Michelle Trim has a Ph. D. in Rhetoric and Technical Communication from Michigan Technological University, an M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition from Miami University of Ohio, and a B.A. in Professional Writing and English from Purdue University.  Her most recent research involved a large, qualitative study of over 100 university students.  The project incorporated undergraduate research by utilizing student researchers as co-investigators in order to examine first-year students' uses of the written feedback they received from their writing teachers.  Dr. Trim presented the preliminary results of this study at the 2012 College English Association National Conference.  Other research interests include theories of technology and technical communication, feminism and feminist theory, critical theories of language/ social linguistics,  and democratic education.  Dr. Trim is the new director of First-Year Writing and an Assistant Professor in the Department of English.   

Ph.D., Michigan Technological University, 2008

M.A., Miami University of Ohio, 2000

B.A., Purdue University, 1998

Articles
(Under Review) Trim, Michelle D. “Trespassing Expertise: Partnering with Undergraduates in Composition Research.” The CEA Critic .

Trim, Michelle. “Going Beyond Good Intentions: Reconsidering Motivations and Examining Responsibility in Composition-based Service Learning.” Modern Language Studies . 39.1:66-81, 2009.

Chapters in Edited Collections
(Proposal Accepted; Manuscript under review) Trim, Michelle D. and Kimberly Wine. “The Teacher is a Girl: Hegemonic Consequences of Feminine Instructor Identity in the Composition Classroom.” Identity and Status in Composition . Elizabeth Kimball, Ed. Forthcoming 2013.

Trim, Michelle. “Articulating a Rhetoric of Agency for Pregnancy through Intersectionality: NAPW -The National Advocates for Pregnant Women.” The 21st Century Motherhood Movement: Mothers Speak Out on Why We Need to Change the World and How to Do It. Ed. Andrea O’Reilly. Bradford, Ontario:Demeter Press. 2011.

Trim, Michelle D. and Megan Lynn Isaac. “Reinventing Invention: Discovery and Investment in Writing” Writing Spaces . Eds. Charlie Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press. 2010.

Textbooks
Branscomb, H. Eric and Michelle Trim. Research Navigator Guide: English . 2e. New York: AB Longman/ Pearson Education Publishing. 2006. ISBN 0-321-49601-9

Trim, Michelle. What Every Student Should Know About... Practicing Peer Review . New York: AB Longman/ Westwood Publishing. 2006. ISBN 0-321-44848-0

Conference Proceedings, Review Essays, Book Reviews
(in press) Trim, Michelle. “Review: Helen A. Berger and Douglas Ezzy, Teenage Witches: Magical Youth and the Search for Self “(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007), Journal of Religion, Nature, and Culture.

Trim, Michelle. “Review: Figueira-McDonough, Josefina, and Rosemary C. Sarri, eds. Women at the Margins: Neglect, Punishment, and Resistance” International Social Science Review . Fall, 2003.

Trim, Michelle. “Instructions Not Included: How Writing Conferences Can Erect Barriers to Success for First Generation College Students” International Journal of Learning , 10, 2003.

Trim, Michelle. “Counterfeit capital: searching for a silver lining in Bernadette Longo’s Spurious Coin.” ACM Journal of Computer Documentation 25(2): 63-65, 2001.

May 24-27, 2012. Rhetoric Society of America, Philadelphia, PA, “Tea Shall Overcome: Questioning the Appropriation of Civil Rights Movement Rhetoric”

Mar 29-31, 2012. College English Association National Conference, Richmond, VA, “Trespassing Expertise: Partnering with Undergraduates in Composition Research”

Sep 23-24, 2011. Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy, Savannah, GA, “Resisting Automatic Adoption and Uncritical Use of Technology in Student Research”

Mar 17-20, 2010. Conference on College Composition and Communication, Louisville, KY, “Research Paper Redux: Dialectic as Democratic Writing and Researched Argument”

Nov 12-15, 2009. National Women’s Studies Conference, Atlanta, GA. “Post-Feminist Amnesia: Negotiating Resistance to Feminist Histories”

Oct 17, 2009. North Carolina Symposium on Writing, Raleigh, NC. Co-presenter with Megan Isaac, “Stressing Invention: Cultivating Investment in Writing After Years of Testing”

Mar 29-30, 2008. College English Association National Conference, St. Louis, MO. “Just Because We Can: “The Good Rhetor as an Alternative to Fostering a Social Conscience”

Apr 4-7, 2007. American Pop-Culture/ American Culture Associations National Conference, Boston, MA. “Diva Detectives: Fetish or Feminist Representations in Four TV Crime Dramas”

Mar 30-Apr 1, 2006. Southeast Coastal Conference on Languages and Literatures, Statesboro, GA, “Translating English Composition Praxis into a Spanish Serve-to-Learn Context” (Read by Dr Julia
Mack)

Mar 22-25, 2006. Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, IL, “Mind the Gap: Ethically Balancing Student [Under]-Preparedness with Institutional Expectations for Growth and Retention”

Mar 15-19, 2005. Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, CA, “Taking Responsibility for Community in Community-Based Learning Courses”

Apr 6-10, 2004. American Pop-Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference, San Antonio, TX. “Romancing the Future: Using Serial Romance Novels to Prove Feminist Advances in American Culture”

Jan 7-11, 2004. International Humanities Conference, Honolulu, HI, “Who’s being served by service learning: Investigating some of the ethical concerns service learning raises for a democratic pedagogy”

Nov 16-18, 2003. International Conference on Civic Education and Research, New Orleans, LA, “University or Community Service: Ethical Challenges Faced by Service Learning Approaches to Writing Instruction”

Jul 15-19, 2003. International Learning Conference, London, UK. “Instructions not included: Barriers to success for first generation college students in graduate school”

June 15, 2001. Computers and Writing Conference, Muncie, IN. “The Hypertext of Collaboration: Using a Web-based MOO to Facilitate Postmodern Collaboration in the College Classroom”

2011. “How do students use feedback.” Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning Scholar (research fellowship including $4000 research budget & 4 course releases over 2 yrs)

2010. “Togetherness in Difference” Elon College of Arts and Sciences Fund for Excellence Grant (with Stephen Braye, Barbara Gordon, Kathy Lyday-Lee, Amanda Gallagher, and Pam Winfield). (~$3000) Grant funded multi-event visits for two linguistic scholars. Visitors gave public lectures, hosted student Q&A sessions, and directed faculty development workshops.

2010. Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning Grant for research examining student learning outcomes to the final project in GST 373:Technology and Human Agency. ($600) Funds supported an IRB-approved, filmed, focus group session with students from two previous semesters.

2009-2010. Recipient of Elon Faculty Research and Development Grant, awarded as one course Release. Grant supported work on revision of traditional research paper assignment to dialectical research project in first year writing.

2006. Departmental and College Nominee for the Young Faculty Teaching Award; Lander University.

2002. Campus Campaign Fellowship “First Prize Award for Service;” Michigan Technological University.

2000-2004. Graduate Teaching and Research Assistantship with full tuition waiver; Michigan Technological University.

1998-2000. Graduate Teaching Assistantship including full tuition waiver; Miami University of Ohio.