Thomas Polk, PhD
Director, Writing Across the Curriculum
Innovation Hall, Room 433
tpolk2@gmu.edu
Thomas Polk serves as the Director of Writing Across the Curriculum at George Mason University where he also teaches professional and academic writing in the English department. Tom regularly facilitates professional development events on writing-enriched teaching and learning and has published on assignment design, mentoring, and research methodologies in writing studies. His scholarship appears in College Composition and Communication, WAC Journal, Across the Disciplines among other venues. His current research project draws on a critical literacies lens to understand student experiences with writing across the curriculum, particularly in authentic or experiential learning environments. This project specifically focuses on the proposal writing practices of students applying for undergraduate research fellowships and considers how evaluation, mentoring, and networks mediate access to these programs. Prior to working at Mason, he coordinated the writing center at Bowie State University.
Joan Hwang
Graduate Assistant Director, Writing Across the Curriculum
jhwangb@gmu.edu
Joan Hwang serves as Graduate Assistant Director of Writing Across the Curriculum and teaches academic writing in the English department. Her current research centers on the translingual pedagogy in writing classrooms, increasing audience awareness as a central rhetorical concept in writing curriculum and promoting trans/multimodality in writing instructions. Recent research has focused on making more visible the importance of teaching audience awareness in writing courses through combined pedagogical approaches from translingualism and multimodality. Prior to serving at Writing Across the Curriculum, Joan taught First-year writing courses and Advanced compositions at Mason for five years.
Tim Lilley
Faculty Fellow, Writing Across the Curriculum
tlilley@gmu.edu
Tim Lilley teaches English Composition (ENGH) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at INTO Mason. He also coordinates our EAP courses which support STEM studies. These offer language support to students enrolled in STEM courses or programs.
Tim has enjoyed working with international students for some time. After his undergraduate studies in the US, he worked in several locations overseas. Following graduate studies in Sydney, Australia, Tim remained overseas for a few years before returning to the US and joining George Mason University. His professional areas of interest include social linguistics, writing and rhetoric, and faculty development. Tim’s committee memberships include undergraduate / graduate pathways curriculum development, faculty professional development and writing across the curriculum (WAC).
Kerry Michelle Smith
Graduate Assistant, Writing Across the Curriculum
ksmit37@gmu.edu
Kerry Smith is a Graduate Assistant of Writing Across the Curriculum and teaches undergraduate courses in the English department. In the past, Kerry has taught undergraduate academic-writing courses at James Madison University and Virginia Military Institute, focusing on rhetorical theory and argumentation.
Her current research investigates the role of hostile rhetoric in social movements. Her other research areas include affective rhetoric, emotion/affect in the writing classroom, transfer of learning, equitable course design, and writing threshold concepts.