Director
Dr. Trixie Smith
I’m Trixie G. Smith, Director of The Writing Center and a member of the faculty in Rhetoric & Writing as well as the Center for Gender in Global Contexts at Michigan State University. Since joining the faculty at MSU in August 2007, I have taught WRA/ENG 395 Writing Center Theory and Practice (formerly ENG 391) AL 891 Writing Center Theory and Administration, AL 878 Composition Studies, and AL 980 Queer Rhetorics. I’m excited to begin teaching for the Women’s Studies program, including the core course for our soon to be finalized LGBTQ concentration.
After earning a BA in English and Elementary Education from Mobile College, I spent several years teaching middle and high school students in southern Alabama. I then headed to The University of South Carolina where I earned an MA in English (Renaissance Drama), an MLIS in Library and Information Science, and a PhD in Composition and Rhetoric, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies. My teaching and research are infused with issues of gender and activism even as they revolve around writing center theory and practice, writing across the curriculum, writing pedagogy, and teacher training. Likewise these areas often intersect with my interests in pop culture, service learning, and the idea that we’re just humans learning with/from other humans (you know, with bodies, feelings, lives outside the academy). I love it when my interests are able to intersect in faculty workshops, conference sessions, and professional development in the writing center.
Recent publications include Movies, Music, and More: Pop Culture in the English Studies Classoom (with Joseph Darowski, Fountainhead Press, 2011), 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). Other publications include a chapter in (E)merging Identities: Graduate Students in the Writing Center, several articles in Southern Discourse, and 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. Upcoming work includes The WAC/WID Handbook (with Allison Smith in 2012), a second edition of The Pop Culture Zone in 2014, and a chapter in Supporting Faculty Writing, co-written with members of one of the faculty writing groups facilitated out of The Writing Center. I am also one of the series editors for the Fountainhead Press X Series for Professional Development.
You can email Trixie at smit1254@msu.edu
Associate Directors
I’m Grace Pregent, the Associate Director of the Writing Center at Michigan State University. Within the College of Arts and Letters, I’m a member of the Leadership Fellows Program and the Military-Affiliated Students Learning Community. I’m also on the board of the East Central Writing Center Association and the Loyola University Chicago Victorian Society.
Currently I am completing my PhD in English from Loyola University Chicago, and my dissertation, Interpreting Minorness, traces minor character systems in and across narratives and examines how methods of reading have the potential to reframe how we understand and challenge social structures and networks in our world. I have an MA in English Literature from the University of Dallas (2010) and an MS in Higher Education Administration from the University of Dayton (2014). My research and publications explore intersections between rhetorical narrative theory and textual studies as well as writing center theory and praxis. My recent publications have appeared in Evelyn Waugh Studies and The Thomas Hardy Review. I’m honored to have been awarded the William and Mary Burgan Prize for Outstanding Presentation by a Graduate Student at the Midwest Victorian Literature Society Conference (2016) and the Amber Gravett and David Tuma Scholarship in English from Loyola University Chicago (2017).
Before joining the Spartan community, I worked in writing center administration and international studies and led study abroad programs. When not teaching, traveling, or being present in the writing center, I’m usually spending time with my husband and children, enjoying the beautiful state of Michigan, and training for my next marathon.
You’re welcome to connect with me at pregentg@msu.edu.