Research and Teaching

Last updated on July 26, 2026

I am considering two possible full-time posts at the university where I teach part-time. I love where I teach and shifting to full-time would enable me to better support the local performing arts. The university supports my artistic endeavors, and that’s refreshing. Accepting a post does not require scholarship if I wish to maintain “teaching track” status in the future, but an administrator told it would be “icing on the cake” and has led to teaching-track faculty being awarded research support and rank promotion (associate, full, etc.).

A few colleagues have suggested I compose a research agenda statement and pursue publishing on my dissertation topic.

My doctoral research topic was autistic students and online education, though I also conducted two grant-supported surveys on the general experiences of autistics in college writing courses. To revise and publish the research would be a serious undertaking, but I believe one that would serve the community and the literature in composition and rhetoric (“comp/rhet”).

The surveys and observations found that autistics run counter to many of the pedagogical assumptions within comp/rhet. From the challenges of collaboration to the need to be non-verbal at times, autistic traits make many composition experiences dreadful for the students I interviewed. A predisposition towards concrete, literal thought and “black and white” values also poses a problem, which some in comp/rhet associated with “immature” thinking despite the neurological underpinnings of autistic approaches to problems. Some (many) autistic students find comp/rhet the impenetrable barrier to academic success.

I have met so many autistic (former) students who gave up after bad experiences, I feel I should push the observation research out there, even if I am unable to secure traditional publication. That wouldn’t help with my career, but maybe that’s not the point.

Some of my colleagues in comp/rhet have suggested there’s not much space for research on why common classroom practices might be oppressive. I had one writing-literature instructor tell me that departments didn’t need autistics. That pretty much explains why I prefer being outside English and writing programs.

Finding a publisher, either a journal or book publisher, means getting past editors, reviewers, et al, who might have the biases I have experienced. That’s a rather unpleasant thought.

Of course, I could just leave “autism” behind and focus on something else for a research statement and agenda.