Faculty & Staff

When new acquaintances find out I teach writing, it’s not unusual for them to lament a broad decline in the nation’s writing skills. How does it make me feel, they ask, that students, say, don’t know the difference between adjectives and adverbs? Or, can I believe it that people hardly even know what apostrophes do, let alone where to put them? As someone who treasures good, careful prose, I’m sympathetic to these worries. But as an educator, I think it’s important to steer the conversation in a different direction. ...

Shana Lessing’s teaching and research interests include rhetorics of health and illness, intersections of biomedicine and popular culture, health and moral panic, global health, bioethics, and gender and sexuality.

My primary focus is technical and professional writing, though I also teach other writing courses less technical in nature. Having spent over 20 years in industry as a professional writer, I tend to think about how I can help students become stronger writers in the workplace. My background as a practitioner has instilled in me the simple concept of learning by doing, so my courses are mostly based on the practice of writing. I also believe that, in becoming stronger writers, students should enjoy the process. ...

Sarah Riddick researches and teaches about digital rhetoric, writing, and media; popular culture; and rhetorical theory and research methods. Her work appears in Rhetoric Review, Media & Communication, and Computers and Composition, among other journals and edited collections.

Personal website: https://yunusdogantelliel.net/

I am an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Rhetoric, and the director of the Great Problems Seminar program—WPI’s interdisciplinary and experiential STEM education program for first-year students. Before joining WPI, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. ...

Dr. Boucher-Yip has taught in many parts of the world including Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, China, Laos, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She has taught communication skills and writing courses at university level for over a decade. Her teaching approach is informed by her own experience in language learning and with theories of second language acquisition and their pedagogical applications. Both her studies and her experience have taught her that there is no one method or idea that guarantees successful language learning. ...

Erica Brozovsky is a sociolinguist, a public scholar, and a lover of words. Her research and teaching interests include language variation and change, bicultural rhetoric, and Asian American studies. Outside of the classroom, Dr. Brozovsky hosts and writes for Otherwords, a PBS series on language and linguistics, and hosts Crash Course’s virtual course How to College. She is also currently writing a book on the sociocultural history and status of literacy. Before coming to WPI, Dr. ...

Althea started teaching English as a second language in 2000, when she moved to West Africa. Over the next seven years she lived and taught in Senegal, Niger and Benin. In 2007 she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she taught ESL to immigrants and refugees at the Hubbs Center and developmental reading at St. Paul College. Her teaching passions include integrating culture and social justice issues in the classroom, building critical thinking skills in her students, and teaching with technology. ...

In my lab we study medical writing and the human factors that influence medical diagnosis, treatment, and patient care. I am a practicing paramedic who volunteers with a rural ambulance squad and at a free urban clinic. My current research is focused on three areas: 1) Improving healthcare for uninsured and underinsured at-risk patients; 2) Alternative systems for healthcare delivery; and 3) Clinical reports in pre-hospital care. ...