William C.

Kurlinkus
Web: wkurlinkus.com
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (815) 978-4628
Academic Positions
Assistant Professor, English
Director of Technical Writing
Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy

The University of Oklahoma

2014-Present

Research Project
Nostalgic Design: Memory, Rhetoric, and Democratizing Technology
Nostalgic Design argues that innovation without tradition leads to alienation. Thus, it addresses
inequities in technology by examining how to build from the cherished technological memories,
traditions, and valuestechnological nostalgiasof under-served populations. By exploring
technological nostalgiaas personally-experienced and culturally-learned memoryacross several
communities (crafters, anti-vaccination proponents, ER Doctors, professional designers, etc.), I
develop a method of user-centered design by which designers might identify, mediate, and design from the
conflicting values of their users, welcoming communities that have not been well served by new
technologies in the past.
Education
The Ohio State University
2010-2014
PhD English: Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy; Digital Media Studies
Dissertation: Nostalgia and New Media: Designing Difference into Rhetoric, Composition,
and Technology
Committee: Cynthia L. Selfe (chair), Nan Johnson, Beverly Moss, Susan Delagrange,
H. Lewis Ulman
The Pennsylvania State University
2008-2010
MA English: Rhetoric and Composition
Thesis: The Politics of Paint: Racking Cans and DIY Lasers: How Channel of Access
Politicizes Graffiti Technology
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2004-2008
BA English (summa cum laude): Honors English and Creative Writing
Thesis: The Dialectic of the Gothic and the Enlightenment in Bram Stokers Dracula
Publications
Writing with Use in Mind: Design Methods in First-Year Writing. In Progress.
Memorial Interactivity: Planning for Nostalgic User Experience Rhetoric and Experience Architecture. Ed.
Liza Potts and Michael Salvo. Amityville: Baywood, forthcoming.
Crafting Designs: An Archaeology of Craft as God Term. Computers and Composition 33 (2014): 50-67.
An Ethics of Attentions: Three Continuums of Classical and Contemporary Stylistic Manipulation for
the 21st Century Composition Classroom. The Centrality of Style. Ed. Michael Duncan and Star
1

Medzerian. Anderson: Parlor Press and WAC Clearinghouse, 2013.

The Watson Symposium: What Might Be Missing and Why? Journal of Advanced Composition 32.3 (2012)
Accompanying blog at: <http://watsonresponse.blogspot.com/>. With Cynthia L. Selfe.
The Love Letter. Editorial introduction and XML co-editorship. Selected Letters from the Ivan S. Gilbert
Collection of Stephens Family Travel Letters and Ephemera. Digital Edition. 2011.
Editor. General Introduction, Genre Introductions, Pedagogical Supplements, Essay Response
Questions. Penn Statements: A Magazine of Student Writing from Rhetoric and Composition. 29 (2010).
Teaching Experience
English 5133, Teaching Technical Writing,
University of Oklahoma
Sp 2016
A graduate level course in which students were introduced to 3 aspects of technical writing: teaching
technical writing to undergraduate STEM majors, researching technical writing as academics in a
university, and training to become professional technical writers themselves. The course specifically
focuses on user-centered design and developing a usability research project.
English 6103, Research Methods in Composition,
University of Oklahoma
Sp 2015
Rhetoric, and Literacy
A graduate level methods course in which students were introduced to and practiced several of the
qualitative research methods used by scholars in the humanities; social sciences; and writing, rhetoric,
and literacy studies. The course was divided into 5 basic units according to method: 1. classroom data
collection, 2. ethnography, 3. spatial research, 4. archival research, and 5. digital methods.
English 3183, Authoring in the Information Age
University of Oklahoma
2 Sections
In English 3183 students learned to write using digital tools while simultaneously learning how those
digital tools transform the ways they write. We challenged what technological literacy means (from
using a photocopier to make punk zines to tweeting) and constantly explored the idea that technology
is a set of things, a set of skills, and a set of values. By learning technical skills (web design, Photoshop,
film and audio editing, social media marketing), students also explored socio-technical values.
Students left the course with a working vocabulary of, among other topics, web design, graphic
design, social media marketing, participatory design, the philosophy of technology, and UX (user
experience) architecture.
English 3153, Technical Writing
University of Oklahoma
3 Sections
From the most basic lab report to medical aftercare instructions, from museum displays to airplane
safety guidesin English 3153, Technical Writing, students learned to analyze and produce technical
documents across a variety of settings. In particular this course took a wicked-scenarios approach to
writing for science, workplace, and consumer settings asking questions like: How can an aftercare
document help calm anxious patients in an ER? What responsibility do manufacturers have to
communicate the potential dangers of their products in an easy to understand way? How easy, is easy
enough? Students produced a variety of documents throughout the semester including a designscenario journal, an analysis of a science museum exhibit, a popular translation of a technical concept
in their field (see NPRs Radiolab or Neil deGrasse Tysons Cosmos), and a website usability report.
English 1113, Introduction to College Writing
University of Oklahoma
Au 2014
A freshmen writing course, of particular note in the course were a remix assignment in which students
learned about interactivity, visual rhetoric, and other concepts of delivery as well as a final
ethnographic research report in which students studied (through primary interviews, site observations,
2

and secondary research) how technology has changed a community they were familiar with.
English 3304 Business Writing
The Ohio State University
Sp 2013
A business writing course with a special emphasis on new capitalist business practices,
including social media marketing, multi-member projects, web design, non-profit organizations,
and contemporary business presentation tactics. See: http://english3304.wordpress.com/
English 2269 Digital Media Composing
The Ohio State University
Au 2012
A rhetorically focused digital media composition class that featured HTML, CSS,
Wordpress, Photoshop, iMovie, and GarageBand. A special emphasis was given to the
politics of technology (access, fair use, remix, cultural appropriation, viral marketing, tracking
software, etc.) and techno-epistemological pluralism. See: http://english2269.wordpress.com/
English Language Instructor
The Columbus Literacy Council
Lead a bi-weekly introductory English language class (reading, speaking, and writing)
for a group of 4-10 adults of varying experience levels.

2012

Material Science and Engineering 581.04

The Ohio State University
Tech Writing TA to Professor David Phillips
Lectured on lab observation, note taking, and report writingfocused on ethos
and audience analysis in the field of engineering. Held regular office hours. Graded
writing quality on all lab reports. (2 Sections)

Au 2012
Wi 2012

English 277 Introduction to Rhetorical Analysis The Ohio State University

Teaching Assistant to Dr. Nan Johnson
Lectured on the rhetorical analysis of social media and the Internet and helped facilitate
day-to-day group work.

Sp 2012

English 269 Digital Media Composing

The Ohio State University
Teaching Assistant to Dr. Cynthia Selfe
Lectured on visual rhetoric, taught iMovie, and generally facilitated daily discussion
and digital media composing workshops.

Au 2011

English 202 B Writing in the Humanities

The Pennsylvania State University
A course specifically geared towards juniors and seniors studying in the humanities.
Assignments included a professional journal review, rsum and cover letter, cultural/
literary analysis, and philosophically-oriented career analysis. (2 Sections)

2009-2010

LEAP 18: Philosophy, Art, and Film

The Pennsylvania State University
A specially designed and coordinated session of freshman writing for incoming
freshmen that I organized with a member of the philosophy department (who taught a
partner course). My portion had a focus on rhetorically depicting reality,
simulacra, and visual rhetoric.

Su 2009

English 015: Rhetoric and Composition

The Pennsylvania State University
2008-2010
Introductory writing course consisting of memoir, cause-and-effect arguments,
critical analyses, arguments through definition, and visual rhetoric. My main goals were to
teach a balance of audience awareness (analysis, acceptance, and refusal of the rhetorical
situation) and purposeful, personal stylistic choice. (3 Sections)
3

Directed Readings and Honors Projects

Brittany McDaniel. Directed Reading. Technical Writing and Design Methods
Spring 2016
Adriana Valtinson. Directed Reading. Social Media and Feminist Rhetorics
Spring 2016
Danielle Snynder. Honors Research Project: Public Intimacy and Social Media Marketing Fall 2015
Lauren Bretnell. Directed Reading: Rhetoric, Digital Media, and Memory Studies
Spring 2015
Exam and Dissertation Committees
Director
Brittany McDaniel, English MA
The University of Oklahoma
Haeyoung Lee, English MA
The University of Oklahoma

Spring 2016
Spring 2016

Member
Adriana Valtinson, English MA
Mandy McCray, English MA
Lauren Brentnell, English MA

The University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma

Spring 2016
Spring 2016
Spring 2015

Outside Member
Gul Nahar, Education PhD
Matt Baker, Education PhD

The University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma

Spring 2016
Spring 2016

Administrative and Service

Director of Technical Writing
The University of Oklahoma
2014-Present
Rewrote and direct a technical writing curriculum, primarily taken by students in engineering and the
sciences. The new course focuses on user-centered design through usability testing and a variety of
other qualitative design methods.
CRL Hiring Committee
The University of Oklahoma
2015-2016
Helped write the job ad, vet applications, and perform interviews and campus visits for an advanced
assistant/associate position in RCL specializing in Race, Ethnicity, and/or Identity.
Composition Committee
The University of Oklahoma
2014-Present
Duties include classroom observations of graduate instructors, coordinating visiting composition
program directors, curriculum changes to first-year writing, and presentations on teaching to
graduate students.
Undergraduate Committee
The University of Oklahoma
2014-2015
Helped propose a reformatted undergraduate curriculum: including rethought prerequisites
renumbered courses, and with an eye towards recruiting new majors. Helped propose a Texts and
Technologies undergraduate specialization.
Website Committee
The University of Oklahoma
Aiding in the redesign of the English Department website.

2014-2015

English Building Redesign

The University of Oklahoma
2014-2016
Committee
Was asked to help plan for the future technological interests (computer labs, technology classrooms,
etc.) of the Department of English as we move to a new English building and aid in its architecture.
4

RCL Administrative Associate

The Ohio State University
2013-2014
Meet regularly with the Vice Chair of the Rhetoric, Composition and Literacy program.
Attend writing program directors meetings. Complete administrative, research, assessment,
and curricular assignments for the Vice Chair of RCL and the directors of the First-Year
Writing, Second-Year Writing, and Professional and Technical Writing Programs.
Digital Media Project Assistant
The Ohio State University
Su 2013
Supported teaching and research in Digital Media Studies through interactive classroom
workshops on iMovie, Photoshop, Garageband, and other multimedia composing platforms.
Aided instructors in reimagining their courses (from composition, to creative writing, to literature)
as digital media production courses. Assisted in the day-to-day operation of the Digital Media
Project office, including checking-out and giving assistance to graduate students and professors
on digital cameras, audio recorders, video recorders, green screens, lighting, microphones, and ipads.
Fellowship Coordinator
The Ohio State University
Sp 2013
Organized a committee of faculty and graduate student judges that wrote a call for and
refereed applications to the new Genevieve Critel Leadership Fellowship, a one-year
fully-paid fellowship, funded by the Digital Media and Composition Institute, that recognizes
post-candidacy graduate students in the department of English for their service and mentorship.
Research Assistant
The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives
Su 2012
Used audio and video recording equipment to record literacy narratives at official Columbus
Bicentennial events for the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives. Gathered narratives about
literacy practices and values at events from art museum workshops to live action role playing
gatherings. Used captioning and video editing software to make narratives accessible.
Pedagogy Coordinator
The Digital Media and Composition Institute
Selected readings, organized schedule, presented on design in the composition classroom,
taught Photoshop, and generally facilitated day-to-day activities at a 2-week summer
institute attended by a group of 30 visiting graduate students and professors.

Su 2012

Assistant Editor
Computers and Composition an International Journal
2010-2011
Proofed journal manuscripts (content, copy, and style) for three issues of Computers and
Composition. Collaborated with authors to resolve problems and clarify meaning. Learned
the journals house style and worked on a team of three editors to prepare documents for
publication by Elsevier.
Composition Assistant
The Pennsylvania State University
Au 2009-2010
Composed Penn Statements, a reader used by all first-year composition students at Penn
State, which consisted of 40 guided student essays, introductions to essay assignments,
and solutions to problems commonly encountered by first-year composition students.
Transformed Penn Statements from a collection of readings the previous year to a
full-apparatus text. Helped run grad student orientation; gave composition brown bag
talks; reviewed all syllabi submissions for composition classes; managed the composition
library; assisted in cases of plagiarism; and gave general pedagogical advice to comp instructors.
Awards and Fellowships
The University of Oklahoma
5

2015

College of Arts and Sciences Junior Faculty Summer Fellowship

The Ohio State University

Susan L. Huntington Deans Distinguished University Fellow
Department of English Digital Media Prize for Outstanding Graduate Work
Department of English Digital Media Prize for Outstanding Graduate Work
Kitty O. Locker Travel Award for Research in Professional Communication
Department of English Award for Outstanding Graduate Scholarship in Digital Media

2010-2014
2013
2012
2012
2011

The Pennsylvania State University

Wilma R. Ebbitt Graduate Fellowship in Rhetoric in the College of the Liberal Arts

2010

Student Awards and Achievement

The University of Oklahoma
Dr. Betty Evans Scholarship for Superior Critical Essay: Danielle Snyder
Technical Writing Internship with NASA: Rachel Gaal

2016
2015

The Ohio State University

Digital Media Prize for Outstanding Undergraduate Work: Jacob Hollar

2013

Technological Skills
HTML5, CSS3, Oxygen, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Premiere,
Adobe Audition, Audacity, GarageBand, iMovie, MovieCaptioner, ComicLife, Wordpress, Blogger,
easel.ly, Microsoft Office, Mac OS.
Conference Presentations, Workshops, Invited Lectures, and Institutes
OVAL: A Virtual Ecosystem for Immersive Scholarship and Teaching. Digital Humanities 2016
(Krakow, Poland)July 2016.
Nostalgia and New Media: Invention, Delivery, and a Digital Dissertation. Rhetoric Society of
America. (Atlanta, Georgia)June 2016.
Building Bases for Action: Re/Mapping a Mandated Writing Program Redesign. College Conference on
Composition and Communication. (San Antonio, TX)April 2016.
Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute. Workshop. Crafting Multimodal Research. (University of
Wisconsin, Madison) Led by Jason Palmeri and Ben McCorkle June 2015.
Memorial Interactivity: Scaffolding Nostalgic User Experiences. Computers and Writing. University of
Wisconsin, StoutJune 2015.
Usability is Dead: Plying Mobile Tech to Micro-Contextualize Medicine, Campaigning, and
Marketing College Conference on Composition and Communication. (Tampa, FL)March 2015.
Invited Speaker on Professional Websites. The Academic Job Market. Led by Patrick Berry and Quinn
Warnick. Computers and Writing. (Pullman, WA)June 2014.
Epideictic Technologies and Democratic Designs. Rhetoric Society of America. (San Antonio, TX)May
2014.
6

Handcrafting Difference into Composition College Conference on Composition and Communication.

(Indianapolis, IN)March 2014.
Invited Speaker. Roundtable on creating and maintaining an online presence English Graduate
Organization. (Columbus, OH)November 2013.
Invited Speaker. Navigating the Commons: Remix, Creative Commons, and Fair Multimodal Data
Presentation. The Digital Media and Composition Institute. (Columbus, OH)May 2013
Institutionalizing Guilt: Plagiarism and Corporate Time Use Policies. College Conference on Composition and
Communication. (Las Vegas, NV)March 2013
Invited Speaker. Nostalgia and Digital Publication. Writing Matters in a Changing World. (Columbus,
OH)February 2013.
Questioning Collection: The Ethics of Composition as Collection in the First Year Writing Classroom.
Thomas R. Watson Conference. (University of Louisville)October 2012.
Re-thinking Technological Determinism: Place-Making Rhetoric at Sites of Technological
Transition. Computers and Writing. (North Carolina State University) May 2012.
Critical Emotion/Pathos/Affect and Digital Technology. ThatCampOSU: The Humanities and Technology
Camp. (Columbus, OH) April 2012.
Invited Speaker. Interrogating the Ethics of Composition as Remix in the First-Year Writing
Classroom Literacy Studies Graduate Seminar. (Columbus, OH)March 2012.
Digital Loss, Techno Magic, and Nostalgic Re-embodiment: The Emotionally Grounding Role of Craft
Aesthetics. Think Art: Memory: An Interdisciplinary Conference on the Arts, Humanities, and Science (Boston
University).October 2011.
Everybody has a (literacy) story!: Recording and Preserving Digital Literacy Narratives of Our
Communities. TransOhio Transgender and Ally Symposium. Workshop. With Deb Kuzawa and Katie
DeLuca (Columbus, OH)August 2011.
Everybody has a Literacy Story: Literacy Narrative Collection Digital Media, and the Digital Archive of
Literacy Narratives. Half-Day Workshop. With Deborah Kuzawa, Katherine DeLuca, Melanie
Yergeau, Krista Bryson, Chase Bollig, Lauren Obermark, and Jennifer Michaels. Computers and Writing
(University of Michigan) May 2011.
Nostalgia and New Media: The Rhetorical Affect of the Typewriter in the Twenty-First Century.
Conference on College Composition and Communication (Atlanta, GA) April 2011.
Racking Cans and DIY Lasers: How Channel of Access Politicizes Graffiti Technology, Conference on
College Composition and Communication (Louisville, KY) March 2010.
Teaching Visual Rhetoric, Composition Office Brownbag Series. The Pennsylvania State University. (State
College, PA) February 2010.
7

Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute. Workshop. Toward a Rhetoric of Multilingual Writing.
(Pennsylvania State University) Led by A. Suresh Canagarajah June 2009.
University Presentations
Grading Multimodal Compositions. Mini-Workshop. University of Oklahoma. Ran 3 different sections
for graduate students and lecturers teaching in the first-year composition program at the University of
OklahomaNovember 2015.
Writing as Design: Introduction to 1213 Introduction to new curriculum for returning teachers
August 2015.
Writing as Design: Introduction to 1213. Introduction to new curriculum for new teachersAugust
2015.
Teaching Technical Writing. Semester Workshop Series: 7 meetings. University of OklahomaSpring
2015.
Blueprint for Remodeling First-Year Composition. With Drs. Sandra Tarabochia and Susan Kates.
Presentation to Dean and ProvostJanuary 2015.
Teaching Technical Writing. Pre-Semester Workshop. University of OklahomaJanuary 2015.
Graduate Student Writing. Invited Presentation. Pre-Semester Composition WorkshopAugust
2014.
Other Relevant Service
Ohio State
Coordinator
Core Committee Member
Media Representative
Graduate Member
Submissions Judge

Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy Reading Group

Digital Arts and Humanities Working Group
English Graduate Association
RCL Curriculum Committee
Computers and Writing Conference

2013-2014
2012-2014
2012-2013
2011-2012
2011

Penn State
Co-Coordinator
Judge
Steering Committee
Peer Consultant

Centre Crest Nursing Home Writing Program

Penn State Graduate Student Exhibition
Penn States Rhetoric Society of America Chapter
University of Illinois Writers Workshop

2009-2010
2009
2009
2007-2008

Professional Memberships and Affiliations

Rhetoric Society of America
Association for Teachers of Technical Writing
National Council of Teachers of English