for the 23-24 academic year, working with the Title 5 POTENCIAL grant to design and implement the faculty development component of Project POTENCIAL.

Episode 13: Dr. Laurie A. Pinkert - Artificial Intelligence Certificate & Writing Across the Curriculum

We are joined today by Associate Professor in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric and Director of Writing Across the Curriculum in the Center for Writing Excellence both at the University of Central Florida, Dr. Laurie A. Pinkert.  In addition to these positions, Dr. Pinkert also coordinates an interdisciplinary fellowship-writing initiative that is supported by the College of Graduate Studies. 
Dr. Pinkert's research aims to better understand relationships between writing and identity and to develop approaches to writing program design, development, and administration that can support writerly identity development. 
Most recently Dr Pinkert has been at the forefront of developing an AI undergraduate certificate program within the College of Arts and Humanities in addition to coursework surrounding AI and the teaching of writing.

Episode 12: Dr. Blake Scott and Professor Nathan Holic - Rhetoric of Health & Medicine / Comic Therapy

UCF Department of Writing and Rhetoric faculty members Blake Scott and Nathan Holic discuss their project "Strengthening Hospital Nurses’ Mental Health Resilience Through a Peer Support Training Program Using Comic Testimonials" which focused on introducing comic therapy to healthcare professionals. This won the 2021 Pabst Steinmetz Foundation Arts and Innovation Award. 

Episode 11: Knights Write Showcase 2023

At UCF, the Department of Writing and Rhetoric holds an annual event called Knights Write Showcase to celebrate the work of student writers. In this special episode we talk with several participants from the poster and panel presentations. The students and work featured in this episode are:
Jamie Salter “Learning to Keep Up” (0:00-19:04)
Megan Dever “Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Theatrical Literacies” and Parker Bowles “Who to Trust? Building Authority in Rhetoric” (19:06-36:53)
Madison Fernandes “The Marketplace of Ideas” (36:54-51:27)
Arielle Fedee, Mark McCleskey, and Mekenzie McElroy – University Writing Center Panel (51:30-1:13:20)
Natasha Odom “Main Suspect: Crime Dramas” and Riah Smith “The Exigence of Paradigms” (1:13:22-1:32:50)
Brendan Kelly “Rhetoric and Tragedy: An Exploration of Identification and Narrative in Sending Letters” (1:32:52-1:48:20)

Episode 10: Anthony Lince - Writing about Writing / Labor-Based Grading

Anthony Lince is a Latinx educator and scholar, and is currently a lecturer at University of California San Diego and other local institutions, teaching rhetoric and writing studies courses. His current work is focused on equitable assessment practices in higher education, which is the praxis in his courses where he utilizes labor-based grading. Anthony has published the journals California English and WPA Writing Program Administration, and has an upcoming chapter released in Effective Alternative Assessment Practices in Higher Education. 

Episode 9: Dr. Jeremy Carnes - Indigenous Rhetorics and Comics Studies

Dr. Jeremy Carnes is a Postdoctoral Scholar here at UCF specializing in Indigenous rhetorics, particularly visual and material rhetorics. He is working on his first book on comics by Indigenous creators and the rhetorical affordances of comics as a visual medium for considering land-based practices by Indigenous communities. In addition to indigenous rhetorics, Dr Carnes’ research interests include: Comics Studies, Media Studies, Fan Culture Studies, Translingualism, and the Digital Humanities. He is also currently working with Dr. Jamila Kareem, a past guest of ours on this podcast, on a grant funded by the Sam and Virginia Patz Foundation in partnership with the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Episode 8: What Can You Do With a Degree in Writing? Featuring Jaclyn Gardiakos and Jessica Walters

In this episode we talk with Jaclyn Gardiakos and Jessica Walters, who work in the field of professional writing and are both UCF Alumni. Jaclyn Gardiakos is the communications and public relations manager for Universal Engineering Sciences, the fastest-growing AEC firm in the US, and previously worked for Tupperware as a communications manager. Jessica Walters is a Content Strategist for Deloitte US, and similarly held a position with Tupperware as a content strategist. Our conversation touches on writing in professional environments, what it was like to be a part of the first DWR cohort of UCF, and the types of careers possible with a degree in writing.