Annie Knepler

Annie Knepler has been on the faculty in University Studies since the fall of 2008 and has taught Freshman Inquiry, Sophomore Inquiry, and Senior Capstone courses. She grew up in Chicago, an upbringing that helped spark her interest in urban studies and the possibilities cities (like Portland and Chicago) have to offer. She received her BA in Comparative Literature from University of Wisconsin—Madison and her Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Rhetoric from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Her dissertation, “Narrating the City: Writing, Self-Representation, and the Everyday,” explores how adults in a community-based writing and publishing project in Chicago narrate, create, and recreate their everyday relationships to the places they inhabit. Annie also serves as the UNST Writing Coordinator in UNST and works with both faculty and mentors to provide support for writing instruction in UNST courses. Before moving to Portland, she also served as Associate Director and Editor at the Chicago-based non-profit the Neighborhood Writing Alliance. Annie is co-editor of a multicultural composition textbook, Crossing Cultures: Readings for Composition, and has published and presented work on community writing, composition studies, and pedagogy.