People
Center Graduate Students: Thomas McNamara
Thomas McNamara is a Ph.D. student in the Center for Writing Studies in the English Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Contact Information
315 English Building | MC-718
217-244-1150
tmcnama2@illinois.edu
Biographical Statement
A graduate of Loyola University Chicago's English MA program, I come to the Center for Writing Studies after working for three years at DePaul University, where I taught First-Year Writing courses and coordinated the Writing Groups at the University Center for Writing-based Learning. Currently, I serve as the Digital Literacies Coordinator for Illinois's Undergraduate Rhetoric Program.
Research Interests
African American rhetorics, critical race theory, literacy education, social movement rhetoric, writing center theory and pedagogy, composition pedagogy, race on university campuses
Presentations
- “Working with a Linguistically Diverse Population: Pedagogy, Policy, and Philosophy.” Proposal accepted for IWCA Collaborative @ CCCC. LasVegas, NV. March 2013. Roundtable Presentation/Discussion with Jennifer Finstrom, Laura Friddle, Yu-Kyung Kang, and Lisa Lenoir.
- “Making Injustice Visible: Minority Rhetorics and Cross-Boundary Identification.” Rhetoric Society of America Conference. Philadelphia, PA. May 2012. Speaker Presentation.
- "Sustaining 'Knowledge Capital' in a Writing Center: Connecting Staff through Collaboration" (Proposal Accepted for 2011 Midwest Writing Centers Association Conference; with Javaria Afghani and Margaret Poncin)
- "Making Room for Multilingual Writers: Colonialist Pedagogies and the Writing Center/Composition Divide" (2011 CCCC Convention)
- "The Idea of (Collaborating in) a Writing Center: Critical Approaches to Writing Center Pedagogy" (2010 International Writing Centers Association Conference; with Javaria Afghani and Margaret Poncin)
- "Discursive Revision: North's 'Idea' and the Dialectical Writing Center" (2010 Chicagoland Writing Center Conference).