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Dr. Kendra Fullwood
Professor of English, Rhetoric, and Composition
M.A. in English (University of Akron)
Ph.D. in English (University of Kansas)
Articles: “‘Pro Christo et Humanitate’: Making Lives Through Literacy and Community Partnerships at Shaw University,” Reflections: Writing, Service-Learning, and Community Literacy, Special Issue: Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
“Shaping at the Point of Dialogue: Rhetorical Invention Within Traditional Black Church Practices” (in progress)
Member of National Council of Teachers of English, Council of Writing Program Administrators, Rhetoric Society of America
My favorite part about teaching at Johnson is: I come from a family of preachers, with my father as a pastor of a Baptist church in North Carolina. Thus, I grew up with the implicit knowledge that Christianity informs my education, even if I was taught in a non-religious public school or college. However, at Johnson University, I get to conspicuously apply my faith to my teaching and research and interact with other faculty/students who are faith-believers as well. That’s why I love teaching here, plain and simple.
When I’m not teaching, I love to: Do service-work with some community organizations I’ve joined since moving here to Knoxville. I also love to watch vintage Scooby-Doo and Superfriends (DC comics) cartoons! I passionately started watching cartoons again while a doctoral student at the University of Kansas as an outlet from rigorous study.
In my classes, students can expect: Whole-heart acceptance. I accept the literacies students bring into the writing classroom from contexts outside the university, with the goal to interconnect them with formal literacies and instruction. By “literacies” I not only mean a prescription and etiquette that the academy subscribes to, but also a broadened meaning that discloses the social, cultural, spiritual, political and ideological assumptions that are often ignored.
My best advice to a new student in my program is: Writing is still important, and knowing how to write well is even more important!
Because of my influence, I most want my students to become: To be who they are in the Lord, and to trust Him.
The myth-busting truth about my discipline I most want people to understand is: We, pedagogues, scholars, and researchers in my field of rhetoric & composition, study all types of writing. Writing is not just about writing for college, school, or the profession. Writing is also meaningful in its practical and informal use. Writing is used in everyday lives, from writing on sticky notes or notepads, writing a check to pay a bill, writing a grocery list, social media writing, etc.
A quote that influences how I live is: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).