Skip to main content
Writing & Rhetoric

Faculty in Writing & Rhetoric

Michael Pennell

Michael Pennell, PhD

University College Advisor
Associate Professor

Office: Roosevelt 323
Office Hours: T/Th 2:00-3:00 and W 11:00-12:00
Phone: (401) 874-4861
E-mail: mpennell@uri.edu
Degrees: Eastern Michigan University; Purdue University

Teaching Interests:
Writing in electronic environments, business communications, argumentative and persuasive writing.

Recent and/or Forthcoming Publications:
  • "'If Knowledge is Power, You're About to Become Very Powerful': Literacy and Labor Market Intermediaries in Post-Industrial America." College Composition and Communication. February 2007.
  • "Fraternities and ITexts: Composing in the Post-Industrial Turn." Computers and Composition. 24.1 March 2007.
  • "Beyond Napster: Peer-to-Peer Technology and Network Culture." Digital Tools in Cultural Contexts: Assessing the Implications of New Media. Eds. Byron Hawk, Ollie Oviedo, and David Rieder. Forthcoming from University of Minnesota Press.
Current Research Interests: Writing technologies; research methodologies; social and literacy theory; literacy education in Rhode Island mill communities.

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.”


Learn More | View More Spotlights

Upcoming Events