Introduction

[Kathryn Remlinger]

Greetings,

I am happy to have found this interdisciplinary discourse list.
Interdisciplinarity has been the central force in my studies and
teaching. My PhD (1995) is in rhetoric and technical communication, an
interdisplinary humanities degee, from Michigan Technological
University. Despite the name of the degree, my studies were focused in
sociolinguistics, specifically,  language and gender and classroom
discourse. My studies also included composition theory and gender
studies.
Now as a linguist in an English department at Grand Valley State
University, I continue to concentrate my work in linguistics, teaching
sociolinguistics, sociolinguistics of TESOL, history of English, and
intro to linguistics, but also include writing and gender studies
courses.
My research has focused on language, gender, and sexuality in the
university and how speakers use language to create, challenge, and/or
change belief systems about what it means to be women, men, lesbian,
gay, and straight, and how these beliefs then affect students' access to
education. Currently I am revising a paper on how students negotiate
speaking turns in the univeristy classroom and how these negotiations
reflect power dynamics which represent gendered beliefs and practices. I
am also interested in contexts and practices of academic writing and
have researched writing across the curriculum and writing to learn. A
new area of interest for me is dialectology--next summer I plan on
conducting an ethnographic study of a dialect in Michigan's Upper
Peninsula to examine how the language is changing and what sociocultural
factors are effecting the changes.

I am excited to be a part of this list and looking forward to
participating.

--Kate Remlinger


Assistant Professor of English
Grand Valley State Univeristy
Allendale, MI 49401 USA
(616) 895-3122
remlingk at gvsu.edu