Susan Kates

With a distinguished tenure at The University of Oklahoma, I excel in delivering impactful group and individual instruction, evidenced by a significant enhancement in student assessments. My adeptness in curriculum development and mentorship, coupled with a proactive approach to educational innovation, underscores my commitment to academic excellence.

• Let’s Talk About it Oklahoma, Discussion/Lecture: Fire in Beulah by Rilla Askew, Tuttle, OK, 06/01/23
• Invited Reading/Book Talk, Red Dirt Women, Bartlesville, OK, 12/01/19
• Invited Scholar/Panel Respondent, Red Dirt Book Festival, Shawnee, OK, 10/01/09
• Invited Lecture and Creative Non-Fiction Reading, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of English, 10/01/05
• Featured Speaker, Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition, Rhetorical Education in America, State College, PA, 07/01/99

• Sewing the New Western History to Disrupt the Frederick Jackson Turner Effect in the U.S., International Society for the History of Rhetoric, London, England, 07/01/17
• Building Bases for Action: Re/Mapping a Mandated Writing Program Redesign, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Houston, TX, 04/01/16
• Sewing the New Western History: Camille Phelan and the Oklahoma History Quilt, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Tampa, FL, 03/01/15
• Of Bodies and Banners: Women’s Material Culture in the Suffrage Movement, Conference on College Composition and Communication, New York City, NY, 03/01/07
• Emerging Technologies and the Public Intellectual, Computers and Writing Conference, Lubbock, TX, 05/01/06
• Literacy Work and The Appalachian Volunteers, Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, CA, 03/01/05
• Septima Clark and Bernice Robinson: Race, Pedagogy, and Politics in the Citizenship Education Movement- 1957-1970, Feminist Rhetorics Conference, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 10/01/03
• Literacy, Voting Rights, and the Legacy of the Citizenship Schools, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Denver, CO, 03/01/01
• Historicizing Gender, Department of English, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 02/01/01
• James Watt Raine, Berea College, and The Land of the Saddlebags, Modern Language Convention, San Francisco, CA, 12/01/98
• Gender, Language, and Identity and the History of Women's Rhetoric Texts, Global Conversations on Literacy, Bordeaux, France, 08/01/98
• Student Stories Untold: Marginalized Histories in Composition Studies, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, IL, 04/01/98
• Honoring Linguistic Difference: Rhetoric Instruction at Brookwood Labor College: 1921-1937, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Phoenix, AZ, 03/01/97
• Women Teaching for Change: Historical Perspectives, Coalition of Women Scholars Panel, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Milwaukee, WI, 03/01/96
• Hallie Quinn Brown, Wilberforce College, and the Legacy of Critical Pedagogy, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Milwaukee, WI, 03/01/96
• Linguistic Difference in Rhetoric Textbooks for New Audiences, Rhetoric Society of America, Tucson, AZ, 05/01/96
• The Embodied Rhetoric of Mary Augusta Jordan: Professor at Smith College, 1884-1921, Women’s Studies Brown Bag Lecture Series, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 11/01/96
• Historicizing Critical Pedagogy in the U.S.: John Dewey’s Influence on the Work of Paulo Freire and Henry Giroux, Conference on American Pragmatism, John Dewey, and Teaching and Learning in a Multicultural Society, Lake Mohonk, NY, 11/01/95
• Politics and Paradoxes: Rhetoric at Smith College 1886-1921, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Washington D.C., DC, 03/01/95
• Rhetoric at Brookwood Labor College: 1921-1937, Pennsylvania State University Conference on Rhetoric and Composition, State College, PA, 1994
• Complicating Diversity: An Ethnographic Perspective, Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Diego, CA, 04/01/93
• Claiming Authority in a Space for Social Change: Reflections, Reactions, and Response to a Politicized Classroom, College English Conference, Columbus, OH, 04/01/92
• Standing Back: Meta-Discourse and Political Revelation in the Classroom, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Cincinnati, OH, 03/01/92
• Students as Research Partners, Conference on Alternative Assessment, Dublin, OH, 11/01/91

Member, Graduate Committee, 2020 to present, Search Committee Member, Professor of African American Literature, post-1900, 2021-22, Search Committee Member, Professor of African American Literature, pre-1900, 2019-20, Editorial Board Member, Genre, Fall 2019 to present, Member, Committee A, Fall 2017 to Spring 2019, Search Committee Chair, Director of First-Year Composition, 2014, Search Committee Chair, Professor of Science and Technical Writing, 2013, Co-Chair, Student Awards, Spring 2013, Director, First-Year Writing, Fall 2007 to Spring 2011, Co-Director, First-Year Writing, Fall 2006, Interim Director, First-Year Writing, Spring 2006, Undergraduate Director, 2002 to 2005, Coordinator, Student Awards Ceremony, 2001-2002, Member, Women’s Roundtable on Women in the Profession, 1995-1999, Workshop Facilitator, Computers in Composition and Literature, 1996 to 2001, Interviewer, Mock Interviews for Graduate Student Job Candidates, 1996-1998, Member, College of the Arts and Sciences Tenure and Promotion Committee, 2021 to 2022, Member, PAGEO Committee, 2013 to 2015, Contributor, Books That Inspire exhibit, 2007

(405) 326-2772, (405) 325-0831

Red Dirt Women: At Home on the Oklahoma Plains, University of Oklahoma Press, 2013, Activist Rhetorics and American Higher Education, 1885-1937, Southern Illinois University Press, 2000, Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place, Rilla Askew, University of Oklahoma Press, 2017, Literacy, Voting Rights, and the Citizenship Schools in the South, 1957-70, College Composition and Communication, 57, 2006, 479-502, Emerging Technologies and the Public Intellectual, Literature, Interpretation, Theory, 16, 4, 2005, 381-388, Politics, Identity, and the Language of Appalachia: James Watt Raine on ‘Mountain Speech and Song’, Rhetorical Education in America, Cheryl Glenn and Margaret Lyday, University of Alabama Press, 2004, 74-86, Subversive Feminism: The Politics of Correctness in Mary August Jordan’s Correct Writing and Speaking (1904), College Composition and Communication, 48, 1997, 39-55, The Embodied Rhetoric of Hallie Quinn Brown, College English, 59, 1997, 59-71, Linguistic Difference in Rhetoric Textbooks for New Audiences (1889-1937), Conference Proceedings from the 1996 Meeting of the Rhetoric Society of America, Theresa Enos and Richard McNabb, Erlbaum, 1999, 109-114, Off-Road Diner: Panhandle, Oklahoma, North Dakota Quarterly, Fall/Winter 2021, 55-56, The Comfort Highway, Ain’t Nobody Can Sing Like Me, Calhoun-Misch, Mongrel Empire Press, 2010, 273, On Grassland Lake, Nimrod, Fall 2004, 189, Kirk School at Orient Correctional, The Cumberland Poetry Review, Spring 1998, 70-71, The Birds, Your Hands, The Laurel Review, Winter 1998, 69, By Water, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Spring/Summer 1997, 54, The Bird Watcher, Ain’t Nobody Can Sing Like Me, Calhoun-Misch, Mongrel Empire Press, 2010, 274-281, Girls in the Ring, Deep Muddy, Spring 2009, 60-69, Adoption Story, Poem Memoir Story (PMS), Spring 2007, 86-97, Bryn Mawr School for Women Workers, Karyn Hollis, Southern Illinois University Press, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 35, 1, Winter 2005, 127-128, Vote and Voice: Women’s Organizations and Political Literacy, 1915-1930, Wendy Sharer, Southern Illinois University Press, Rhetoric Review, 25, 1, 2006, 96-99, Fencing With Words: A History of Writing Instruction at Amherst College during the Era of Theodore Baird: 1938-1966, Robin Varnum, NCTE, Newsletter of the Coalition of Women Scholars, 1, 1996, 3-4, Calling: Essays on Teaching in the Mother Tongue, Gail B. Griffin, Trilogy Books, Pasedena, California, Composition Chronicle, 6, 8, 12/01/93, 11-12

• Member, Committee A, Policy Committee, University of Oklahoma, Fall 2017 to Summer 2019
• Director, First-Year Composition, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 2007 to 2011, Responsible for training new graduate teaching assistants and mentoring teachers in the First-Year Composition Program. Instructor evaluations and curriculum development.
• Co-Director, First-Year Composition, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 2006, Responsible for training new graduate teaching assistants and mentoring teachers in the First-Year Composition Program. Instructor evaluations and curriculum development.
• Undergraduate Director, Department of English, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 2002 to 2005, Responsible for administrative issues related to curriculum development and transfer credit. Chair of undergraduate committee.
• Workshop Facilitator, Computers in Composition and Literature Program, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 1996 to 2001, Responsible for training TAs new to computer-mediated teaching and overseeing administrative issues related to computer-mediated courses in English.
• Research and Administrative Associate, The Writing Workshop, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 1991-1993, Responsible for consulting with TAs and instructors in planning courses, observing and evaluating pilot 110W course, planning staff meetings, researching and writing new curriculum, and holistically scoring placement essays.
• Research Associate, Program Excellence, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 1992, Responsible for ethnographic observation of experimental writing courses which paired first-year honors and basic writing students, participating in weekly research team meetings, analyzing data for future curricular decisions.
• Research Associate, Young Scholars Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 1992, Responsible for developing curriculum for the ninth-and eleventh-grade summer on-campus institute, interviewing prospective teachers, organizing visits by special speakers, and facilitating teacher training.
• Managing Editor, The Ohio Journal, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 1984-1985, Assisted in the publication of OSU’s literary magazine, writing grant proposals, reviewing manuscripts, and supervising work-study students.
• Contract Worker, Choices for Victims of Domestic Violence, Columbus, OH, 1983-1985, Participated in all facets of the operation of a non-profit women’s shelter. Responsible for answering crisis line, delivering presentations at Ohio schools and civic organizations, and writing grant proposals.

• Longmire Prize for Teaching Award, University of Oklahoma, 2023
• Most Inspiring Faculty Award, Athletic Department, University of Oklahoma, 2011
• Presidential Dream Course, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 2005
• Research Council Grant, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 2002
• Research Council Grant, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 2000
• English Department Nominee, Irene Rothbaum Teaching Award, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 1999
• Pushcart Prize Nominee, The Laurel Review, 1998
• English Department Nominee, Irene Rothbaum Teaching Award, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 1998
• Presidential International Travel Fellowship, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 1998
• English Department Nominee, Amoco Teaching Award, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 1997
• College of Arts and Sciences Junior Faculty Research Award, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 1997
• Junior Faculty Research Award, University of Oklahoma, 1996
• Women Scholars Summer Research Fellowship, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 1995
• Academic Challenge Grant Research Stipend, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 1992
• The Vera Carter Cooley Teaching Award, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 1993
• The Vandewater Prize for Creative Writing, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 1987