Joan Mullin

Founding Chair of The Department of Writing Rhetoric and Digital Studies at the University of North Carolina Charlotte
University of North Carolina Charlotte

Joan Mullin is the founding Chair of The Department of Writing Rhetoric and Digital Studies at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. Prior to fostering this  department’s WAC infused degree, she started the Writing Center/WAC program at the University of Toledo; reenergized the writing initiative at the University of Texas at Austin, and assisted in outreach and research for WAC at Illinois State University, where she chaired the Department of English. With knowledge gained from developing writing initiatives at such different institutions from such different starting points,  and working within a variety of administrative structures, Mullin conducts program reviews, consultations and planning measuring how the context demands different forms of faculty engagement; how each program could be shaped according to an institutional structure; and how any high school, community, or community/college partnerships could account for the pressures in order to build opportunities.

Her publications and research have spanned writing centers and WAC administration, visual culture, translingualism, and definitions of research in writing studies. She is currently co-editor of the International Exchanges on the Study of Writing book series.

Areas of Specialization

writing to learn; writing center development, assessment and tutor training; faculty development within writing programs and across the curriculum; writing in colleges of arts, architecture, and fashion & design; writing assessment and portfolios; developing WAC, WID WEC programs; developing maintaining  and connecting stand-alone writing programs, writing centers, WAC programs & and departments; selecting and training writing consultants (writing fellows, embedded tutors); TA training in and across disciplines; working with and connecting high school, community college and university curricula.

Geographic Consulting Experience

Primarily U.S., Europe.