About

I’m a Professor of English and Endowed Chair of Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Louisville where I write and teach about issues of literacy, identity, sustainability, digital media, popular culture, and community writing. My recurring research interests have been to explore how people engage in and experience writing and reading through their daily lives and in the literacy practices they encounter in schools and universities.

I am the co-creator of a collaborative, global climate change education and writing project called Ripple Effects International. Ripple Effects International is a cross-cultural initiative that uses photography and writing about water with the goals of helping people focus on and learn more about the natural world, understand the global and local effects of climate change, and connect to and develop empathy with others. You can find more about the project and how to take part here. I am also working on a book project about how multimodal approaches to writing and reading offer particularly effective and nuanced approaches to creating meaning and communicating ideas across cultures in a world-wide culture of climate change.

My other recent interests are in how the disruptions of our times, such as the pandemic or climate change or political upheavals, affect students’ experiences and relationships with writing, place, technology, teachers, time, and school itself. My most recent book, Literacies in Times of Disruption: Living and Learning During a Pandemic (Routledge Press) shows the impact on students’ of affective and embodied experiences of this disruption and uncertainty, and the memories and narratives constructed from those experiences. The book traces the voices of a diverse group of university students, from first-year to doctoral students, over the first two years of the pandemic. They discussed the effects of having their homes serve as classrooms, work, and living spaces as they navigated much of school and life through their digital screens. T

My other books have covered issues literacy, identity, perceptions of agency, digital media, and popular culture. I also have ongoing interests in digital media technologies and literacy. Some of my other current projects include work on community writing projects and writing center research. I also write creative nonfiction, both as an approach to my scholarly writing and as essays on other subjects. My interest in cross-cultural communication and identity has also taken me to a number of different countries for teaching and research, including the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and Kazakhstan.

I have had a broad range of teaching experiences in composition and rhetoric, writing center studies, literature, creative writing, and popular culture. My other passions are playing music, hiking, travel, cooking, and movies.

Professor of English and Endowed Chair in Rhetoric and Composition
Department of English
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
502-852-2186
bronwyn.williams@louisville.edu
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9928-8959
https://profiles.louisville.edu/bronwyn.williams