KALAMAZOO, Mich.—A champion for understanding cultural diversity in the teaching of writing and a key leader in the creation of Western Michigan University's new general education program, WMU Essential Studies, has been appointed associate dean of the Lee Honors College.
Dr. Staci Perryman-Clark, WMU associate professor of English, will begin her new role at the University Wednesday, Aug. 1. Perryman-Clark has been serving as director of First-Year Writing in the Department of English since 2010 and also serving as associate director of the Office of Faculty Development since 2016.
She replaces Jane Baas, professor of dance, who has been associate dean of the Lee Honors College since 2014 and will retire from WMU Monday, June 30.
Perryman-Clark
Perryman-Clark
As a scholar, Perryman-Clark focuses her activities on creating culturally relevant pedagogies and curricular designs to support all students' expository writing practices. She is a nationally recognized expert on Afrocentric pedagogies in relation to language rights for writing students.
Her writings that discuss Afrocentric and language rights pedagogies have appeared in rhetoric and composition journals such as Composition Studies, Pedagogy, College English, Teaching English in the Two-Year College and The Journal of Teaching Writing, as well as rhetoric and composition's flagship journal, College Composition and Communication.
In addition, she has authored or co-authored articles that have appeared in Composition Forum, Writing Program Administration, and Computers and Composition that explore themes including teaching with technology philosophy statements, opportunities for designing special-topics graduate courses on black women intellectuals, and exploring the intersections between race and gender in writing program administration.
Her article co-written with Collin Craig, "Troubling the Boundaries: (De)Constructing WPA Identities at the Intersections of Race and Gender," has been used as a framework for the Council of Writing Program Administrators Mentor Project.
Perryman-Clark also has collaborated on edited book collections, and she is the author of the 2013 text, "Afrocentric Teacher-Research: Rethinking Appropriateness and Inclusion." The book is a qualitative, empirically based teacher-research study that examines the ways in which both African-American students and all students perform expository writing tasks using an Ebonics-based first-year writing curriculum.
Along with being a prolific writer, Perryman-Clark has served in multiple leadership positions for the Conference on College Composition and Communication and has received national honors from that flagship organization as well as Michigan State University and the Ford Foundation.
She also has been recognized by the WMU College of Arts and Sciences, receiving a Faculty Award for Research and Creative Activities in 2015 and Faculty Achievement Award in Diversity and Inclusion in 2018.
Perryman-Clark earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing and literature from the University of Michigan, a master's degree in English from Eastern Michigan University and a doctoral degree in rhetoric and writing from Michigan State University.
Lee Honors College
The Lee Honors College is among the oldest honors programs in the nation and has a student profile rivaling that of the most elite private colleges in the United States. Members come from all seven of WMU's degree-granting colleges and at some 1,700 undergraduate students, they represent about 9 percent of the University's undergraduate student body.
The college enhances WMU's dynamic academic climate by providing small seminar classes and special mentors and advisors. It also offers added opportunities to travel and conduct research alongside established faculty members as well as to study independently or abroad.
Learn more about the Lee Honors College.
For more WMU news, arts and events, visit WMU News online.