Hi, I'm Trixie Smith, Director of The Writing Center at MSU. You can check out the real me and what I do in The Writing Center on the Director's Blog located on this website. You can reach me at smit1254@msu.edu. Below is the official bio:
Trixie G. Smith is Director of The Writing Center and a member of the faculty in Rhetoric & Writing at Michigan State University. Since joining the faculty at MSU in August 2007, she has taught WRA/ENG 395 Writing Center Theory and Practice (formerly ENG 391) and AL 891 Writing Center Theory and Administration. In Fall 2009 she'll be teaching Al 980 Queer Rhetorics.
After earning a BA in English and Elementary Education from Mobile College, she spent several years teaching middle and high school students in southern Alabama. She then received an MA in English, an MLIS inLibrary and Information Science, and a PhD in Composition and Rhetoricfrom the University of South Carolina, as well as a Graduate Certificate inWomen’s and Gender Studies. Her teaching and research revolve around writing center theory and practice, writing across the curriculum, writing pedagogy, and teacher training. These areas often intersect with her interests in pop culture, service learning, gender studies, and activism.
Recent publications include a book chapter in (E)merging Identities: Graduate Students in the Writing Center, several articles in Southern Discourse, COMPbiblio: Leaders and Influences in Composition Theory and Practice (with Allison Smith and Karen Wright, Fountainhead Press, 2007)—a reference book focusing on the career arcs of leaders in composition studies, the textbook The Pop Culture Zone: Writing Critically about Popular Culture(with Allison Smith and Stacia Watkins, Cengage/Wadsworth, 2009), and Teaching in the Pop Culture Zone: Using Popular Culture in the Writing Classroom (with Allison Smith and Rebecca Bobbitt, Cengage/Wadsworth, 2009). Upcoming work includes Movies, Music, and More: Pop Culture in the English Studies Classoom (with Joseph Darowski and Allison Smith). Smith is also one of the series editors for theFountainhead Press X Series for Professional Development.