Courtney Adams Wooten

Assistant Professor

Writing Program Administration, Feminist Rhetorics, Composition

Courtney Adams Wooten began her career at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX, serving as the writing program administrator there for four years before joining GMU as the Director of Composition. She is the author of Childfree and Happy: Transforming the Rhetoric of Women's Reproductive Choices and she has co-edited the collections WPAs in Transition and The Things We Carry: Strategies for Recognizing and Negotiating Emotional Labor in Writing Program Administration, and she has published in Composition Studies, WPA, Peitho, Harlot, Academic Labor, and College English as well as several edited collections. She received the Presidential Award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching in 2023.

Current Research

Student Experiences in Hybrid Writing Courses.

WPA Work at Large Institutions.

Onboarding GTAs into gWPA Positions.

Selected Publications

Childfree and Happy: Transforming the Rhetoric of Women's Reproductive Choices. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2023.

The Things We Carry: Strategies for Recognizing and Negotiating Emotional Labor in Writing Program Administration. Courtney Adams Wooten, Jacob Babb, Kristi Murray Costello, and Kate Navickas, eds. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2020.

WPAs in Transition: Navigating Educational Leadership Positions.Courtney Adams Wooten, Jacob Babb, and Brian Ray, eds. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2018.

“When Communities of Practice Fail to Form: Perceptions of Peer-to-Peer Networks and Developing Competence in Hybrid Course Design.” With Brian Fitzpatrick, Ariel M. Goldenthal, Lourdes Fernandez, Jessica Matthews, and Brandon Biller. WPA: Writing Program Administration, vol. 46, no. 1, 2022, pp. 77-96.

Expanded Publication List

“Research is a Team Sport: A Collaborative PARS Approach to Sustainable Hybrid and Online Writing Instruction Development.” With Lorudes Fernandez, Ariel M. Goldenthal, Kerry Folan, and Jessica Matthews. Chapter accepted in PARS for Writing Programs. Eds. Jessie Borgman and Casey McArdle. In production at WAC Clearinghouse; publication date 2023.

“Beyond the Anecdote: Rhetorical Processes of TA Sensemaking.” Chapter accepted in Sensemaking in Writing Programs and Writing Centers. Ed. Rita Malenczyk. In production at Utah State University Press.

“The Pursuit of (Un)Happiness in Rhetoric and Composition TAs’ Experiences.” In Threshold Conscripts: Rhetoric and Composition TAships. Eds. Bill Macauley, Leslie R. Anglesey, Brady Edwards, Kathryn M. Lambrecht, and Phillip K. Lovas. WAC Clearinghouse, 2023, pp. 289-310. Available at https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/threshold/chapter11.pdf.

“First-Generation WPAs as Literacy Sponsors for First-Generation College Students.” With Jacob Babb. Chapter accepted in Beyond Fitting In: Rethinking First-Gen Writing and Literacy Education. Ed. Kelly Ritter. Modern Language Association, 2023, pp. 300-316.

"Feedback Practices in Hybrid Writing Courses: Instructor Choices about Modality and Timing." With Ariel M. Goldenthal, Jessica Matthews, Brian Fitzpatrick, and Lourdes Fernandez. Journal of Response to Writing vol. 8, no. 2, 2022, pp. 40-72.

“Drown[ing] a Little Bit All the Time: The Intersections of Labor Constraints and Professional Development in Hybrid Contingent Faculty Experiences.” With Brian Fitzpatrick, Lourdes Fernandez, Ariel M. Goldenthal, Jessica Matthews. Academic Labor: Research and Artistry vol. 6, 2022, pp. 1-26.

“‘I Get Some Discrimination They Don't Get, They Get Discrimination I Don't Get’: Childfree Reproductive Experiences in English Studies.” College English vol. 83, no. 5, May 2021, pp. 379-402.

“Rethinking SETs: Retuning Student Evaluations of Teaching for Student Agency.” With Brian Ray and Jacob Babb. Composition Studies 46.1 (Spring 2018): 34-56.

Received the Council of Writing Program Administrators Outstanding Scholarship Award, 2020.

“Collegiality as Surveillance? Implementing Collegiality Statements in Institutions of Higher Education.” With Megan Condis. Academic Labor: Research and Artistry 2.1 (2018): 1-13.

“Control and Constraint: Margaret Thatcher and the Dynamics of Gendered Rhetoric During Prime Minister’s Questions.” Peitho 20.2 (Spring 2018): 337-362.

“Travels, Transitions, and Leadership.” With Jacob Babb. In WPAs in Transition.Courtney Adams Wooten, Jacob Babb, and Brian Ray, eds. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2018.

“Traveling on the Assessment Loop: The Role of Contingent Labor in Curriculum Development.” With Jacob Babb. In Contingency, Exploitation, Solidarity. Eds. Seth Kahn, William Lalicker, and Amy Lynch-Biniek. WAC Clearinghouse. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2017. 169-182.

“WPAs Reading SETs: Confronting Authority and Contingency.” With Brian Ray and Jacob Babb. WPA: Writing Program Administration 40.1 (Fall 2016): 50-66.

“Dottie and Me: Constructing Childless-by-Choice Alternative Rhetorics.” Harlot 13 (2015): n.p. Web.

“The Mediation of Literacy Education and the Extension Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, 1912-1924.” Composition Studies 41.2 (2013): 40-57.

Rev. of Nicholas N. Behm, Gregory R. Glau, Deborah H. Holdstein, Duane Roen, and Edward M. White’s The WPA Outcomes Statement – A Decade Later. Composition Studies 41.2 (2013): 134-137.

“‘We Have Issues!’: Mentors Share Their Stories.” With Jane B. Smith, Jamerson Magwood,Heather Harman, Heath Whatley, Gary Caulder, and Brittany Cecil. Southern Discourse 10.2 (Spring 2007): 3, 13.

Grants and Fellowships

“Implementing Anti-Racist Approaches to Language in Composition Courses.” Stearns Center ARIE Grant. George Mason University, 2023. With Hyunyoung Cho, Anna Habib, Lisa Lister, Liz Paul, and James Savage.

“Building Anti-Racist Approaches to Language in Composition Courses.” Stearns Center ARIT Grant. George Mason University, 2022-2023. With Lourdes Fernandez, Anna Habib, Ron’ada Hewitt, Lisa Lister, Jessica Matthews, and Jennifer Messier.

“Student Perceptions of Learning Experiences in Hybrid Writing Courses.” Conference on College Composition and Communication Research Initiative Grant. With Lourdes Fernandez, Brian Fitzpatrick, Kerry Folan, Ariel M. Goldenthal, and Sheri Sorvillo. 2022.

“Writing@Mason: Articulating, Sharing, and Supporting Threshold Knowledges for Mason Core Writing Courses.” Curriculum Impact Grant, GMU, July 2019. With Michelle Lafrance, E. Shelley Reid, Tom Polk, and Susan Lawrence.

“Civic Engagement in Mason Writing.” Curriculum Impact Grant, GMU, July 2018. With Jessica Matthews.

Courses Taught

ENGH 101: Composition

ENGH 302: Advanced Composition

ENGH 615: Proseminar in Composition Instruction

ENGH 722: Composition Pedagogies and Programs in Context

Education

Ph.D in English (Rhetoric and Composition), University of North Carolina at Greensboro, May 2014.

M.A. in English, Winthrop University, May 2008.

B.A. in English with Honors, Wingate University, May 2006.

Recent Presentations

“Rethinking Assumptions: Student-Informed Hybrid Writing Course Design.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. With Kerry Folan and Ariel Goldenthal. Chicago, IL. February 2023.

“Beyond Checking the Boxes: Collaborative Longitudinal Assessment of Student Writing in General Education.” Virginia Assessment Group Conference. With Gina Polychronopoulos. Richmond, VA. November 2022.

“Equitable Assessment: Grading Contracts in Writing-Intensive Courses.” Innovations in Teaching and Learning. Fairfax, VA. September 2022.

“Strategies for Collaborative Research in Teaching and Learning.” Innovations in Teaching and Learning. Fairfax, VA. September 2022.

“Challenging Reproductive Doxa through Childfree Rhetorics.” Rhetoric Society of America. Baltimore, MD. May 2022.

“The Things We’re Carrying Two Years Later.” Carolinas WPA Keynote. With Jacob Babb, Kristi Murray Costello, and Kate Navickas. March 4, 2022.

In the Media

Interview with New Books Network about Childfree and Happy: Transforming the Rhetoric of Women's Reproductive Choices.