Plenary Speakers

12:45-1:45 Oakland Center, Gold Rooms ABC

"Profiles of Engagement": This year's Corridors Conference offers a triple-feature plenary with three 12-15 minute presentations profiling three different community engagement projects by four faculty members from Oakland University's Department of Writing and Rhetoric:

Roger Chao, “Learn and Unlearn: How Writing ‘About’ the Community Promotes Authentic Engagement”

Bio: Roger Chao is an assistant professor of writing and rhetoric at Oakland University. His research interests include university-community partnerships and the teaching of writing in community-based contexts. In the past, he has taught first-year service-learning composition at the University of Washington as well as adult basic education at Literacy Source, a non-profit organization in Seattle. Currently, he is working alongside Pontiac Youth Project, Sanctum House, and the Oakland Literacy Council.

Sheryl Ruszkiewicz, "Community Building with Storytelling: Engaging in Diversity and Inclusion"

Bio: Sheryl Ruszkiewicz is a Special Lecturer at Oakland University, where she teaches in the First-Year Writing program. She is a co-editor of Content Strategy in Technical Communication (forthcoming). Additionally, she is a contributor to OU’s Diversity Storytelling, an inter-departmental storytelling project. Her past projects include coordinating the Oakland University Facing Project, developing C’s the Day, teaching a service-learning technical writing course, and co-creating a zombie-themed augmented reality game.

Glen Armstrong and Marshall Kitchens, “Barred Corridors: Teaching Creative Writing in a Medium-Security Prison”

Bios:

Glen Armstrong holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and teaches writing at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters, and his books include Simpler Times and Staring Down Miracles. Other work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Conduit, and Cream City Review.

Marshall Kitchens is an associate professor in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric and director of the Meadow Brook Writing Project. He earned a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Wayne State University. His research interests include creative nonfiction, prison writing programs, technology and pedagogy, and video game culture. Dr. Kitchens has been teaching at OU since 2000.