Biography

 

Rebecca Lorimer Leonard is a Professor in the Department of English at University of Massachusetts Amherst where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on literacy studies, language diversity, and research methods.

Professor Lorimer Leonard is currently completing a monograph that revises and extends her theory of “literacy relays” from her first book, Writing on the Move. Based on six years of community-engaged research, the new book, Literacy Relays: Heritage Literacy in Multilingual Families, demonstrates the mobile, embodied, and transformative literacies that run through multilingual families’ generations.

This research has roots in several literacy projects collaboratively conducted with the International Language Institute of Massachusetts (ILI), studies of which have been published in Community Literacy Journal, College English, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, and on ILI’s blog.

Her past scholarship includes research on critical language awareness (College English, Journal of Second Language Writing); the transfer of writing knowledge (College Composition and Communication, College English); language identities and institutional surveys (Journal of Language, Identity & Education); and the literate practices of multilingual migrant writers (Mobility Work in Composition, Written Communication, College English, Research in the Teaching of English).

Professor Lorimer Leonard’s monograph, Writing on the Move: Migrant Women and the Value of Literacy, won the 2019 Outstanding Book Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication and an Honorable Mention for the 2018 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award from the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition. Her College Composition and Communication article, co-written with colleagues Angela Rounsaville and Rebecca Nowacek, won a 2023 Best Article Award from the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum. 

CV

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2024–present
    • Faculty Affiliate, Program in Language, Literacy, and Culture, College of Education
  • Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2018–2024
    • Director, University of Massachusetts Amherst Writing Program, 2020–2022
  • Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2012–2018
    • Director, University of Massachusetts Amherst Writing Center, 2012–2016
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of English, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2007–2012
    • Assistant Director, Writing Across the Curriculum Program, 2010–2011
  • Lecturer, English Department, San Francisco State University, 2007
  • English Instructor, Universidad Tecnica de Machala, Instituto de Idiomas, Machala, Ecuador, 2005–2006

EDUCATION

  • PhD in English, program in Composition and Rhetoric, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2012
  • MA in English, concentration in Composition, San Francisco State University, 2005
  • BA in English, University of Southern California, 2002

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Edited Special Issues

Articles, Essays, and Book Chapters

Reviews

AWARDS and HONORS

External

  • Best Article of the Year Award from the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum, for “Relationality in Writing Transfer Research,” 2022
  • Honorable Mention for Journal of Second Language Writing Best Article of the Year Award for “The Social Justice Potential of Critical Reflection and Critical Language Awareness Pedagogies for L2 Writers,” 2020
  • CCCC Outstanding Book Award for Writing on the Move: Migrant Women and the Value of Literacy, 2019
  • Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award Honorable Mention for Writing on the Move: Migrant Women and the Value of Literacy, 2018
  • National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Promising Researcher Award, recipient, 2014
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication Chair’s Memorial Scholarship, recipient, 2011

Internal

  • Distinguished Teaching Award, UMass Amherst, recipient, 2023
  • Outstanding Teaching Award, UMass Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts, recipient 2017
  • Future Faculty Partner, UW-Madison Teaching Academy, recipient, spring 2010
  • Early Excellence in Teaching Award, UW-Madison English Department, recipient, spring 2009
  • Excellence in Teaching Award, UW-Madison (campus-wide) nominee, fall 2008
  • Joyce Melville Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing, UW-Madison English Department, recipient for “The Rhetorical Potential of Translation”, 2008

FELLOWSHIPS and GRANTS

External

  • Community Literacies Collaboratory (CLC) Literacies Research Grant for “The Literate Mending Project” August 2023
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar Scholar for “The Cross-Border Connection: Immigrants, Emigrants, and their Homelands” with Roger Waldinger, June–July 2015
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication Research Initiative Grant for “The Language Repertoires of First-Year Writers: A Cross-Institutional Study of Multilingual Writers” 2014
  • Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Chancellor’s Opportunity Dissertation Fellowship, 2011–2012

Internal

  • Public Service Endowment Grant, UMass Amherst, 2023
  • Mellon Mutual Mentoring Micro Grant, 2021–2022
  • Fellow, UMass Amherst Public Engagement Project, 2021
  • Team Lead, Mellon Mutual Mentoring Grant “Linguistic Diversity at UMass,” UMass Amherst Institute for Teaching Excellence & Faculty Development, 2019–2020
  • UMass Amherst Faculty Research / Healey Endowment Grant, 2019–2020
  • UMass Amherst Humanities and Fine Arts Research Grant, 2019–2020
  • Faculty Fellow, UMass Amherst Civic Engagement and Service-Learning, 2017–2018
  • UMass Amherst Internationalization Grant, 2015–2016
  • Fellow, UMass Amherst Interdisciplinary Studies Institute on “Value” 2014–2015
  • UMass Amherst institutional nomination for 2014 NEH Summer Grant, September 2013
  • UMass Amherst Faculty Presentation Funds: awarded annually 2012–2020
  • UMass Amherst Flex Grant for Teaching/Faculty Development: awarded annually 2013–2020
  • Massachusetts Society of Professors Research Support Funds: awarded annually 2013–2020
  • HEX (Humanities Exposed) Grant, UW-Madison, spring 2009, for “The Writing Food Project”

KEYNOTES and INVITED TALKS

  • Invited speaker, “Theories of Transfer to Support Writing Pedagogy,” Northeastern University, Boston, MA, April 2025
  • Invited speaker for the Shug Jordan Lecture, “Relationality in the Transfer of Writing Knowledge,” Auburn University, Atlanta, GA, February 2025
  • Invited workshop leader, “Community-Engaged Writing Activities for Critical Language Awareness,” Boston Area Rhetoric and Writing Summer Institute, UMass Boston, Boston, MA, June 2024
  • Invited workshop leader, “How Transfer Research Beyond Writing Studies Informs the Teaching of Writing,” Boston Area Rhetoric and Writing Summer Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, June 2023
  • Invited speaker, “Sustaining Community Engagement Over Time.” University of Washington, Tacoma, Tacoma, WA, January 2023
  • Invited speaker, “Writing on the Move: Literacy Relays in the Lives of Multilingual Migrants.” Wesleyan University English Lecture Series, Middletown, CT, November 2019
  • Keynote speaker, “The Complexity of Institutional Language Surveys” Second Language Writing Standing Group Workshop, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Pittsburgh, March 2019
  • Invited workshop leader, “Threshold Concepts and Transfer of Knowledge” 7th Biennial Threshold Concepts Conference, Miami University of Ohio, Oxford, OH, June 2018
  • Invited speaker, “Researching Writing on the Move: Literacy Relays” Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, March 2018
  • Invited speaker, “What Multilingual Writers Know and Need” Queens College Writing Program, New York, April 2017
  • Keynote speaker, “Managing Writing on the Move” Thomas R. Watson Conference, Louisville, October 2016

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Baltimore, MD, “Expanding Theory and Practice of Mobile, Multilingual Genres” April 2025
  • Conference on Writing Education Across Borders, Salt Lake City, UT, “Emerging Research in Genre Trajectories Across Borders” September 2024
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Spokane, WA, “Navigating Social Change with Community Writers: Families, Campus Workers, and Community Seniors” and “Intergenerational Graduate Mentorship” April 2024
  • Conference on Community Writing, Denver, CO, “Leveraging Roots for Social Change: Writing with Families, Campus Workers, and Community Seniors” October 2023
  • Writing Research Across Borders, Trondheim, Norway, “Writing Across the Borders of Community-Engaged Research” February 2023
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, “Language Awareness as Language Justice: Critical Language Awareness in Writing Studies” March 2022
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, “What is Justice in Critical Language Awareness?” Second Language Writing Standing Group Workshop, Invited respondent, March 2022
  • Conference on Community Writing, Washington DC, “Writing for Social Change Across Communities: Four Sites of Justice, Peace, and Healing” October 2021
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Spokane, “Transnational Composition, Identities, and Pedagogies” Invited respondent, April 2021
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Milwaukee, “Community-engaged Writing as Transnational Literacy: Mending Literate Fragmentation” March 2020 (cancelled due to COVID)
  • Conference on Community Writing, Philadelphia, “How Community Writing Does the Work of the Writing Studies Major” October 2019
  • Conference on Writing Education across Borders, Penn State, “Feeling ‘Whole-some’: How Writing Across Borders Can Mend Literate Separation” September 2019
  • American Educational Researchers Association, Toronto,“Centering Marginalized Voices: Emergent and Experienced Bilinguals as Writers ‘in the Struggle’” Invited discussant, April 2019
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Pittsburgh, “The Rules of the Road: Performing Mobile Literacies On and Off Campus” March 2019
  • Thomas R. Watson Conference, Louisville, “Learning to Drive: Navigating Immigrant Literacies with a Critical Service Learning Project” October 2018
  • Modern Language Association, New York, “Writing Security, Writing Insecurity” Presidential theme session, January 2018
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Portland, “Gifts, Heritage, Habit: How Literacies Move among Writers” April 2017
  • Writing Research Across Borders, Bogota, “Mobility in Writing Studies: Theoretical and Empirical Studies in How Writing Moves” February 2017
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Houston, “Acting Strategically with Multilingual Writers: Results from a Cross-institutional Research Study” April 2016
  • International Writing Centers Association Conference, Pittsburgh, “Evolving with Multilingual Writers” October 2015
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Tampa, “Centering Language Diversity: Innovations in Literacy Research” and “The Job, not Just the Job Market: Preparing for Professional Life in Composition & Rhetoric” March 2015
  • Rhetoric Society of America, San Antonio, “After the Border? Rethinking the Rhetorical Exigencies of Border Writers” May 2014
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Indianapolis, “Opening Spaces for Multilingual Students: Creating Pathways for Transition” March 2014
  • Writing Research Across Borders, Paris, “The Socio-Materialist Turn in Writing Studies: Tracing Immigrant Letter Writing” February 2014
  • Northeast Writing Centers Association, University of New Hampshire, “Multilingual Transfer and Writing Centers” April 2013
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Las Vegas, “Multilingual Literacy Practices and Implicit Language Policy” March 2013
  • Thomas R. Watson Conference, Louisville, “Multilingual Capital and Shifting Values in Linguistic Markets: Literate Resources” October 2012
  • International Writing Centers Conference, San Diego, “Transfer Theory and Writing Center Research” October 2012
  • International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, Savannah, “Considering Multilingualism in Transfer Theory” July 2012
  • Rhetoric Society of America, Philadelphia, “Metonymic Reframing in Multilingual Communication” May 2012
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, St. Louis,“Transnational Writing Research: Traveling Methodologies in an Age of Globalization” March 2012
  • Midwest Writing Centers Association, UW-Madison, “Considering Multilingualism in Transfer Theory” and “Graduate Student WPAs in Writing Center Studies” October 2011
  • Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition, Penn State,“Bilingual Teachers as Multilingual Writers: Developing Rhetorical Attunement” July 2011
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Atlanta, “Literacies of Migration / Migration of Literacies: Moving between Languages and Locations” April 2011
  • NCTE Assembly for Research, Madison, “Mapping Context: Immigrant Women Writing in Classrooms and Communities” February 2011
  • Thomas R. Watson Conference, Louisville,“Immigrant Writers Returning to College: How Literacies Work Across Global Settings” October 2010
  • Rhetoric Society of America, Minneapolis, “Toward a Rhetoric of Multilingual Writing: The Rhetorical Potential of Translation” May 2010
  • Humanities Exposed Public Humanities Conference, UW-Madison, “What Does a Project Leave Behind? Theorizing Public Humanities Outcomes” March 2010
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, Louisville, “Rethinking the Space Between Languages” March 2010
  • Feminism(s) & Rhetoric(s), Michigan State University, “Rhetorical Movement: Women Writing in a Global Station” October 2009
  • Expanding Literacy Studies Conference, The Ohio State University, “Community Literacy Work: Best Practices for Building Community/Academic Connections” April 2009 (with Pamela VanHaitsma)
  • Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, “Chicano Movement Rhetoric and Transformative Literacy” March 2009
  • Humanities Exposed Public Humanities Conference, UW-Madison, “Humanities and Food: Harvesting the Pedagogical Possibilities” March 2009
  • Race in the Writing Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, “Challenging Exclusionary Practices in Writing Centers: Recruitment, Training, Administration, Outreach” February 2008

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • Dartmouth Summer Seminar for Composition Research, “The Language Repertoires of First-Year Writers: A Cross-Institutional Study of Multilingual Writers” Dartmouth College, July 2017
  • Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institutes
    • Workshop “Art and Practice of Grant Writing” Penn State University, May 2023
    • Seminar “Transnational Rhetorical Research” University of Wisconsin-Madison, June 2015
    • Seminar “Comparative Rhetorics” and Workshop “Translingual Rhetorics” University of Kansas, July 2013
    • Workshop “Toward a Rhetoric of Multilingual Writing” Penn State, July 2009
  • Research Network Forum at CCCC, “Women Writing in a Global Station” San Francisco, March 2009
  • CRAFT Research Forum, San Francisco State University, “Stakeholder Perspectives of Writing Assessment,” May 2005
  • SF State Transformative Literacy Seminar, Oaxaca, Mexico, summer 2004

TEACHING

University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Undergraduate
    • Englwrit 111, Basic Writing, fall 2017
    • Englwrit 112, College Writing, fall 2016, fall 2019
    • Eng 250, Introduction to Writing, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies, fall 2023, spring 2026
    • Eng 329H, Tutoring Writing: Theory and Practice, fall 2012, fall 2013, fall 2014, fall 2015
    • Eng 350, Literacy on Farms and in Gardens, fall 2018
    • Eng 391, Multilingualism and Literacy (community-engaged course), spring 2018, fall 2018, spring 2022
    • Eng 391, Multilingual Writing and Global Language Change, spring 2013
    • Eng 486, Writing and Schooling, spring 2024, spring 2025
  • Graduate
    • Eng 698B, Introduction to Teaching College Writing, fall 2016, spring 2017, fall 2019, spring 2020
    • Eng 698V, Special Topics in Teaching College Writing, fall 2020, spring 2021, fall 2022
    • Eng 712, Writing and the Teaching of Writing, fall 2017
    • Eng 792, Graduate Writing Workshop, spring 2024
    • Eng 891, Writing and Language Ideologies, spring 2014, spring 2020, spring 2026
    • Eng 891, Introduction to Research on Writing, spring 2018
    • Eng 891, Literacy Studies, spring 2017
    • Eng 891, Genre, Transfer, and Social Action, fall 2023
    • Eng 891, Composition Theory, spring 2023, fall 2024
  • Independent Studies
    • Writing and Rhetoric for Change—honors undergraduate, fall 2023
    • Writing and Language Diversity—graduate, spring 2022, 2023, 2024
    • Literacy and Video Games—graduate, spring 2018
    • Teaching with Service Learning—grad/undergrad, spring 2018, fall 2018
    • Comparative, Contrastive, Cultural rhetorics—graduate, fall 2015
    • Language Diversity in Writing Centers—undergraduate, fall 2014
    • Research Methods in Writing Studies—graduate, spring 2014

International Language Institute of Massachusetts

  • Literate Mending Project, family literacy workshops—spring 2023, spring 2024
  • Translanguaging as Language Pedagogy, professional development workshops—fall 2023
  • Linguistic Diversity and Social Justice, staff community read workshops—spring 2019
  • Giving Feedback and Writing to Learn, professional development workshops—summer 2017

University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Eng 201, Literacy and Crisis—intermediate composition, spring 2010
  • Eng 201, The Writing Food Project—intermediate composition service-learning, spring 2009, fall 2009, fall 2008
  • ESL 118, Academic Writing II—UW-Madison ESL Program, summer 2009
  • Expository Writing—People Program writing seminar for first-generation college students, summer 2009
  • Eng 100, Writing in Space and Place—first-year composition, spring 2008
  • Eng 100, Public and Private Writing—first-year composition, fall 2007
  • Writing Center Tutor—Outreach tutor 2008–2011, Community Writing Assistance tutor 2009–2011, Online synchronous and asynchronous tutor 2009–2010

San Francisco State University and Bay Area

  • English 414—developmental writing, SF State English Department, spring 2007
  • Beginning English Speaking—Even Start Adult Education Novato, CA, summer 2005
  • ESL Academic Writing Tutor—SF State Learning Assistance Center, 2004–2005

Universidad Tecnica de Machala, Instituto de Idiomas, Machala, Ecuador

  • Advanced English Speaking and Writing (level 7), fall 2005, spring 2006
  • Beginning English Grammar (level 1-2) spring 2006
  • Intermediate English Grammar (level 5-6), fall 2005, spring 2006
  • Teaching and assessing writing in English, teacher training course, spring 2006

WRITING PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION

Director, University of Massachusetts Amherst Writing Program, 2020–2022

  • Lead Curricular and Professional Development
    • Maintain research-based best practices in WP’s curriculum, teacher training, professional development, and placement and assessment practices.
    • Collaborate with WP directors on special projects and revisions to program curriculum, assessment, teaching materials, and staff development.
    • Develop and maintain long-range planning, including collaborating with the Administrative Director and HR Manager/bookkeeper in budgeting processes and decisions.
  •  Campus Outreach and Advocacy
    • Act as a central leader in the campus writing culture and advocate for the resources to support it.
    • Advocate for the WP by corresponding with other academic units as needed (e.g. Honors College, Disability Services, Center for Teaching, HFA Deans, Vice Provost for undergraduate studies), including taking the lead in high-stakes programmatic decisions or situations.
    • Collaborate with English Department GPD and MFA Director to negotiate graduate student admissions and hiring timeline for WP’s graduate student instructors.
    • Serve on the General Education Council, which reviews GE course proposals, and on the University Writing Committee, which reviews first-year and junior-year writing programs every five years.
  • Supervise and Mentor Instructional Staff
    • Collaboratively oversee ~300 sections of first year writing per year.
    • Collaboratively reappoint, train, supervise ~80 new and returning instructors.
    • Collaboratively interview, hire, train and supervise ~30 new instructors annually.
    • Annually revise teacher education and ongoing professional development as needed in collaboration with WP Directors.
    • Meet with grievance cases; respond to student complaints and grade challenges.
  • Supervise and Mentor Professional Staff
    • Assign teaching, service, and administration duties among administrative team and lecturers.
    • Coordinate administrative matters related to personnel actions and personnel issues including periodic and annual reviews and approvals; liaise with labor relations.
    • Act as search committee appointing authority.
    • Support professional development opportunities for WP administrative team.
    • Support the Associate Directors of Junior Year Writing and the Director of the Writing Center.

Director, University of Massachusetts Amherst Writing Center, 2012–2016

  • Hiring, Training, Mentoring: hired and supervised staff of 45-50 undergraduate and graduate writing tutors and 3 assistant directors; trained 16-18 intern tutors every fall; evaluated tutors through regular observations; coordinated staff meetings and professional development workshops
  • Administration: set Center’s policies and procedures; wrote end-of-year reports; set and maintained budget and schedule
  • Outreach: advocated for the Center and for writing on campus; regularly met with Provost’s office, Writing Program, and other stakeholders; represented Center on university- and college-level committees
  • WAC/WID: consulted with faculty and TAs on teaching with writing; collaborated with university support centers to develop and lead workshops, including:
    • Giving Feedback on Writing—Graduate School, Oct. 2013 / Center for Teaching and Faculty Development (CTFD), Apr. 2012, Sep. 2013, 2014, 2015
    • Teaching to Avoid Plagiarism—CTFD, Nov. 2014
    • Working with Multilingual Writers—Writing Program Teaching Assistants Orientation, Sep. 2013, 2014, 2016
    • Sequencing Writing Assignments—CTFD, Dec. 2013 / Junior Year Writing, Apr. 2014
    • Designing Writing Assignments—CTFD, Nov. 2013
    • From Process to Publication—Graduate school, Oct. 2013
    • Revising Writing Assignments—Quinsigamond Community College, Oct. 2013

Assistant Director, Writing Across the Curriculum, University of Wisconsin-Madison, June 2010–August 2011

  • Consulted with faculty and instructional staff about designing writing-intensive assignments, revising course and assessment designs, commenting on student writing, and incorporating writing into service-learning courses
  • Co-led 3-day semester training for 60+ new TAs teaching writing-intensive courses across the university; gave 2011 spring and fall plenary addresses on “Sequencing Activities for Revision”
  • Led faculty, staff, and instructor professional development workshops, including:
    • Evaluating Science Writing—Biocore program, Apr. 2011
    • Designing Effective Writing Assignments, ongoing Sep. 2010–May 2011
    • Responding to and Evaluating Student Writing, ongoing Sep. 2010–May 2011
    • Conferencing with Student Writers, ongoing Sep. 2010–May 2011
  • Led workshops at the UW-Madison Teaching Academy Teaching and Learning Symposium, including:
    • Planning for Success in Teaching with Service Learning, May 2010 (with David Stock)
    • Multilingual Writers in the University, May 2008
  • Wrote and edited a WAC newsletter each semester for more than 1400 faculty and instructional staff
  • Co-edited a 300-page sourcebook for faculty and TAs: wrote new content, revised materials, updated layout, coordinated production
  • Assisted in development of new WAC website using Drupal; transferred content; led focus group assessments of website in development

Other Invited Professional Development Workshops

  • Conducting Research in a Pandemic, UMass Amherst English Graduate Organization, Sep. 2020
  • Imagining/Translation/Power, UMass Amherst English Faculty Colloquium, Oct. 2019
  • Teaching Community Engagement in English Studies, UMass Amherst English Faculty Colloquium, Dec. 2018
  • Designing Writing Activities for Language Learning, International Language Institute of Massachusetts, June 2017
  • Getting Published—UMass Amherst English Graduate Organization, Oct. 2013, Apr 2017
  • Preparing for the Job Market—UMass Amherst Graduate School, Apr. 2014
  • Writing Grants, UMass Amherst Comp/Rhet Colloquium, Nov. 2012
  • Teaching Community Writing, UW-Madison English Department Lesson Fair—Mar. 2011
  • Teach don’t Edit: Working with Grammar and Multilingual Writers—UW-Madison Writing Fellows workshop, Feb. 2010
  • Working with Grantwriters—UW-Madison Writing Center Instructor Development Workshop, Feb. 2009
  • Writing Grants—Grassroots Leadership College, Madison Public Libraries, Nov. 2008
  • Teaching Believing and Doubting—New Instructors Workshop, UW-Madison English 100 Program, Feb. 2008
  • Evaluating Multilingual Writers—WorldTeach Mid-year Training, Ecuador, Apr. 2006

ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP and SERVICE

Professional

  • Special Issues Editor, Community Literacy Journal, 2024–present
  • UMass representative to the Coalition for PhD programs in Composition and Rhetoric, 2022–present
  • Elected Member, MLA RCWS History and Theory of Composition Executive Committee, 2020–2025
  • Member, Berlin Dissertation Award judging committee, National Council of Teachers of English, 2020
  • Abstract Reviewer, AAAL Conference Committee, 2021
  • Elected Member, CCCC Nominating Committee, 2019
  • MLA Special-Interest Elected Delegate for Composition, Rhetoric, and Writing, 2016–2019
  • Member, Ohmann Award judging committee, NCTE, 2015
  • Editorial Review Board, Research in the Teaching of English
  • Editorial Associate, Literacy in Composition Studies
  • Ad-hoc Reviewer for College English, College Composition and Communication, Composition Forum, Composition Studies, Journal of Second Language Writing, Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, TESOL Journal, Writing Center Journal, Written Communication
  • Reviewer for monographs and collections at Routledge, Utah State University Press

University and College

  • English Department Representative, HFA Research Council, 2024–present
  • Member, Fulbright Campus Committee, 2018–present
  • Member, Committee for the Selection of Distinguished Teaching Award, 2024
  • Member, General Education Studies Committee, 2020–2023
  • Member, International Studies Committee, 2015–2018
  • Member, Committee for the Selection of CHFA Teaching Award, 2018
  • Faculty Scorer, Student Learning Assessment Project, 2017
  • Member, University Writing Committee, 2013–2016
  • Member, Learning Commons Committee, 2013–2016
  • Member, Teaching Commons Committee, 2012–2014

Department

  • Member, English Department Personnel Committee, 2024–present
  • Member, Composition and Rhetoric Area Committee, 2012–present; coordinator 2017–2019
  • Coordinator, Elbow Symposium, 2023–present
  • Member, English Department Graduate Studies Committee, 2015–2017, 2019–2021, 2022–present
  • Member, Western Massachusetts Writing Project Executive Committee, 2013–2023
  • Member, Ad-hoc Committee on Anti-Racism, 2021–2022
  • Member, Nominating Committee, spring 2022
  • Member, Chair’s Advisory Committee, 2019–2020
  • Director, Elbow Symposium for the Study and Teaching of Writing, 2018 (theme: transnational approaches to language, literacy, and activism) and 2013 (theme: transnational literacy)
  • Member, EEP (Educational Effectiveness Plan) Reading Committee, 2018
  • Member, English Department Undergraduate Studies Committee, 2013–2015
  • Co-Coordinator, English Department Colloquium, 2013–2014
  • Member, Rhetoric and Composition / Writing Program Job Search Committees, 2013–2014, 2017–2018, 2019–2020

Community

  • Board Member, International Language Institute of Massachusetts, 2021-2023

University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Editorial Board Member, Concientización: A Journal of Chican@ & Latin@ Experience and Thought, 2011
  • Co-coordinator, Composition & Rhetoric Colloquium, UW-Madison, WI, 2009–2010
  • Mentor for undergraduate writing fellows, UW-Madison Writing Fellows Program, 2009–2010
  • Comp/Rhet recruitment representative, Graduate Committee on Recruitment and Planning, 2008–2009

San Francisco State University

  • Co-chair, Composition & Reading Association of Future Teachers, 2004–2005

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

  • Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC)
  • National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
  • Modern Language Association (MLA)
  • Rhetoric Society of America (RSA)

Research

My scholarship is situated at the intersection of literacy studies, composition/rhetoric, and applied linguistics, where it informs critical approaches to language diversity in writing and writing education. I engage with fields and subfields such as second language writing, community literacy studies, and transnational literacy. My research develops theories about how writing practices move across linguistic and geographic boundaries, using qualitative methods to shift understandings of writing away from multilingual writers’ failings and toward their existing and future literate expertise.

My first monograph, Writing on the Move: Migrant Women and the Value of Literacy (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017), describes the everyday literacy lives of multilingual migrants and the ways their savvy writing practices are recognized or ignored as they move around the world. My second co-written book, Transfer: An Introduction to History, Theory, Research and Pedagogy (Parlor Press and the WAC Clearinghouse, July 2023), shows how writers transfer their writing-related knowledge among contexts or languages more generally.

My current book, Literacy Relays: Heritage Literacy in Multilingual Families, interrogates the question the previous two have left me with: how literate movement—multilingualism, migration, transfer—cultivates a distinct kind of awareness in multilingual families. I offered one response to this question in my article “Multilingual Writing as Rhetorical Attunement” (College English, 2014), arguing that many multilingual writers are especially “tuned” to difference by virtue of writing among languages in their everyday lives. My current monograph extends these ideas to the context of multilingual families, examining how family members–parents, children, grandparents, couples–use literacy relays to recognize, negotiate, and sustain the multilingual heritage that runs through their family’s generations.

Books

Edited Special Issues

Articles, Essays, and Book Chapters

Reviews

Teaching

My teaching is guided by curiosity about how writing and rhetoric work in the world. Because I teach writing and also teach about writing, I facilitate students’ learning about writing as both scholarly practice and subject. Every semester, I am re-engaged with my students as we puzzle over the effects or outcomes of writing—why, we wonder, do certain writers succeed or fail (online, in classrooms, in public)? In particular, my students and I explore linguistically diverse writing practices as skilled and beautiful, treating aberrations from standards or norms not as deficits but as rhetorical assets with powerful social effect.

Thus, when students leave my classroom at the end of a semester, they walk away with their own understanding of what writing is and the ways it is integral to their intellectual and everyday activities. With that knowledge, they optimally are able to use their writing knowledge in action-oriented ways, both for their own goals and, ever more urgently, to intervene in public mis/understandings about whose writing, in what languages and accents, counts as persuasive, educated, or valid. At the end of my courses, I hope students can use the writing and rhetorical strategies we’ve practiced together to connect the content of the class to the consequences of that content in the world.

I am fortunate to have been selected to receive the College of Humanities and Fine Arts Outstanding Teacher Award in 2017 and to have been nominated by my students for the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award, which I received in 2023.

University of Massachusetts Amherst

University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Literacy and Crisis—intermediate composition, spring 2010
  • The Writing Food Project— service learning intermediate composition, spring 2009, fall 2009, fall 2008
  • Academic Writing II—UW-Madison ESL Program, summer 2009
  • Expository Writing—People Program writing seminar for first-generation college students, summer 2009
  • Writing in Space and Place—first-year composition, spring 2008
  • Public and Private Writing—first-year composition, fall 2007
  • Writing Center Tutor—Outreach tutor 2008–2011, Community Writing Assistance tutor 2009-2011, Online synchronous and asynchronous tutor 2009–2010

San Francisco State University and Bay Area

  • English 414—developmental writing, SF State English Department, spring 2007
  • Beginning English Speaking—Even Start Adult Education Novato, CA summer 2005
  • ESL Academic Writing Tutor, SF State Learning Assistance Center, 2004–2005

Universidad Tecnica de Machala, Instituto de Idiomas, Machala, Ecuador

  • Advanced English Speaking and Writing (level 7), fall 2005, spring 2006
  • Beginning English Grammar (level 1-2) spring 2006
  • Intermediate English Grammar (level 5-6), fall 2005, spring 2006
  • Teaching and assessing writing in English, teacher training course, spring 2006

Contact

Rebecca Lorimer Leonard
rlorimer@english.umass.edu

Department of English
South College
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA 01003-9269