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Writing & Rhetoric

Faculty in Writing & Rhetoric

Kim Hensley Owens

Kim Hensley Owens, PhD

Assistant Professor

Office: Roosevelt 326
Phone: (401) 874-4643
E-mail: okhensley@gmail.com
Degrees: University of Arizona; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Teaching Interests:
Rhetorical and composition theory, ethnography, scientific and technical writing, writing for community service, rhetorics of reproduction, feminist theory, FYC

Courses Recently Taught: WRT 305: Travel Writing, HPR 112: Ethnographic Writing, WRT 512: Studies in Rhetorical Theory, WRT 645: Rhetorics of/and Reproduction, WRT 490, WRT 333, WRT 304, WRT 104

Recent and/or Forthcoming Publications:
  • "Teaching 'the Six'--and Beyond." Pedagogy 9.3 (2009) 398-397.
  • "Confronting Rhetorical Disability: A Critical Analysis of Women's Birth Plans." Written Communication 26.3 (2009): 247-272. DOI: 0.1177/0741088308329217.
  • "Revelations and Representations: Birth Stories and Motherhood on the Internet." in Textual Mothers, Maternal Texts: Representations of Mothering in Contemporary Women's Literature, Fiction, Poetry and Life Writing. Eds. Andrea O'Reilly and Elizabeth Podeneiks. West Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier Press. Forthcoming.
  • "'Look Ma, No Hands!': Voice-Recognition Software, Writing, and Ancient Rhetoric." Enculturation. Forthcoming.
Current Research Interests: Rhetorics of childbirth (birth plans, birth narratives, and historical and medical childbirth rhetoric); intersections and responsibilities of writing instruction and ergonomics .

Announcements


Professor Nedra Reynolds Honored for Inclusion in The Norton Book of Composition Studies

Susan Miller, editor of the The Norton Book of Composition Studies, selected Professor Nedra Reynolds's 1998 article, “Interrupting Our Way to Agency: Feminist Cultural Studies and Composition,” for inclusion in the acclaimed anthology of Composition and Rhetoric scholarship. The collection boasts 101 of our discipline's most important and influential articles throughout the past 50 years. Professor Reynolds was honored at a luncheon sponsored by W.W. Norton and Company, where she was surrounded by proud colleagues, students, and peers. Please visit the university's announcement here.

The Harrington School of Communication and Media

URI alum, Richard J. Harrington, pledged a five million dollar gift to be put towards the creation of The Harrington School of Communication and Media. The school will unite five units within the College of Arts and Sciences, including Writing and Rhetoric. Please visit the university's announcement here.



Spotlight

WRT 647 Research Proposal Poster Presentations

Every other spring, URI community members gather in the Writing Center, 4th floor Roosevelt Hall, to look at and listen to the research proposals of graduate students in WRT 647, Seminar in Research Methods. The class, led by Prof. Mike Pennell of Writing and Rhetoric, spends the semester designing original research projects using a variety of methods, as well as learning the value of mixed methods research and critical methodologies for the study of all types of writing. The poster presentation event began in 1999 under the instruction of Prof. Libby Miles, now chair of Writing and Rhetoric. “A great research design makes sense to different audiences and addresses questions worth answering,” said Prof. Miles, who attended the most recent session. “Each year we do this, the work gets better and better.”


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