Writing in and About the Performing and Visual Arts: Creating, Performing, and Teaching

The performing and visual arts have much to offer writing studies in terms of process, creativity, design, delivery, and habits of mind (and body). This collection is intended for teachers and researchers of writing in and across the disciplines, in both secondary and post-secondary settings, and for those outside of writing studies who wish to infuse more writing into their performing and visual arts curriculums and courses. Filled with evocative images and vivid descriptions, contributors showcase ways of knowing and doing in the performing and visual arts. Contributors also offer teachers in the performing and visual arts go-to practical designs and strategies for teaching writing in their fields.

Steven J. Corbett is director of the University Writing Center and Associate Professor of English at Texas A&M University, Kingsville. He is the author of Beyond Dichotomy: Synergizing Writing Center and Classroom Pedagogies (2015), and co-editor (with Michelle LaFrance and Teagan E. Decker) of Peer Pressure, Peer Power: Theory and Practice in Peer Review and Response for the Writing Classroom (2014) and (with Michelle LaFrance) Student Peer Review and Response: A Critical Sourcebook (2018). His articles on writing and rhetoric pedagogy have appeared in a variety of journals, periodicals, and collections.

Jennifer Lin LeMesurier is assistant professor of Writing and Rhetoric at Colgate University, received her Ph.D. in English with a specialization in Language and Rhetoric from the University of Washington. Her research focuses on how movement practices are integral to the creation and reception of rhetoric. Her work can be found in such publications as College Composition and Communication, POROI, Rhetoric Review, and Rhetoric Society Quarterly.

Teagan E. Decker is associate professor of English and assistant dean of the Esther G. Maynor Honors College at the University of North Carolina, Pembroke. She currently teaches courses in composition and the humanities, supervises the senior project course sequence for the honors college, and teaches graduate courses in rhetoric. Her most recent publication is the co-edited collection (with Steven J. Corbett and Michelle LaFrance) Peer Pressure, Peer Power: Theory and Practice in Peer Review and Response for the Writing Classroom (2014). She is currently engaged in editing another collection, Writing Centers and Learning Commons: The Politics and Pedagogy of Sharing Common Ground.

Betsy Cooper chairs the Department of Dance at California State University, Long Beach. She directed the University of Washington's dance department from 2001-2013, later serving as Divisional Dean of Arts. Betsy has enjoyed a decades-long performance career with classical and contemporary companies, nationally and abroad. Her scholarship probes the intersections of dance, politics, and censorship of the body in early modern dance and Hollywood musicals, and the uses of embodied and reflective writing to promote engaged learning. Betsy holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Washington, and a BA, cum laude, from Yale University.