Jonathan Alexander
Chancellor’s Professor of English, Education, and Gender & Sexuality Studies
Campus Writing Coordinator
Director, Center for Excellence in Writing & Communication
PhD, Comparative Literature, Louisiana State University, 1993
MA, Comparative Literature (German emphasis), LSU, 1991
BA, English, LSU, 1989
Jonathan’s research areas include Writing Studies, Composition/Rhetoric, New Media Studies, and Sexuality Studies. His scholarly work focuses primarily on the use of emerging communications technologies in the teaching of writing and in shifting conceptions of what writing, composing, and authoring mean. Jonathan also works at the intersection of the fields of writing studies and sexuality studies, where he explores what theories of sexuality, particularly queer theory, have to teach us about literacy and literate practice in pluralistic democracies.
Jonathan’s books include On Multimodality: New Media in Composition Studies (with Jacqueline Rhodes, CCC Studies in Writing & Rhetoric, 2014), Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing (with Elizabeth Losh, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013), Bisexuality and Queer Theory (edited with Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Routledge, 2011), Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBT Studies (with Deborah Meem and Michelle Gibson, Sage, 2010), Literacy, Sexuality, Pedagogy: Theory and Practice for Composition Studies (Utah State University Press, 2008) Role Play: Distance Learning and the Teaching of Writing (edited with Marcia Dickson, Hampton Press, 2006), Argument Now, a Brief Rhetoric (written with Margaret M. Barber, Longman, 2005), Digital Youth: Emerging Literacies on the World Wide Web (Hampton Press, 2005), and Bisexuality and Transgenderism: InterSEXions of the Others (edited with Karen Yescavage, Routledge, 2004).
Jonathan is a three-time recipient of the Ellen Nold Award for Best Articles in the field of Computers and Composition Studies, and in 2011 he received the Charles Moran Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Field of Computers and Writing. His books have been nominated for various awards, including the Lambda Literary Award. As past Director of English Composition and Interim Director of General Education at the University of Cincinnati, Jonathan brings to UCI a wealth of experience in writing instruction, curriculum design, cross-disciplinary relations, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
jfalexan@uci.edu
Sue Cross
Associate Director
MFA, University of California, Irvine, 1972
BA, Louisiana State University, 1970
Sue Cross works with the writing center staff and with partners across campus to make sure the Director’s vision is realized on a daily basis. In addition to helping students individually, Sue also trains and supervises the tutors in the Writing and Library Research Undergrad Specialist (WALRUS) peer tutoring program. She says, “It’s great to work with these bright, energetic, creative people — a diverse group in terms of experience, personality and major field of study.”
secross@uci.edu
Lindsey Allgood
Writing Specialist
MFA, University of Oklahoma, 2013
BA, University of Oklahoma, 2009
Lindsey’s personal and professional interests are rooted in the intersections of art, performance, and various writing genres. As an undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communications, she studied creative writing and poetry at Univerzita Karlova in Prague, and Spanish cinema and language at Universidad de Alcalá de Henares near Madrid, as well as novel-writing. After a brief stint in professional blogging and journalism, she went on to pursue her MFA in the Art, Technology, and Culture program, focusing on digital art and performance. As a Lead Consultant at the University of Oklahoma Writing Center, she served as the Fine Arts Writing Fellow and taught English Composition. She remains a practicing performance and video artist, having performed and curated events in Toronto, Amsterdam, Seoul, St. Petersburg, and across the U.S.
lallgood@uci.edu
www.lindseyallgood.net
Amber Clontz
Writing Specialist
MA, Cal State Fullerton, 2014
BA, Boise State University, 2011
Upon moving to Germany after high school, Amber had the opportunity to learn another language outside the classroom and has since wanted to meld the excitement and frustration that comes from language learning with a career where she can help others overcome linguistic hurdles.
As a student passionate about service learning and community-based education programs, Amber began tutoring as a Writing Center consultant at Boise State University in 2009- a school known for its large nontraditional student population. Here she worked with ESL students, student athletes, veterans, mid-career adult students returning to the classroom, refugees new to Idaho, and graduate students.
Post-graduation, she began a research MA in Linguistics at Cal State Fullerton, completing her thesis abroad funded by Rotary International. Her training in ESL comes from a blend of Applied Linguistics courses, CELTA training, and career teaching experience.
After teaching ESL to adults in the public and private education worlds, Amber is excited to return to the university setting working with UCI’s diverse student population. Her research interests are adult literacy, alternate language pedagogies, language politics/policy/ planning, and dual-immersion program statistics.
aclontz@uci.edu
Brian Fonken
Writing Specialist
PhD, English, UC Irvine, 2015
BA, Plan II and English, UT Austin, 2005
Brian comes to the CEWC with a long history of writing instruction at UCI. Starting in 2009, he taught a variety of courses in composition and literature while completing his PhD in English. These classes ranged from a section of Writing 39A focusing on different versions of the Journey to the West epic to an upper division course examining American monsters through the lenses of literature, history, and film studies.
Since completing his degree in 2015, Brian has been teaching in composition and Humanities Core. He first came to the CEWC as a volunteer tutor in the fall quarter of 2015, whereupon he was immediately captivated by the opportunity to interact with student writers without having to assign grades. The son of an immigrant, he also enjoys working with students who are new to this country and/or the English language.
His research agenda from his doctoral studies, which included nineteenth-century American culture and history, gothic writing, and political rhetoric, has led to a continued interest in interdisciplinary academic pursuits that involve rhetoric and writing.
bfonken@uci.edu
Percival Guevarra
ESL Writing Specialist
MA, San Francisco State University, 2010
BA, UCLA, 2008
Language encompasses Percival’s academic life. As an undergraduate, he majored in Linguistics at UCLA, and as a graduate student, he did his master’s in TESOL at San Francisco State University (SFSU). While teaching academic English classes in the Bay Area, Percival also provided one-on-one student support at SFSU’s Learning Assistance Center. This transitioned to a career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Writing Center where he would stay for five years. In that time, he grew ESL support for students and faculty, developed new Writing Center programs, and gained a broader perspective of both writing and academia. In his free time, Percival enjoys transferring rhetoric from the collaborative writing context to the competitive gaming context.
percival.gv@uci.edu
Kerri McCanna
ESL Writing Specialist
MA, Boise State University, 2005
BA, San Diego State University, 1995
Kerri has been at the Writing Center since 2016. Prior to that, Kerri was in UCI’s Academic English Program, where she taught Academic Reading/Vocabulary and Academic Writing. She continues to work closely with AE to help English Language Learners succeed at their academic writing. She was also an instructor at UCI Extension’s Intensive English Program. Over the past 20 years, Kerri has enjoyed teaching English as a Foreign Language at the preschool, middle school, and adult levels for students from 5 to 72 years old, as well as Developmental and Freshman Composition in the College/University setting, both online and face-to-face. Additionally, she acted as Boise State’s Service-Learning Writing Liaison, leading community writing in courses from Kinesiology to Feminist Studies. When not working with English Language Learners on the job, Kerri enjoys sailing, spending time with her spouse and their two daughters, and raising their yellow morph parrotlet, Peep.
kmccanna@uci.edu
Courtney Santos
Writing Specialist & Scholarship Opportunities Program Advisor
MFA, University of California, Riverside, 2006
BA, University of California, Irvine, 2004
Courtney Santos brings a unique combination of academic and administrative experience to the Center for Excellence in Writing and Communication. Courtney followed her enduring passion for writing fiction, poetry, and personal essay through an undergraduate major in English; a graduate major in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts; and stints as a peer tutor, teaching assistant, and research assistant. She also holds a Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) from UC Irvine Extension.
Prior to becoming a Writing Specialist in 2014, Courtney provided comprehensive administrative support to major research projects at the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub at UC Humanities Research Institute and at the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Irvine. These positions honed her skills in grant writing, information literacy, writing for academic publications, and public-facing communications.
courtney.santos@uci.edu
