Doctoral Committees

Dissertation Guides

  • Guidelines: Writing the Dissertation
  • Guidelines: Writing Your First 3 Chapters
  • Guidelines: Sample IRB
  • Guidelines: Preparing for the 3 Chapter Meeting
  • Guidelines: Preparing for the Dissertation Defense
  • Article: “Do You Really Not Have the Time?” by David Perlmutter (article on time management)

Currently NOT Available for Dissertation Committees

Since I am now serving as C&T Director and have so many dissertation committee assignments already, I am no longer accepting any more students to be their dissertation director or dissertation reader. I am at the maximum number I can handle. We will soon be publishing a list of faculty who have openings for working with students.

Doctoral Thesis Direction (6)

3 Chapter Stage (4)

  1. Muayad Al-Hamdi
  2. Jennifer Baggett–Exploring Writing Program Administration Curriculum Design (Readers: Dana Driscoll; Crystal Machado)
  3. Gregory Hafer–Digital ecologies of play: The nature of literacy practices in online video game communities (Readers: Curt Porter and Robert Sweeny)
  4. Cat Williams-Monardes (Readers: Gloria Park)

Dissertation Stage (2)

  1. Tara Kelly–Action research and Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.): Using animal assisted education with English learners as a reading intervention strategy in the elementary school classroom (Readers: Gloria Park and Lilia Savova)
  2. Lori Ann S. Woods—Alive inside: Transformation, capital, and zombies in the composition classroom (Readers: Dana Driscoll and Scott Moore)

Recently Finished

  1. Darius  Cureton—Composing in a digital age: Unpacking the techtinuum among first year writing faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) (Readers: Matt Vetter, Gloria Park, and Andrea Lunsford) (2020)
  2. Wesley Dunning—Poetic writing and composition studies (Readers: John Branscum and Chauna Craig) (2019)
  3. Nell Rose Hill—A content analysis of intensive English program administrators’ social construction of knowledge in a virtual community of practice (Readers: Gloria Park and Michele Petrucci) (2019)
  4. Lora Gifford Mendenhall–Mitakuye Oyasin and service-learning: A narrative plan for ecological restorative justice, Jasper County, Indiana (Readers: Curt Porter and Ronald Janke) (2019)
  5. Naife Subahi—The influence of discussion boards on EFL linguistic flexibility (Readers: Mary Stewart and Matt Vetter) (2019)
  6. Yi Yu–Reading in writing workshop: Aesthetic reader response in the first-year multilingual writing classroom (Readers: Curt Porter and Dan Weinstein) (2019)

Doctoral Thesis Readerships (19)

3 Chapter Stage (14)

  1. Hind Alshehri (Director: Dana Driscoll; Reader: Lily Savova)
  2. Kyle Boswell–Crying in the teacher’s lounge: The unseen labor of secondary school writing center directors (Director: Gloria Park; Reader: Daniel Lawson)
  3. Wenqi Cui–Learning transfer in digital-mediated multimodal writing in the first-year composition (Director: Dana Driscoll; Reader: Matt Vetter)
  4. Stephen Florian–The effect of labeling developmental writing students as probationary (Director: Gloria Park; Readers: Dana Driscoll and Irene Clark)*
  5. Donald Hatcher–Improving learner cognition of corrective feedback through student-centered learning (Director: Gloria Park; Reader: Dana Driscoll)
  6. Brittany Hull (Director: Matt Vetter; Readers: Gloria Park and Elaine Richardson)*
  7. Kris Lowery–(Re)imagining literacy practices among the Pennsylvania Dutch in nineteenth century Berks County (Director: Resa Crane Bizzaro; Readers: Curt Porter and Kelly Ritter)*
  8. Rajwan Al-Shareefy (Director: Cristina Sánchez-Martín)
  9. Mary Roberta Sagal–Echoes of Our Ancestors: Using Autoethnography to Narrate the Tangling of Three Indigenous Lived Lives (Director: David Hanauer; Reader: Gloria Park)
  10. Ana Sanchez– (Director: Cristina Sánchez-Martín; Readers: Marjorie Zambrano-Paff and Maria Jose Cabrera-Puche)*
  11. Inggrit Olivin Tanasale–Constructing Language Lecturers’ Academic Identity through Positioning and Agency within Professional Space in Indonesian Higher Education (Director: Gloria Park; Readers: Matt Vetter and Michele Petrucci)*
  12. Gary Sasala–The effect of unfocused comprehensive direct and error coded indirect written corrective feedback on new texts: Written languaging and a table of error codes with supporting metalinguistic explanation (Director: Gloria Park; Reader: Brian Carpenter)
  13. Awouignandji (Ebenezer) Ylonfoun–Benin high school English teachers’ prior English writing experiences and how these experiences affect teachers’ perceptions of teaching writing in English (Director: Gloria Park; Readers: John Branscum and Michele Petrucci)*
  14. Jing Zhang–Talking about Writing in China: How do Writing Centers Serve Chinese Students’ Needs? (Director: Dana Driscoll; Readers: Cristina Sánchez-Martín and Terese Thonus)*
  1. Chin-Fen Chang
  2. Gretchen Cobb–Habitus of deafhood: Using sociolinguistics of sign language to compile an academic ASL dictionary (Director: Resa Crane Bizzaro)*
  3. Marti Mando (Director: Ben Rafoth)*
  4. Shelah Y. Simpson (Director: Ben Rafoth)
  5. John Wafer

Dissertation Stage (5)

  1. Jun Akiyoshi–Writing Teacher Identity and Practice: Exploring International Composition Teachers from Diverse Backgrounds in U.S. College Composition Courses (Director: Gloria Park; Reader: Dana Driscoll)
  2. Leigh Ann Dunning–Peer tutors as writing center researchers: Case studies of tutors learning and employing interviewing skills (Director: Ben Rafoth; Reader: Dana Driscoll)*
  3. Ana Sanchez–A genre-based approach to develop Heritage Spanish students’ persuasive writing skills and linguistic performance on the Spanish subjunctive (Director: Cristina Sánchez-Martín; Readers: Marjorie Josee Zambrano and Cabrera-Puche Maria Jose)*
  4. Eliza Albert-Baird–Traversing visual literature and virtual lives: Reader performativity and identity in visual texts (IUP Literature and Criticism Doctoral Student; Director: Mike Sell; Reader: Ken Sherwood)
  5. Loren Stephenson–Is Literature Food? A Short Postcritical History of the Nourishment Metaphor for the Concept of Literary Value (IUP Literature and Criticism Doctoral Student; Director: Chris Kuipers; Reader: Rosalee Stilwell)

Recently Finished A

  1. Janet Ankoye (Director: Ben Rafoth; Reader: Gloria Park) (2020)
  2. Silvia Vaccino-Salvadore–Kuwaiti women’s identity construction and negotiations as English language teachers: An exploratory study through narrative and arts-informed inquiries (Director: Gloria Park; Reader: Michele Petrucci) (2020)
  3. Marie Webb–Professional identities of interdisciplinary writing teachers in applied linguistics and composition (Director: Gloria Park; Reader: Matt Vetter) (2020)
  4. Abdullah Sleman Darwish–Exploring academic and disciplinary literacy socialization and enactment of seven international undergraduate business students (Director: Dana Driscoll; Reader: Ben Rafoth)
  5. Sarah E. DeCapua–Student response to written teacher feedback in first-year composition: Defining what students find useful and whether they believe it improves their writing (Director: Resa Crane Bizzaro)*?
  6. Nathan B. Jones (Director: Ben Rafoth)
  7. Jonathan David O’Brien–Constructs of stylistic production and reception: Vetting and extending the sociocultural theory of style (Director: Dana Driscoll; Reader: Matt Vetter) (2019)
  8. Nick Katsiadas–Transforming Literary History into Romantic Myths in Comics: Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Alan Moore and J.H. Williams III’s Promethea, and Mike Carey and Peter Gross’s The Unwritten (2019)

Recently Finished B

  1. Khulud Alluhaydan–A study of corrective and commentary feedback in an online ESL writing community of practice (Director: Lilia Savova)
  2. Aaron Beasley (Director: David Hanauer; Reader: Marjorie Zambrano-Paff)
  3. Adam Colton–Pedagogically redesigning the LMS: Game design, collaborative learning, and the Literary Guild (IUP Literature and Criticism Doctoral Student; Director: Ken Sherwood)
  4. Steve Edgehouse
  5. Margaret Herb–Reimagining the dominant narratives of peer tutoring: A study of tutors’ and writers’ stories  (Director: Ben Rafoth)*
  6. Justin Hopkins–Outcomes of authoethnography (Director: David Hanauer)
  7. Chih-Lung (Jeff) Kung–Playful political unconscious: The gender and racial performatives of PC and NPC in selected interactive fiction games (IUP Literature and Criticism Doctoral Student; Director: Mike Sell; Reader: Ken Sherwood)
  8. Ravyn McKee–International service learning in the writing classroom: Promoting sustainability through reciprocity and place-based writing (Director: Gloria Park; Reader: Curt Porter)
  9. Jack Morales (Diretor: Matt Vetter, Readers: Resa Crane Bizzaro and Steve Lamos)*
  10. Thomas Lyon–G.I. Janes: A narrative analysis of seven women attempting to integrate into Air Force combat service jobs (Readers: Sharon Deckert and Tanya Heflin)
  11. Lora Mendenhall (Readers: Curt Porter, Gloria Park, and Janke)
  12. Sharon Virgil
  13. Steven Zimmerly–The sidekick comes of age: Tracing the growth of secondary characters in young adult literature (IUP Literature and Criticism Doctoral Student; Director: Chris Kuipers, Reader: Tanya Heflin)

Master of Arts Thesis Direction (1)

  1. Jawad Golzar (Readers: Gloria Park and Curt Porter)

Updating Listings

Since I serve as a director or reader for so many doctoral students, the lists above may not be totally accurate. I do try to keep these lists up-to-date, but I’m often behind. So if I’ve left your name off a list or have you at an incorrect stage of the dissertation process, please know it’s just a simple oversight, not an intentional slight. If you spot an error here, please email me and I’ll be happy to update the appropriate list.

Doctoral Alumni

I have served as director for over 40 students who successfully completed their dissertations. Click below to see the list:

  • Doctoral Students I Directed to Degree Completion

I have served as a reader for over 100 students who successfully completed their dissertations. Click below to see the list:

  • Doctoral Committees for Which I Was a Reader