Degrees Held

B.A., 1990, University of Louisville
M.A., 1996, University of Louisville
Ph.D., 2002, University of Louisville

Academic Summary

Susan Popham enjoys teaching all manner of writing courses, both undergraduate and graduate courses, but especially Persuasive Writing, Scientific and Technical Writing, and Advanced Composition. Much of her  teaching experience includes the use of computer technologies in writing classes. She also enjoys teaching Composition Theory, and tries to incorporate some theory in her undergraduate level writing courses. Her teaching theories center around the ideas of democratic and liberatory pedagogies, while also incorporating practical solutions for real-life writing. Her research interests include the rhetoric of science, the rhetoric of medicine, feminist influences in workplace writing, and theories of writing program administration. One of her most recent research project is a book based on her dissertation, a compilation of case studies of business writing in medical practices, examining how medical writers solved business conflicts in their communications.

Courses Taught

1010 Introduction to Academic Writing
3601 Technical and Professional Writing
3604 Persuasive Writing
4001 Senior Honors Seminar: Medicine and Narrative
7003 Theory & Practice in Teaching Composition
7028 Special Topics: Medical Texts and Culture
7803 Theories of Composition: Modern Perspectives
7805 Foundations of Technical Writing
7808 Workshop in Scientific & Technical Writing
7817 Composition Theorists
7822 Contemporary Composition

Major Publications

• "A Rhetoric of Pragmatism: An Analysis of Medical-Business Letters" in Rhetoric of Health: A New Disciplinary Inquiry eds. Barbara Heifferon and Stuart Brown. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2008. 133-148.
• “A Profile of Students Using Laptop Computers in a Freshman Learning Community” (with Loel Kim, Emily Thrush, Joseph Jones, and Donna Daulton) in Going Wireless, ed. Amy Kimmehea.  Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2008
• “A Structural Analysis of Coherence in Electronic Charts of Juvenile Mental Health” (first author, with Sage Graham) in press Technical Communication Quarterly,17.2 (April-June 2008): 149-172
• “Forms as Boundary Genres in Medicine, Business, and Science” Journal of Business and Technical Communication  19.3 (July 2005): 279-303.
• “The Intersections of Medicine and Business: Case Studies of Contradictions and Negotiations in Medical-Business Writing.”  In “Focus on Research Series.” Business Communication Quarterly.  66.1 (2003) 76-79.
• “Using an Activity System Model for Analyzing Effective Arguments in Writing,” Proceedings of the Conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation. 2003
• "Breaking Hierarchies: Using Reflective Practice to Re-Construct the Role of the Writing Program Administrator." Co-author with Brian Huot, Michael Neal, and Ellen Schendel. In The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist. Eds. Shirley Rose and Irwin Weiser. Boynton/Cook, 2002.
• Transforming the Disciplines: A Woman's Studies Primer. Co-edited with Elizabeth MacNabb, Mary Jane Cherry, and Rene Prys. Haworth Press, 2001.