Articles, Essays, and Chapters

Journal Articles and Essays 

The Importance of Disciplinary Dexterity in Humanities Leadership.” Modern Language Association: Profession (February 2024).

Ritter, Kelly. “The Hardest Part of Being a Professor is Only Getting Harder.” (original title, “Academic Strangers.”) Slate Magazine, October 30, 2023.  

“Administrative Cookbooks: The Evolving Genre of How-To Academic Leadership” (Review Essay). 6,693 words. College English 86.1 (September 2023). 89-103

““Dependent Variables, or, Can Graduate Education Be Saved?” (Review Essay). Composition Studies 51.1 (Spring 2023): 187-95. 

Whatever Happened to Average? Heeding Mike Rose’s Call.” WPA: Writing Program Administration 45.2 (Spring 2022): 48-51. 

“Making (Collective) Memory Public: WPA Histories in Dialogue.” WPA: Writing Program Administration 41.2 (2018): 35-64. 

“With ‘Increased Dignity and Importance’: Re-Historicizing Charles Roberts and the Illinois Decision of 1955.” College Composition and Communication 69.3 (2018): 458-93. 

“Archival Research in Composition Studies: Re-Imagining the Historian’s Role.” Rhetoric Review 31.4 (2012): 461-78. 

“‘Ladies Who Don’t Know Us Correct Our Papers’: Postwar Lay Reader Programs and Twenty-First Century Contingent Labor in First-Year Writing.” College Composition and Communication 63.3 (2012): 387-419. 

“Response to Peter Elbow.” WPA: Writing Program Administration 35.1/2 (2011): 168-72. 

“‘What Would Happen If Everybody Behaved As I Do?’ Randall Jarrell, May Bush, and the Historical ‘Disappointment’ of Women WPAs.” Composition Studies 39.1 (2011): 13-39. 

“Conflicted Brokers: The Local, Historical and Political of Basic Writing” (Review Essay). WPA: Writing Program Administration 34.1/2 (2010): 193-205. 

“Before Mina Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale, 1920–1960.” College Composition and Communication 60.1 (2008): 12-45. 

“E-Valuating Learning: ‘Rate My Professors’ and Public Rhetorics of Pedagogy.” Rhetoric Review 27.3 (2008): 259-80. 

Ritter, Kelly. “Yours, Mine, and Ours: Triangulating Plagiarism, Forgery, and Identity.” JAC 27.3/4 (2007): 731-43. 

“Ethos Interrupted: Diffusing ‘Star’ Pedagogy in the Creative Writing Classroom.” College English 69.3 (2007): 283-92. 

“Extra-Institutional Authority and the Public Value of the WPA.” WPA: Writing Program Administration 29.3 (2006): 45-64. 5 

“Buying In, Selling Short: A Pedagogy Against the Rhetoric of Online Paper Mills.” Pedagogy 6.1 (2006): 25-51. 

“Course Design for English 200: Rhetoric, Argument, and the Law in American Culture.” Composition Studies 33.2 (2005): 89-112. 

“The Economics of Authorship: Online Paper Mills, Student Writers, and First-Year Composition.” College Composition and Communication 56.4 (2005): 601-31. 

“Writing Professionals/Professional Writers: Revamping Teacher Training in Creative Writing Ph.D. Programs.” College English 64.2 (2001): 205-27. 

“Spectacle at the Disco: Boogie Nights, Soundtrack, and the New American Musical.” Journal of Popular Film and Television 28.4 (2001): 166-75. 

Chapters and Book Contributions 

“Introduction: On the Precipice.” Beyond Fitting In: Rethinking First-Generation Writing and Literacy Education. New York: Modern Language Association Press, 2023: 1-23. 

“The Journal You Have: Balancing the Needs of a Discipline with Editorial Vision.” Behind the Curtain of Scholarly Publishing in Writing Studies: Editors in Writing Studies. Greg Giberson, Megan Schoen, and Christian Weisser. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2022. 15-28. 

“Undergraduate Rhetoric at UIUC: Revising a Curriculum, Rethinking a Program.” Perspectives on Academic and Professional Writing in an Age of Accountability. Shirley Logan and Wayne Slater, Eds. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2018. 47-64. 

“A Question of Mimetics: Graduate Student Writing Courses and the New ‘Basic’.” Economies of Writing: Revaluations in Rhetoric and Composition. Bruce Horner, Susan Ryan, and Brice Nordquist, Eds. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2017. 112-30. 

“Journal Editors in the Archives: Reportage as Microhistory.” Microhistories of Composition. Bruce McComiskey, Ed. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2016. 90-115. 

“Foreword.” In the Archives of Composition: Writing and Rhetoric in Normal Schools and High Schools. Lori Ostergaard and Henrietta Rix, Eds. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015. xi-xiv. 

“What Are Students?” A Rhetoric for Writing Program Administrators. 1st and 2nd eds. Rita Malenczyk, Ed. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press, 2013, 2016. 11-22. 

“Introduction: How Did We Get Here?” (with Paul Matsuda). Exploring Composition Studies: Sites, Issues, Perspectives. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2012. 1-10. 6 

“How the Old Man Does it: Creative Writing and a Pedagogy of Emulation.” Composing Ourselves as Writer-Teacher-Writers: Starting with Wendy Bishop. Alys Culhane, Devan Cook, and Patrick Bizzaro, Eds. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2011. 81-96. 

“(En)Gendering the Archives for Basic Writing Research.” Working in the Archives: Practical Research Methods for Rhetoric and Composition. Barbara L’Eplattenier, Wendy Sharer, Lisa Mastrangelo, and Alexis Ramsey, Eds. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2009. 181-94. 

“Introduction.” Can it Really Be Taught? Resisting Lore in Creative Writing Pedagogy. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2007. xi-xx. 

“Postmodern Dialogics in Pulp Fiction: Jules, Ezekiel, and Double-Voiced Discourse.” The Terministic Screen: Rhetorical Perspectives on Film. David Blakesley, Ed. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2003. 286-300.