NICOLE GONZALES HOWELL

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO

I am currently an associate professor at the University of San Francisco and earned my doctorate at Syracuse University in the Composition and Cultural Rhetoric program.

I graduated with BA in 1996 from the University of Southern California. When I decided to return to grad school in 2009 it was for one reason: to teach. Teaching has remained at the core of my purpose for my academic career, but not for the reasons that initially motivated my return. Let me explain.

CURRICULUM VITAE

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

University of San Francisco

Associate Professor, Fall 2015-Present
Ethnic Minority Dissertation Fellow, Fall 2014-Spring 2015

California State University, Fresno

Instructor, Summer Bridge, Summer 2014

Syracuse University

Editor, Graduate Editing Center, Fall 2013-Spring 2014
Consultant, Writing Center, Spring 2011-Spring 2013
TA Writing Instructor, Fall 2009-Spring 2013

Fresno City College

Adjunct Faculty, Spring 2009-Summer 2009

California State University, Fresno

TA Writing Instructor, Fall 2007-2009
English Prep Instructor, Fast Forward to Academic Success, Title V, Spring 2007

EDUCATION

2016

Ph.D., Composition and Cultural Rhetoric
Syracuse University Dissertation: “La Pasionaria—Ethos Formation, Dolores Huerta, and the United Farm Workers”
Committee: Lois Agnew (Chair), Rebecca Moore Howard, Tony Scott, Gwen

2009

M.A., English, Composition Theory
California State University, Fresno
Advisor: Rick Hansen

1996

B.A., English Literature and Language
University of Southern California

1993

Fresno Community College, English

TEACHING

University of San Francisco
Graduate

Applied Professional Communication SOM | MBA 649/MSOD 699

Undergraduate

First Year Seminar/Critical Diversity Studies 195 | FYS/CDS 195 | Fall 2021; Fall 2020 Public Speaking (International Student Cluster) | RHET 103 | Fall 2020
First Year Seminar/Rhetoric 195 (Honors College)| FYS/RHET 195 | Language and Power (HONC) Fall 2020; Fall 2018
Critical Diversity Studies Capstone | CDS 400 | Spring 2021, Spring 2020
Public Speaking | RHET 103 | Summer 2021, Spring 2021, Spring 2020; Spring 2019; Spring 2018; Fall 2018; Spring 2017
Transfer Year Seminar/Rhetoric | TYS/RHET 295 | Fall 2018; Identity Rhetorics, Fall 2019 Academic Writing (Transfer Student Class) | RHET 250 |New Curriculum Pilot, Fall 2019
First Year Seminar/Rhetoric 195 | FYS/RHET 195
Identity Rhetorics, Spring 2019
Language and Power, Spring 2018
Writing About Human Rights, 2014-2015
Written Communication II | RHET 120 |Summer 2019; Summer 2018; Fall 2017; Spring 2016
Written Communication I (Intensive) | RHET 110N | Fall 2016; 2015-2016 Written Communication I | RHET 110 |Fall 2018; Spring 2017

Syracuse University

Practices of Academic Writing | WRT 105 | Visual Representation: Race & Ethnicity, Fall 2010; Summer 2010; Fall 2009
Critical Research & Inquiry | WRT 205 |Textual Representation of Race & Gender, Spring 2010
Technical and Professional Writing | WRT 307 | Fall 2012
Advanced Writing Studio: Style | WRT 308 | Stylistic Choices and Voices, Spring 2012
Theory and Strategy for the Teaching of Writing | WRT 670 | CCR Consultant & Instructor, Fall 2010

California State University, Fresno

Writing/Reading and Information Literacy | Summer Bridge | Lecturer, Summer 2014 Accelerated Academic Literacy | English 10 | 2008-2009
Academic Literacy II | English 5B | Spring 2008
Academic Literacy I | English 5A | Fall 2007

Fresno Community College

Writing Skills for College | English 125| Spring 2009 and Summer 2009

SERVICE

Pedagogical Workshop Facilitation/Conference Organization

UDL, Grading, and You: Universal Design for Learning Applied

Section facilitator, CTE Newish Faculty Teaching Workshop, University of San Francisco, August 2021

Lewis University, National Day on Writing

Invited Keynote speaker and Workshop Facilitator, Lewis University, October 2020

Bridging the Humanities: Mellon National Conference

Host and Facilitator, Two-day Mellon Conference, University of San Francisco, October 2019

Universal Design for Learning and Grading Workshop

Section Facilitator, USF Tech Intensive, University of San Francisco, Summer 2019

Mellon Faculty Retreat/Workshop

Host and Workshop Facilitator, University of San Francisco, April 2019
Host and Workshop Facilitator, University of San Francisco, April 2018

Thinking About Writing: Department of Social Work Educators Student Success Workshop

Invited Full-day Workshop Facilitator, California State University, Fresno, February 2019

Universal Design for Learning with Emily Nussbaum

Half-day workshop co-facilitator, CTE Newish Faculty Workshop, University of San Francisco, January 2019

Teaching Retreat UDL workshop facilitation with Emily Nussbaum

Section co-facilitator, CTE Teaching Retreat, University of San Francisco, October 2018

CTE Round Table Discussion Leader

Provost’s Orientation for New Faculty, University of San Francisco, August 2018

CSU, Fresno, National Day on Writing

Invited Keynote speaker and Workshop Facilitator, California State University, Fresno, October 2017

Universal Design and Accessibility with Emily Nussbaum

Section co-facilitator, CTE Newish Faculty Teaching Workshop, University of San Francisco, August 2017

Universal Design for Learning Workshop

Planning committee, Faculty Learning Community sponsored conference, University of San Francisco, April 2017

Moving Toward Antiracist Teaching and Grading

Facilitator, CTE Teaching Cafe, University of San Francisco, November 2016

Chicana Activism and Embodiment: Resistant Epistemologies & Ethos Construction

CTE Faculty Salon presenter, University of San Francisco, October, 2016

Introduction to Universal Design for Learning

Department of Rhetoric and Language, University of San Francisco, May 2016

Assessing Student Writing for the World We Live In

Department of Rhetoric and Language, University of San Francisco, March 2015

Developing Assignment Workshop with Cathy Gabor and Julie Sullivan

Department of Rhetoric and Language, University of San Francisco, January 2015
The Citation Project: “Understanding Students’ Use of Sources through Collaborative Research.” With Rebecca Moore Howard (Lead), Sandra Jamieson (Lead), Nicole Gonzales Howell, Missy Watson, Kate Navickas
Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy: Savannah, GA, September 2010

APPOINTMENTS & COMMITTEE PARTICIPATION

University
University of San Francisco

Rebuilding Trust Task Force Spring-Summer 2021
Strategic Planning Committee Spring-Summer 2021
Directed Self Placement Committee Member 2018-Present
Mellon Scholar Coordinator 2016-Present
Chicano Latino Studies advisory board member 2015-Present
Faculty Learning Community Facilitator: Examining the Impact of Grading 2020-21
Faculty Learning Community Participant: Invisible Labor of Faculty of Color 2019-20
Faculty Learning Community Participant: Universal Design Learning 2016-17
CELASA member 2015-2019
CIT Summer Intensive Participant Summer 2016

Department
University of San Francisco

Antiracist Pedagogy Subcommittee 2020-Present
Curriculum Committee Member 2016-Present
Assessment Committee Member 2015-Present
Writing Course Development (Honors College) Committee Spring 2017
Pedagogy Committee Member 2015-16
Integrating Multilingual Students, Committee Member 2014-16

FELLOWSHIP & RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIPS

University of San Francisco
Ignatian Teaching and Research Fellow, 2019-2020

The Ignatian Fellowship generated opportunities for fellows to have conversations around the Ignatian tradition and how it informs teaching, research, and service in Jesuit higher education. Through readings, group discussion, and guest speakers, participants deepened their understanding of Jesuit higher education and explored the implications of Ignatian values on all aspects of their work at USF.

Ethnic Minority Dissertation Fellow, 2014-2015

Designed to provide experience for soon-to-be faculty, USF’s Ethnic Minority Dissertation Fellowship scholars are expected to complete their dissertation on a diversity related research topic, while teaching one course per semester in the school where they are placed. As a fellow in the Rhetoric and Language department this year, I have been invited to participate as a full-time faculty member by not only attending all faculty meetings, but also participating in committee work and service university wide. Citation Project , Contributing Researcher, 2009
The aim of the Citation Project is to use empirical data in determining sound pedagogical approaches to first year composition and research. As a contributing researcher, I coded student papers for the ways in which they engaged—or not—with their sources by first identifying cited text and then locating the information in the cited source. By working through student work in this fashion it became apparent that often students engaged in patchwriting rather than summary and/or synthesis of the sources being utilized.

California State University, Fresno Writing program assessment Contributing Researcher, 2008

Conducted portfolio readings taken from a random sample of English 5A, 5B, and 10 portfolios. Assessed entry and exit level portfolios by providing a rating of 1-6 for five of the current program’s desired learning outcomes. The collected data was analyzed and used to assess the First Year Writing program.

RESEARCH

Publications

“Embracing the Perpetual ‘But’ in Raciolinguistic Justice Work: When Idealism Meets Practice.” With Kate Navickas, Rachael Shapiro, Shawna Shapiro, and Missy Watson. Composition Forum. August 2020. 44

Howell, Nicole Gonzales. “Rev. of Rethinking Ethos: A Feminist Ecological Approach to Rhetoric edited by Kathleen J. Ryan, Nancy Meyers, and Rebecca Jones.” Peitho 20.2 (2018): 420-27.

“Speaking from and About Brown Bodies: Sharing Identities, Changing Identities.” Composition Studies. Fall 2017 45.2

“Practicing Liberatory Pedagogy“ With Dalia Rodriguez, Afua Boahene, Juliann Anesi. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies. April 2012.

Editorial Assistant. Listening to our Elders: Working and Writing for Change. Eds. Steve Parks et al. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press. 2011.

Conference Presentations

“Bucking The Normative Model: Grading Contracts and Universal Design for Learning” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Digital on Demand Video, April 2021

“Drowning in White Language Supremacy: Evaluating the Promises and Shortcomings of Labor based Grading Contracts”

Conference on College Composition and Communication: Milwaukee, WI, March 2020 (conference cancelled).

If Not Me, Who? If Not Now, When?”: Being a Monolingual Latina at Home and in the Academy. Conference on College Composition and Communication: Pittsburgh, PA, March 2019.

Mellon Grant Partnership Presentation.

Mellon Foundation Convening: New York City, NY, July 2018.

Re-Imagining Rhetoric.

Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference: Sacramento, CA, July 2018. Selling True Womanhood: Informal Rhetorical Education from Direct Sales Companies. Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference: University of Dayton, OH, October 2017. Writing Assessment and Race: the Politics of Classroom Management and Grading PracticesConference on College Composition and Communication: Portland, OR, March 2017. Intersectional Research Methods: Sharing identities, changing identities.

Pre-Conference Feminist Workshop. College Composition and Communication: Portland, OR, March 2017.

Moving Toward Antiracist Teaching & Grading. Teaching Cafe: University of San Francisco, November 2016

The Story of Two Chicanas: Resistance, Ethos, and the Body.

Faculty Salon: University of San Francisco, October 2016

Embodiment, Interconnectivity and Public Struggle in Writing Education. Conference on Community Writing: Boulder, CO, October 2015

Constructing Ethos: Dolores Huerta and Ethos Formation.

Conference on College Composition and Communication: Indianapolis, IN, March 2014. Looking Outside the Academy: The Rhetorical Strategies of Dolores Huerta. Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference: Stanford University, CA, September 2013. Recovery and Redefinition: Imagining Dolores Huerta as a WPA.

Syracuse University Spring Teaching Conference: April 2013.

WPA Work: Looking Beyond the Academy.

State University New York, Council on Writing: University at Buffalo, NY, March 2013. Creating Consubstantiation between Teachers and Students Despite Disparate Rhetorics of Embodiment.

Rhetoric Society of America: Philadelphia, PA, May 2012.

Latinas in Rhetoric: The transformative quality of Latina rhetors and historiography. Decolonizing Fem-Rhet Nation: Once More Beyond Inclusion and Liberal Tolerance. Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference: Minnesota State University, October 2011. Cultivating Work and Life in CCR.

Invited panelist. Syracuse University Writing Program: September 2011

Judgment Days. Invited Reader.

Writers In-Between: Creative Nonfiction from the Writing Program: Syracuse University, May 2011

The Contested Space of Publication. Staging Tactical Interventions on Public Writing. Conference on College Composition and Communication: Atlanta, GA, April 2011. (Not) Recognizing the Individual: The Failures of New TA Shared Curriculum. Treating Pedagogical Failures as Blunders: Material and Ideological Constraints of Graduate Teaching Assistants.

State University New York, Council on Writing: Binghamton University, NY, March 2011.

ABOUT

Photograph by Tracy Gregory

I am currently an associate professor at the University of San Francisco and earned my doctorate at Syracuse University in the Composition and Cultural Rhetoric program. I graduated with BA in 1996 from the University of Southern California. When I decided to return to grad school in 2009 it was for one reason: to teach. Teaching has remained at the core of my purpose for my academic career, but not for the reasons that initially motivated my return. Let me explain.

I am an English-monolingual Chicana who as a young child fell in love with reading and writing. In my k-12 education, I was often recognized as a bright student and encouraged to apply myself to my academics. I was lucky to receive such positive messaging as a child, but it also happened to lead to my greatest weakness. I believed school was easy and that school was for me. When I started college at Fresno Community College, I was fortunate to continue to receive mostly positive reinforcement from my teachers. However, when I transferred to my first four-year university, I learned I was not especially clever, and I definitely did not have very much social capital. After transferring a second time and scraping by, I realized school was no longer an engaging intellectual journey; rather, it was a chore. And to be frank, after graduating I swore to never go back to school…ever.

It took over ten years for me to change my mind and to decide to return to school and earn my master’s degree. In my career as a marketing director, I had led countless trainings, workshops, and events, and I knew I enjoyed those elements of the job the most. Thus, I saw returning to school as a means of focusing on my strengths so that I could teach in higher education. I was an English major in my undergrad, so I chose to enter an English graduate program at California State University, Fresno (Fresno State). It was there that I first enrolled in a Composition Theory course and started to learn about Rhetoric and Composition as a field. It was through grappling with composition theory that I began to understand how and why I was so disengaged in my earlier college courses and why I felt as if I didn’t belong. I didn’t. The university was not built with me in mind. It was not built with people like me in mind, and therefore has long alienated and disenfranchised people like me. In returning to higher education, I wanted to develop into the kind of teacher I had needed. To put it differently, my goal as an educator was and is rooted in working for social and racial justice in higher education.

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

A few years back I heard a scholar proclaim that research is really “me-search.” I find this assumption to apply not only to my own research (and others’), but also to teaching. As teachers, we carry into the classroom the influence of our experiences from both inside and outside of the academy. My upbringing in a Latino family, middle-class education, and 10-year hiatus from the academy after my Bachelor’s degree have as much to do with how and why I teach writing as does the research I’ve done on good pedagogical practice in Rhetoric and Composition. Because I recognize that my whole person influences my teaching, as a writing teacher I am dedicated to considering the whole person sitting in my classroom, not just the student. I acknowledge that life is part of student life and that it can be a monumental task to balance work, home life, and schooling. With this disposition, I make efforts to learn about my students and to create opportunities and advantages for all students, regardless of their experiences and sociopolitical location.

Achieving equitable and just teaching practices begins with developing and utilizing course materials that explicitly address the role of writing and transformative power of education. Therefore, I often start each semester with a few theoretical texts about the function of writing and language politics. Depending on the course level, I may start with a piece like Amy Devitt’s “Generalizing about Genre” to emphasize the role of conventions in writing, a piece like David Bartholomae’s “Inventing the University” to examine the social function of the university and the writing that takes place in it, or Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” to draw attention to the politics of language and identity in education. Students engage the rhetorics of these issues (and any issue) in my classes in order to gain understandings about the rhetorical situation, the power of writing, and how to analyze a text for the argument, purpose, intended audience, context, and various appeals. We read shared texts for both content and structure, and we look to each reading as an opportunity to deepen our understanding of rhetorical strategies by analyzing the moves authors make. Students leave my classes with strategies for learning about writing conventions by engaging and analyzing texts—whether in academic or public settings—and then rhetorically applying that knowledge to their own situated writing.

Assessment is both a research area of mine, and a pedagogical centerpiece that greatly affects my approach to teaching writing. Understanding the impact of assessment and its ability to dictate the direction of a class, I typically invite students into this conversation. We talk about the function that assessment plays in the classroom, and students are given space to voice their anxieties and even criticisms about the kinds of evaluative criteria used in our class. I provide many opportunities for students to generate writing that is not assessed but that moves them closer to a major writing project. As evidenced by the work of Paul Kei Matsuda, Peter Elbow, and Ed White, providing space for low-stakes writing lessens anxiety and offers students ample time for drafting and practicing new writing tasks. I often also utilize a portfolio method where students select work they believe best represents their written accomplishments in our course and then write rhetorical analyses whereby they reflect upon their own writing. Another benefit from placing assessment at the center of my teaching pedagogy is that it foregrounds the learning outcomes for each specific course I teach. For example, if the desired outcomes for a Technical and Professional Writing course include gaining the ability to create an effective digital presence, then part of the curriculum would include a visual rhetorical analysis of a shared example and then a collaboratively created rubric for their own projects based on our analysis. Learning occurs as we analyze the digital presence, and students become responsible for identifying, producing, and assessing effective products. These approaches, I believe, help to strike a balance between establishing my authority in the classroom and maintaining a student-centered environment.

Acknowledging that teaching is not confined to the classrooms we teach from, but also extends to our departments and administration, is another way my research interests intersect with my teaching practices. As a writing program administrator intern at Syracuse University, and with the task of assessing the program’s assessment practices, Tony Scott and I surveyed teachers in our program. One of our many findings was that there were inconsistencies across assessment practices in the program, especially when it came to the focus placed on grammar and belletristic features. Establishing transparent guidelines and rubrics for assessing students, and ensuring that evaluation is based on what is actually taught in the course—and not on the level of expertise the student is assumed to already have, as Matsuda has also argued—are important considerations when aiming to create equitable assessment processes across classes and for all students. This philosophy, of course, applies not only to departmental outcomes, but also to classroom practice. During a unit in one of my technical and professional writing courses, for instance, students worked to create a digital presence online and only about 10% of our time was dedicated to developing grammatical correctness and editing; thus, only 10% of the unit grade was allotted to it. Through this research and using my own teaching as models for professional development events, I have participated with my community of teachers at Syracuse to insure strong consistent teaching practices across the program.

Teaching writing is a complicated task. But no matter the new challenges I face, and regardless of course level, in each of my classes I aim to meet students where they are and provide the support they need to achieve success in my class and far beyond. Through teaching writing in multiple forms and modes I aim for students to appreciate the power inherent in writing and to gain the skills necessary to wield its power ethically. Returning to the academy a decade after graduating with my BA, I realized that my early experience in the university was marked by feelings of disenfranchisement and of not belonging. It was then that I became aware of the political nature of writing and language and became passionate about being a teacher of Rhetoric and Composition. This realization sparked my interest in the study of teacher affect, writing assessment, writing program administration, and embodied rhetoric. Ultimately, understanding the gatekeeping function of writing enables students to better negotiate their own writing tasks as well as consider the social implications of standardization. As a Latina, I have seen first hand the effects of racism, classism, and sexism. And my approach to teaching is thus always guided by promoting social justice and creating a space in which all students have an equal opportunity to thrive.

TEACHING RESOURCES

ANTI RACISM TEACHING

SAMPLE GRADING CONTRACT

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANTI RACISM TEACHING

SAMPLE GRADING CONTRACT

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BLOG

Cause for Celebration

Yesterday afternoon I successfully defended my dissertation prospectus and passed my hearing. If you’re not in academia this may not mean much, but for those of you who have some experience with advanced degrees, it’s kind of major. After nearly 4 years of work, which included 2 years of course work, 1 year of comprehensive exam prep and completion, and nearly a year of preliminary research for my dissertation project and crafting the prospectus, I am now officially All But Dissertation (ABD). Officially a doctoral candidate. [pause] Doctoral candidate? Me?

March 27, 2013 No Comments

Lucky

It’s the start of another semester and as usual it draws me to a place of reflection. I’m starting the semester with a strong draft of my prospectus, which I am hoping will be forwarded to my dissertation committee in the near future. Once my prospectus is defended and approved I can begin throwing my heart and soul into the research and writing for my dissertation. The whole process is daunting, but with the support of the many amazing people in my life it’s been rewarding and generally manageable! In

January 15, 2013 No Comments

First day of Daycare, oh my!

Well. I did it. I dropped my son off at daycare for the first time. I’m not sure what I expected from the experience other than sadness. But what struck me was how confused he looked as I left him during snack time. He had his milk, and was sitting with the other kids, but his eyes were locked on me as I threw him kisses and turned the corner. I made it to the car and then slowly tears rolled down my face. It’s not like I haven’t left

August 27, 2012 No Comments

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