Kelly Ritter
School Chair, Professor of Writing and Communication
- School of Literature, Media, and Communication
Overview
Kelly Ritter’s scholarship focuses on archival histories of U.S. writing programs and pedagogies, and cultural-historical conceptions of social class and literacy education. Her books are Before Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale and Harvard, 1920-1960 (NCTE/SIU Press, 2009), Who Owns School? Authority, Students, and Online Discourse (Hampton Press, 2010), To Know Her Own History: Writing at the Woman's College, 1943-1963 (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2012) and Reframing the Subject: Postwar Instructional Film and Class-Conscious Literacies (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2015). She is also the author of numerous articles and chapters, and editor or co-editor of four collections, including Beyond Fitting In: Rethinking First-Generation Writing and Literacy Education (Modern Language Association, 2023). Her forthcoming book is From Liberation to Remediation: The Rhetoric of General Education (Utah State UP, 2026). She is past editor (2012-2017) of College English, a flagship journal of the National Council of Teachers of English.
Prior to coming to Georgia Tech, Ritter was LAS Alumni Distinguished Professorial Scholar, Professor of English and Writing Studies, and Interim Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She also served there as Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences (2017-2021), Provost Fellow for Undergraduate Education (2016-2017), Interim Director of the Center for Writing Studies (2014-2015), and Director of the Undergraduate Rhetoric Program (2013-2017). Before her appointment at Illinois, Ritter was faculty and writing program director at UNC-Greensboro (2008-2013) and Southern Connecticut State University (2000-2008). Beyond these institutional roles, Ritter has been a Faculty Fellow in the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Leadership Program (2018-2019), a fellow in the Presidential Executive Leadership Program (PELP) for the UI System (2021-2022), and is currently a ACC-ALN (Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Leaders Network) Fellow for 2025.
- Ph.D. in English, University of Illinois-Chicago
- M.F.A in Creative Writing (Poetry), Iowa Writers’ Workshop
- B.A. in English and Communication Studies, University of Iowa
Interests
- Communication
- Education Policy
- Literacy Studies
- Literary and Cultural Studies
- Media Studies
Focuses:
- United States
- Citizenship Studies
- Development of Literacies
- Digital Communication
- Education
- Education Policy
- Film History and Theory
- Future of the Liberal Arts
- Higher Education: Teaching and Learning
- Historiography
- History and Memory
- Inequality and Poverty
- Journalism
- Literature
- Social Movements
- Women’s Leadership
Courses
- LMC-3252: Film and Television: American Horror Film 1931-Present
- LMC-3813: CNN Academy: CNN Academy
- LMC-4500: Seminar in Film Studies: Women and American Film, 1939-1980
Publications
Selected Publications
Books
- Beyond Fitting In: Rethinking First-Generation Writing and Literacy Education
In: 2023 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2023
- Reframing the Subject: Postwar Instructional Film and Class-Conscious Literacies
In: 2015 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2015
Journal Articles
- The Importance of Disciplinary Dexterity in Humanities Leadership
In: Profession [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2024
- With ‘Increased Dignity and Importance’: Re-Historicizing Charles Roberts and the Illinois Decision of 1955
In: College Composition and Communication [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2018
Internet Publications
- “College ‘General Education’ Requirements Help Prepare Students for Citizenship -- But Critics Say It's Learning Time Taken Away From Useful Studies.”
In: The Conversation
Date: July 2025
- "Want to Be a College Professor? Get Ready to Move."
In: Slate Magazine
Date: October 2023
Other Publications
- “Administrative Cookbooks: The Evolving Genre of How-To Academic Leadership”
In: College English
Date: September 2023
All Publications
Books
- Beyond Fitting In: Rethinking First-Generation Writing and Literacy Education
In: 2023 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2023
- Landmark Essays in Writing Program Administration
In: 2019 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: January 2019
- Exploring Composition Studies: Sites, Issues, Perspectives
In: 2016 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: November 2016
- Reframing the Subject: Postwar Instructional Film and Class-Conscious Literacies
In: 2015 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2015
- To Know Her Own History: Writing at the Woman's College, 1943-1963
In: 2012 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: March 2012
- “How the Old Man Does it: Creative Writing and a Pedagogy of Emulation.”
In: Composing Ourselves as Writer-Teacher-Writers: Starting with Wendy Bishop [Peer Reviewed]
Date: August 2011
- “How the Old Man Does it: Creative Writing and a Pedagogy of Emulation.”
In: Composing Ourselves as Writer-Teacher-Writers: Starting with Wendy Bishop [Peer Reviewed]
Date: August 2011
- Who Owns School? Authority, Students, and Online Discourse
In: 2010 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2010
- Before Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale and Harvard, 1920-1960
In: 2009 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: August 2009
- “(En)Gendering the Archives for Basic Writing Research.”
In: Working in the Archives: Practical Research Methods for Rhetoric and Composition. [Peer Reviewed]
Date: August 2009
- Can It Really Be Taught? Resisting Lore in Creative Writing Pedagogy
In: 2007 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2007
Journal Articles
- The Importance of Disciplinary Dexterity in Humanities Leadership
In: Profession [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2024
- Whatever Happened to Average? Heeding Mike Rose's Call
In: WPA: Writing Program Administration [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2022
- Making (Collective) Memory Public: WPA Histories in Dialogue
In: WPA: Writing Program Administration [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2018
- With ‘Increased Dignity and Importance’: Re-Historicizing Charles Roberts and the Illinois Decision of 1955
In: College Composition and Communication [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2018
- Ladies Who Don’t Know Us Correct Our Papers’: Postwar Lay Reader Programs and Twenty-First Century Contingent Labor in First-Year Writing
In: College Composition and Communication [Peer Reviewed]
Date: September 2012
- Archival Research in Composition Studies: Re-Imagining the Historian’s Role
In: Rhetoric Review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2012
- “‘What Would Happen If Everybody Behaved As I Do?’ Randall Jarrell, May Bush, and the Historical ‘Disappointment’ of Women WPAs.”
In: Composition Studies [Peer Reviewed]
Date: April 2011
- “Before Mina Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale, 1920–1960.”
In: College Composition and Communication [Peer Reviewed]
Date: February 2008
Chapters
- The Journal You Have: Balancing the Needs of a Discipline with Editorial Vision
In: Behind the Curtain of Scholarly Publishing: Editors in Writing Studies [Peer Reviewed]
Date: June 2022
- A Question of Mimetics: Graduate Student Writing Courses and the New ‘Basic'
In: Economies of Writing Revaluations in Rhetoric and Composition [Peer Reviewed]
Date: March 2017
- Journal Editors in the Archives: Reportage as Microhistory
In: Microhistories of Composition [Peer Reviewed]
Date: April 2016
Internet Publications
- “College ‘General Education’ Requirements Help Prepare Students for Citizenship -- But Critics Say It's Learning Time Taken Away From Useful Studies.”
In: The Conversation
Date: July 2025
- "Want to Be a College Professor? Get Ready to Move."
In: Slate Magazine
Date: October 2023
- Textual Collaborations: Preparing Two-Year College English Faculty
In: Field Notes
Date: October 2017
Other Publications
- “Administrative Cookbooks: The Evolving Genre of How-To Academic Leadership”
In: College English
Date: September 2023