Kelly Ritter
School Chair, Professor of Writing and Communication
- School of Literature, Media, and Communication
Overview
Kelly Ritter’s scholarship focuses on archival histories of U.S. writing programs and pedagogies, and cultural-historical conceptions of social class and literacy education. Her books are Before Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale and Harvard, 1920-1960 (NCTE/SIU Press, 2009), Who Owns School? Authority, Students, and Online Discourse (Hampton Press, 2010), To Know Her Own History: Writing at the Woman's College, 1943-1963 (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2012) and Reframing the Subject: Postwar Instructional Film and Class-Conscious Literacies (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2015). She is also the author of numerous articles and chapters, and editor or co-editor of four collections, including Beyond Fitting In: Rethinking First-Generation Writing and Literacy Education (Modern Language Association, 2023). Her current book-in-progress is From Liberation to Remediation: Rhetorical Histories and Futures of General Education. She is past editor (2012-2017) of College English, a flagship journal of the National Council of Teachers of English.
Prior to coming to Georgia Tech, Ritter was LAS Alumni Distinguished Professorial Scholar, Professor of English and Writing Studies, and Interim Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She also served there as Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences (2017-2021), Provost Fellow for Undergraduate Education (2016-2017), Interim Director of the Center for Writing Studies (2014-2015), and Director of the Undergraduate Rhetoric Program (2013-2017). Before her appointment at Illinois, Ritter was faculty and writing program director at UNC-Greensboro (2008-2013) and Southern Connecticut State University (2000-2008). Beyond these institutional roles, Ritter has been a Faculty Fellow in the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Leadership Program (2018-2019), and a fellow in the Presidential Executive Leadership Program (PELP) for the UI System (2021-2022), and is a ACC-ALN (Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Leaders Network) Fellow for 2025.
- Ph.D. in English, University of Illinois-Chicago
- M.F.A in Creative Writing (Poetry), Iowa Writers’ Workshop
- B.A. in English and Communication Studies, University of Iowa
Courses
- LMC-3252: Film and Television: American Horror Film 1931-Present
- LMC-4500: Seminar in Film Studies: Women and American Film, 1939-1980
Publications
Selected Publications
Books
- Beyond Fitting In: Rethinking First-Generation Writing and Literacy Education
In: 2023 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2023
Journal Articles
- The Importance of Disciplinary Dexterity in Humanities Leadership
In: Profession [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2024
All Publications
Books
- Beyond Fitting In: Rethinking First-Generation Writing and Literacy Education
In: 2023 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2023
- Landmark Essays in Writing Program Administration
In: 2019 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: January 2019
- Exploring Composition Studies: Sites, Issues, Perspectives
In: 2016 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: November 2016
- Reframing the Subject: Postwar Instructional Film and Class-Conscious Literacies
In: 2015 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2015
- To Know Her Own History: Writing at the Woman's College, 1943-1963
In: 2012 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: March 2012
- Who Owns School? Authority, Students, and Online Discourse
In: 2010 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2010
- Before Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale and Harvard, 1920-1960
In: 2009 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: August 2009
- Can It Really Be Taught? Resisting Lore in Creative Writing Pedagogy
In: 2007 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2007
Journal Articles
- The Importance of Disciplinary Dexterity in Humanities Leadership
In: Profession [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2024
- Whatever Happened to Average? Heeding Mike Rose's Call
In: WPA: Writing Program Administration [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2022
- Making (Collective) Memory Public: WPA Histories in Dialogue
In: WPA: Writing Program Administration [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2018
- With ‘Increased Dignity and Importance’: Re-Historicizing Charles Roberts and the Illinois Decision of 1955
In: College Composition and Communication [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2018
- Ladies Who Don’t Know Us Correct Our Papers’: Postwar Lay Reader Programs and Twenty-First Century Contingent Labor in First-Year Writing
In: College Composition and Communication [Peer Reviewed]
Date: September 2012
- Archival Research in Composition Studies: Re-Imagining the Historian’s Role
In: Rhetoric Review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2012
Chapters
- The Journal You Have: Balancing the Needs of a Discipline with Editorial Vision
In: Behind the Curtain of Scholarly Publishing: Editors in Writing Studies [Peer Reviewed]
Date: June 2022
- A Question of Mimetics: Graduate Student Writing Courses and the New ‘Basic'
In: Economies of Writing Revaluations in Rhetoric and Composition [Peer Reviewed]
Date: March 2017
- Journal Editors in the Archives: Reportage as Microhistory
In: Microhistories of Composition [Peer Reviewed]
Date: April 2016
Internet Publications
- "Want to Be a College Professor? Get Ready to Move."
In: Slate Magazine
Date: October 2023
- Textual Collaborations: Preparing Two-Year College English Faculty
In: Field Notes
Date: October 2017