Research Interests
writing objects + tech, food, 19c women writers, feminist rhetorics, object-oriented ontologies, archival methodologies.

Hi there! I’m Rhiannon and, yes, I was named after the Fleetwood Mac song.

I am currently a faculty member at Duke University after graduating from the University of Cincinnati with a PhD in Writing Studies in 2022. During the pandemic, I taught myself how to knit!

Education

PhD
University of Cincinnati
English
Summer 2022

MA
Wichita State University
English
May 2017

Graduate Certificate
University of Cincinnati
Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, May 2020

BA
Wichita State University
Field Studies English
Minor in Philosophy
May 2015

Publications

“Jessie Macmillan Anderson: A Composition Microhistory.”
In Composing Legacies: Testimonial Rhetoric in Nineteenth-Century Composition. Chris Carter and Russel Durst, editors. July 2021.

“Teaching with Paratext: Rereading Roald Dahl’s ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ in the Literature Classroom.”
College English Forum 49.1. Winter/Spring 2021.

University of Cincinnati Student Guide to English Composition 1001
co-writer and editor with Chris Carter & Joyce Malek, 2020.

“Jonathan Harker, Spicy Chicken, Communal Meals: Dishing Out a New Masculinity in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.”
Journal of Dracula Studies, Fall 2019.

“Composing at the Kitchen Table”
Graduate Journal of Food Studies, May 2019.

Reviews & Contributions

Blog Post: “Rhiannon Scharnhorst on her new commitment to ‘failure’ in teaching”
Macmillan Learning Blog, October 2021.

English 2089 (Intermediate Composition): Writing about Writing Syllabus.
First Year Composition Archive, May 2021.

CCCCs 2021 Session O.30 Review
Digital Rhetoric Collaborative, April 2021.

Book Review: Food and Literature
Graduate Journal of Food Studies, May 2019.

Academic Positions

Duke University, Lecturer, Thompson Writing Program (August 2022-present)

  • Writing 101: We Are What We Eat? (Affiliated with the Kenan Institute for Ethics What Now? Network)

University of Cincinnati, Graduate Instructor, English (August 2017-August 2022)

  • English 2002: Special Topics in Literature: Food & Literature (Spring 2020)
  • English 1001: Introduction to Composition (Fall and Spring 2017-2018)
  • English 2009: American Authors—Southern Writers and the Short Story (Summer 2018)
  • English 2003: The Magic of Harry Potter (Spring and Fall 2019)
  • English 2089: Intermediate Composition (Online Summer 2019 and Summer 2020)
  • English 4092: Technical and Scientific Writing (Summer 2022)

University of Cincinnati, Composition Program Assistant (May 2018-May 2019)

  • Planned and facilitated orientation for new graduate instructors and adjuncts, including new professional development content online.
  • Assisted in curriculum development for the composition program.
  • Oversaw custom textbook publication for the composition program.
  • Created and administered professional development activities for composition graduate students and writing faculty.
  • Served on the Composition Advisory Committee.
  • Drafted materials for Taft Research Competitive Lecture Series grant, approved.
  • Co-led semester-long “Teaching College Writing” course.
  • Designed, organized, and scheduled interdisciplinary graduate student conference Nourishment: Sustaining Resistance.

Graduate Instructor, Wichita State University. August 2015-July 2017.

  • Introduction to Composition (ENG 101)
    Research Methods (ENG 102)
  • Syntax, Logic, and Organization (ENG 011)
  • Introduction to Food and Literature (ENG 230)
  • Online Introduction to Composition (ENG 101)
  • Online Introduction to Food and Literature (ENG 230)

Grants & Fellowships

Taft Humanities Research Center Dissertation Fellow, Willful Objects, University of Cincinnati, 2021-2022.

Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute, Summer 2021.

Robin Sheets Critical Essay Prize, “Jessie Macmillan Anderson: A Composition Microhistory,” University of Cincinnati, 2021.

Taft Humanities Research Center Summer Fellow, Willful Objects, University of Cincinnati, Summer 2020

Boyce Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Cincinnati, Spring 2020

Belanoff Fellow, Rhetoric and Composition Department, University of Cincinnati, Summer 2019

Popular Culture Summer Research Institute Fellow, Bowling Green State University, Summer 2018

Taft Research Center, Competitive Lecture Series Grant, Spring 2019

Taft Research Center, Conference Travel Grant, Spring 2019

Graduate Student Government Association, Conference Travel Grants, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018

Leslie Chard Professional Development Fund, Fall 2018

Graduate Association of Food Studies Grant, Fall 2018

Department of English MA Fellowship, Wichita State University, Spring 2017

Select
Presentations

“The Typewriter + Feminist Writing Practice.”
Invited presentation. UC Rhetoric and Composition Research Colloquium, Virtual, April 2021       

“The Cookbook’s Endpapers.”
Presentation at Archival Kismet: A Conference for Historical Exploration, Virtual, April 2021

Useful Tech Tools Workshop: Using Discord in the Composition Classroom.
Invited panelist, University of Cincinnati Writing Program, Virtual, February 2021

“Snack Wednesdays: Incorporating Food into the Literature Classroom.”            
Presentation at Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Virtual, February 2021

Stories that Won’t Stay Still: Archival Inquiry and the Circulation of History
Panelist, Conference on College Composition & Communication, cancelled due to COVID-19

Grading and Response Workshop
Co-Organizer, Department of English, University of Cincinnati, August 2019

“The ‘Uncanny Child’: Locating a Posthuman Future in Louise Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living God”
Paper presented at the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS) Conference, Cincinnati, OH, March 2019

Food for Thought: Accessibility, Attitudes, and Action
Invited Speaker for Faculty Enrichment Center event, University of Cincinnati, October 2019

“Affects in the Wild: Affect and the Kitchen Table”
Presentation at the Conference on College Composition & Communication, Pittsburgh, PA 2019

“Writing at the Kitchen Table”
Paper presented at the Graduate Association of Food Studies Conference: The Future of Food Studies, Chapel Hill, NC, October 2018

“Recipe Blogs as Remix Culture”
Paper presented at the Popular Culture Association Conference, Indianapolis, IN, March 2018

“Food as Insult in Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday”
Interactive discussion and presentation at the Meaning of Food Interdisciplinary Conference, Greensboro, North Carolina, March 2018

“‘You powder-beef queans’”: Food and The Shoemaker’s Holiday”
Paper presented at the Midwest MLA Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, November 2017

“Stirring, Blending, Kneading: Food as Symbol in Green Grass, Running Water and The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse”
Invited presentation at Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas, May 2017

“Foodways in Literature and Popular Culture”
Panel chair and presenter at Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 2017

Service

  • Member, Bedford New Scholars Advisory Board, 2021.
  • Assistant Editor, The Best of the Journals in Rhetoric and Composition, 2021.
  • Manuscript Reviewer, Journal of College Literacy and Learning, 2021.
  • Literacy Tutor, Literacy Network of Cincinnati, 2019-present.
  • Transcriber, Early Modern Recipes Online Collective Annual Transcribathon, 2018-present.
  • Volunteer, MELUS Conference, 2019.
    Member, Composition Advisory Committee, 2018-2019.
  • Member, University of Cincinnati English Graduate Organization, 2017-present.
  • Reader, AP English Literature Exam, 2016-present.
  • President, Wichita State University English Graduate Student Association, 2016-2017.
  • Volunteer, Modern Language Association (MLA) Convention. Philadelphia, PA, 2017