Deborah Brandt

Professor
608-263-2886
dlbrandt@wisc.edu

Degrees and Institutions

PhD, Indiana University, 1983
MA, Indiana University, 1981
BA, Rutgers University, 1974

Research Interests

Literacy, Composition Theory

Selected Publications

Selected articles:  "Who's the President? Ghostwriting and Shifting Values in Literacy," College English 69 (July 2007): 549-571. "Writing for a Living: Literacy and the Knowledge Economy." Written Communication 22 (2005): 166-197. "Drafting U.S. Literacy." College English 66 (2004): 485-502. "Limits of the Local: Expanding Perspectives on Literacy as Social Practice." (with Katie Clinton). Journal of Literacy Research 34 (2002): 337-356. “Sponsors of Literacy.” College Composition and Communication 49 (1998): 165-185.

Books:  Literacy as Involvement: The Acts of Writers, Readers and Texts (Southern Illinois University Press, 1990; Literacy in American Lives (Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Personal Statement

Research interests include social and economic histories of mass literacy; the status of mass writing within late twentieth and early twenty-first century culture; diversity, equity, and access in literacy learning. I teach graduate courses in literacy, writing studies, and qualitative research methods as well as a number of undergraduate courses. I am at work on a new project: Writing Now: New Directions in Mass Literacy, a study that explores the ascendancy of writing as a second stage of mass literacy, focusing on the impact of writing as a means of production in the American economy since about 1960.

Teaching

I teach graduate courses in literacy, writing studies, and qualitative research methods as well as a number undergraduate writing courses.

Research Awards

Thomas Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor of English, University of Louisville, 2006; Grawmeyer Award for Distinguished Research in Education, 2003; MLA Mina P. Shaughnessy Book Prize, 2002; CCCC Outstanding Book Award, 2003;National Research Council Visiting Scholar, 1998-99; Vilas Associate, 1996; NCTE David Russell Award for Distinguished Research, 1992; ACLS, 1986; NCTE Promising Researcher Award, 1984.

Teaching Awards

Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, English Graduate Student Association Graduate Teaching Award, Madison Urban League Community Service Award for Outreach Teaching.