About Me
My name is Roberto Leon and I am an assistant professor of writing studies at Georgia College and State University, Georgia's public liberal arts university. I am arecent graduate of the Language, Writing, and Rhetoric doctoral program at the University of Maryland College Park. My research, teaching, and service center on issues of encounter, form, and agency.
My research interests include histories and theories of rhetoric and composition, comparative rhetoric, professional/technical writing, second language writing, and writing program administration. I publish both scholarly articles and theory-informed teaching materials. I have recently presented on stasis theory, two-semester composition course sequences, and integrating AI in the composition classroom. Recent publications include:
“Composing Responsive Refutation Sections.” In Michal Reznizki and David Coad, eds. Dynamic Activities for First-Year Composition: 96 Ways to Immerse, Inspire, and Captivate Students. National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), 2023, pp. 126-127.
“Counter Arguments.” Writing Commons: The Encyclopedia for Writers, Researchers, and Knowledge Makers, January 2023.
I also have a forthcoming article on the figures of thought in Erasmus, a book chapter on Matteo Ricci and Chinese rhetoric, and a textbook chapter on stasis theory.
I teach first-year composition and graduate composition pedagogy at Georgia College. I have previously taught in Maryland, Hawai’i, and Utah, and have regularly taught online courses since 2013. Besides teaching first year composition, I have also designed and taught courses in rhetorical theory, technical writing, grammar, basic writing, L2 oral fluency, and tutoring oral fluency. In all my teaching, I encourage metacognition as a way of recognizing and developing flexible approaches to form and agency.
SERVICE
I currently serve as Teaching Fellows Coordinator, focused on professional development for graduate student instructors. With my colleagues, I also contribute to curriculum and faculty development. Previously, I have served as an Administrative Fellow for the University of Maryland's Writing Center and serve on the board of Interpolations: A Journal of Academic Writing at the University of Maryland. Previously, I have also served as an Administrative Fellow with our Academic Writing Program, a summer Administrative Fellow for the University of Maryland Writing Center, as a Mentor-in-Teaching with the English Department, and as a member of the Digital Presence committee of the Writing Program Administrators Graduate Organization (WPA-GO). I also served on the University of Maryland English Department's Writing Committee as a graduate student representative and co-chaired our 2020 graduate student conference, "Radical Visions: Abolition as Praxis in Literature, Rhetoric, and Culture."
