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Karen Kopelson
Appointments
- Associate Professor
- Director of Graduate Studies
Departments
Location
- Room 315 D
- Bingham Humanities, Belknap Campus
- Office Hours: Weds 2:30-4pm; Thurs 3:30-5pm; and by appt.
Phone Number
- 502-852-0505
Email Address
Website
Bio
Office Hours Spring 2012: Weds 2:30-4pm; Thurs 3:30-5pm; and by appt.
English Courses Recently Taught:
ENGL 670-75 Composition Theory and Practice (Spring, 2012)
ENGL 491-01 Interpretive Theory: The New Criticism to the Present (Fall, 2011)
ENGL 691-01: Contemporary Theories of Interpretation (Spring, 2011)
ENGL 506-75: Teaching Writing (Fall, 2010)
ENGL 368-01: Minority Traditions in Literature--"Dangerous Crossings" (Spring, 2010)
ENGL 692-01: Queer Theory (Fall, 2009)
Educational Background
- Ph.D. from Purdue University
Teaching Areas
- Rhetoric & Composition; Critical Theory; Gay and Lesbian Lit
Research Interests
- Rhetoric and writing studies; critical theory and cultural studies (especially feminisms and queer theory); questions of disciplinarity; medical rhetoric.
Honors & Awards
- James L. Kinneavy Award (2005)
- Richard Braddock Award (2004)
Publications
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Journal articles
“Writing Patients’ Wrongs: The Rhetoric and Reality of Information Age Medicine.” JAC 29.1-2 (2009): 353-404.
“Back at the Bar of Utility: Theory and/as Practice in Composition Studies (Reprise).” JAC 28.3-4 (2008): 587-608.
“Sloganeering Our Way to Serenity: AA and the Language(s) of America.” JAC 27.3-4 (2007): 591-636.
“Sp(l)itting Images; Or, Back to the Future of (Rhetoric and?) Composition.” College Composition and Communication 59.4 (2008): 750-80.
“Radical Indulgence: Excess, Addiction, and Female Desire.” Postmodern Culture 17.1 (September 2006).
“Tripping Over Our Tropes: Of ‘Passing’ and Postmodern Subjectivity—What’s in a Metaphor?” JAC 25.3 (2005): 435-67. (2005 James L. Kinneavy Award recipient)
“Rhetoric on the Edge of Cunning; Or, the Performance of Neutrality (Re)Considered As a Composition Pedagogy for Student Resistance.” College Composition and Communication 55.1 (September 2003): 115-46. (2004 Braddock Award recipient)
“(Dis)Integrating the Gay/Queer Binary: ‘Reconstructed Identity Politics’ for a Performative Pedagogy.” College English 65.1 (September 2002, Special Issue, Gay/Lesbian Studies: Queer Pedagogies. Guest Editor, William J. Spurlin): 17-35.
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Book Chapters
“Of Ambiguity and Erasure: The Perils of Performative Pedagogy.” Relations, Locations, and Positions: Composition Theory for Writing Teachers. Ed. Peter Vandenberg, Jennifer Clary-Lemon, and Sue Hum. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2006. 563-71.
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Book Reviews
Review of David L. Wallace and Helen Rothschild Ewald’s Mutuality in the Rhetoric and Composition Classroom.
Composition Studies 29.2 (Fall 2001): 133-39.
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Works in Preparation
“Queer.” Keywords in Writing Studies. Ed. Paul Heilker and Peter Vandenberg. Logan: Utah State UP, 2013.
“Recruiting the ‘Bad Girls of Breast Cancer’: The Risky Rhetoric of Breast Cancer Action and Breast Cancer Fund.”

