People
Center Graduate Students: Martha Webber
Martha Webber is an Phd candidate in the Center for Writing Studies in the English Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Contact Information
220 English Building | MC-718
mwebber2@illinois.edu
Website: http://www.craftecology.org/
Biographical Statement
After obtaining certification in the operation of garment technologies and a degree in Fashion Design in 2000, I worked in the garment industry while returning to school to study English and philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles. Since entering the graduate program here at UIUC, my coursework and research has focused on critical theory and material rhetoric and composition as they are situated within the field of Writing Studies.
My dissertation, "Crafting Citizens, Sewing Subjects: Democratic Action, Nongovernmental Organizations, and Transnational Craft Literacy," draws on fieldwork, archival research, and rhetorical theories of craft literacy, technē, and democratic action to examine South Africa’s Parliamentary Millennium Programme’s “Voices of Women” democracy quilt project in relation to its material folk rhetoric and contemporary neoliberal context. During Spring 2010, I will be coordinating a week-long quilt workshop and exhibition for the city of Urbana in collaboration with Create Africa South, the Center for Women in Transition, and the University of Illinois Alternative Spring Break organization.
Courses Taught
- Art 250: Writing with Video
- Rhetoric 243: Travel Writing and the Construction of Difference
- Rhetoric 105: Principles of Composition
Publications
- "Ethnography" (review essay). Keyword Review Series. Community Literacy Journal. 5.2 (Forthcoming Fall 2010)
- "The Interview as Conversation: Materially Engaging with People and Research." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writings. Vol. 2. Eds. Lowe and Zemliansky. West Lafeyette, IN: Parlor Press, 2010 (Forthcoming March 2010)
- “Using Segue Inside and Outside of a Multimodal Composition Classroom. Kairos Praxis Wiki. Winter 2007 Featured Narrative. http://praxis.technorhetoric.net/index.php/Webcoursetools/webber1
Awards
- 2004-8 Jacob K. Javits Fellow
- 2009-10 Nicholson Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Graduate Student Fellow
- 2008-9 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Campus Award for Excellence in Public Engagement
- 2008 Graduate College Dissertation Travel Grant
- 2010 City of Urbana Public Arts Commission Creative Mix Grant Recipient
Research Interests
Material Rhetoric and Composition; Garment, Handicraft, and Textile Production and Circulation; Globalization, Neoliberalism, and Nongovernmental Organizations; Technology Studies; Service Research and Learning