Campus News

Rockford University Assistant Professor of English Tara Wood, Ph.D., recently had pieces published related to her ongoing research on the nexus of disability and writing studies, specific to higher education students with disabilities. Her article “Cripping Time in the College Composition Classroom” published in the journal College Composition and Communication. The article shares findings from a qualitative study on the experiences of students with disabilities in college-level writing and writing-intensive classrooms. Dr. Wood argues that normative conceptions of time and production can negatively constrain student performance, and offers the concept of ‘crip time’ (borrowed from disability theorists and disability activists) as an alternative pedagogical framework.

“Rhetorical Disclosures: The Stake of Disability Identity in Higher Education” published in the edited collection Negotiating Disability: Disclosure and Higher Education. Here, Dr. Wood examines the rhetorical strategies that students with disabilities often use when making decisions regarding disclosure on college campuses.

Wood was also published in the May 25, 2017 edition of the Chronical of Higher Education, where she was the lead author on the article “Why we dread the disability myths” – a critical response to an article published in April by Gail Hornstein titled “Why I Dread the Accommodation Talk.” Dr. Wood critiques Hornstein for perpetuating dangerous and ableism myths about disability and disabled students. Dr. Wood donated the publication payment to the Society for Disability Studies.

Dr. Wood earned her B.A. and M.A. from Colorado State University and her doctorate from the University of Oklahoma. She has been a member of Rockford University’s English faculty since 2014. Dr. Wood is currently working on a piece that analyzes the rhetoric and politics of Title IX, as well as a collaborative piece on writing an accommodation letter addendum that is specific to writing classrooms.