Erica Starr
164 Bessey Hall
434 Farm Ln
East Lansing, MI 48824
FacultyWriting, Rhetoric, and CulturesFirst Year Writing
Instructor
Biography
Erica Starr has been teaching first-year writing at Michigan State since 2017, first as a graduate teaching assistant and now as an instructor. Before her time at MSU, she was an undergraduate assistant and writing center consultant at the community college level, working with a wide range of students in ELL, developmental, and first-year writing courses. Much of Erica’s work is focused on the writing classroom, where she is concerned with how teachers and students engage issues of power and access. She also studies digital rhetoric and multimodality, exploring questions about the relationship between composing processes and identity formation.
Research Areas
First-Year Writing, Antiracist Pedagogy, Multimodal Composition, Digital Rhetoric, Embodiment, and Feminist rhetorics
Education
M.A. in Critical Studies in Literacy and Pedagogy, Michigan State University 2019
B.S. in Secondary Education, Social Studies and English, Ferris State University 2017
Projects
Feeling With, Not Simply For: Shifting the Frame Towards a Rhetorically-Oriented Performance of Emotional Labor
Starr-Smith, E. “Feeling With, Not Simply For: Shifting the Frame Towards a Rhetorically-Oriented Performance of Emotional Labor.” Presented at the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Pittsburgh, PA. 2019.
Reflections on Grading Contracts as Antiracist Pedagogy in First-Year Writing
Starr-Smith, E. “Reflections on Grading Contracts as Antiracist Pedagogy in First-Year Writing.” Presented at Michigan College English Association Conference. Lansing Community College, Lansing, MI. 2018.
Courses
WRA 101: Writing as Inquiry