Kathryn Tucker Ph.D.

Professional Background

Kathryn Tucker is a writing studies scholar whose work focuses on composition studies (the study of writing instruction and how writers learn to write) and writing center studies. Her teaching and research centers antiracist and inclusive practices in writing classrooms, assessments, and feedback. She is especially interested in alternatives to traditional assessment and grading models, such as contract grading and ungrading, and in the role peer support programs play in student and faculty success.

As the John and Linda Seiter Endowed Chair of Writing, Professor Tucker directs writing across the curriculum in the College of Arts and Sciences. She supports all faculty who use writing in their courses. In fall and May terms, she facilitates the Seminar in Teaching Writing to invite faculty into the writing studies discourse community and to support their teaching with current knowledge from her field.

Current Projects

• Linguistic Justice Resource Site: Professor Tucker and the students in her spring 2021 Writing and Linguistic Justice conceptualized and began generating and curating content for a website providing resources for folks, especially members of the University of Redlands and surrounding community, interested in raising awareness and reducing linguistic bias in academic spaces, health care, professional spaces, and social interactions.
• Writing at Redlands: In collaboration with writing colleagues across the University, Tucker is developing a network of information and resources about writing at Redlands.
• Guided Self-Placement: After the College of Arts and Sciences adopted test-optional admissions, Tucker developed and implemented a guided self-placement process for first-year writing. With support from the Writing Advisory and a team of full- and part-time writing faculty, the entering class of 2025 shared their experiences with reading and writing, set their own goals, and identified the courses that would best support those goals in their first year. She is gathering data to write about this project.
• Conference (Un)grading: This project studies the use of conferencing for feedback that includes a grade or other "final" assessment of work.

Academic Experience

• Assistant professor of English rhetoric and composition, and writing center director, Nevada State College, 2014–2020
• Occidental College, adjunct faculty, Cultural Studies Program, Writing and Rhetoric Department, 2009–2014; faculty writing specialist, Center for Academic Excellence, 2010–2014
• Adjunct lecturer, Writing Program, Scripps College, 2007–2013
• Adjunct lecturer, liberal studies, California State University, Fullerton, 2011–2013
• Lecturer, comparative literature, University of California, Los Angeles, 2008–2009