Courtney Adams Wooten

Director

Associate Professor

Writing Program Administration, Feminist Rhetorics, Composition

Courtney Adams Wooten serves as the Associate Chair: Writing Program Administration and directs Mason's Composition Program, emphasizing the importance of all students' access to writing education. She is the author of Childfree and Happy: Transforming the Rhetoric of Women's Reproductive Choices and she has co-edited the collections WPAs in Transition and The Things We Carry: Strategies for Recognizing and Negotiating Emotional Labor in Writing Program Administration. She has also published in Composition Studies, WPA, Peitho, Harlot, Academic Labor, and College English as well as several edited collections. She received the Presidential Award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching in 2023.

Current Research

Student Experiences in Hybrid Writing Courses.

WPA Work at Large Institutions.

Onboarding GTAs into gWPA Positions.

Selected Publications

Childfree and Happy: Transforming the Rhetoric of Women's Reproductive Choices. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2023.

The Things We Carry: Strategies for Recognizing and Negotiating Emotional Labor in Writing Program Administration. Courtney Adams Wooten, Jacob Babb, Kristi Murray Costello, and Kate Navickas, eds. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2020.

WPAs in Transition: Navigating Educational Leadership Positions.Courtney Adams Wooten, Jacob Babb, and Brian Ray, eds. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2018.

“Afterword: Confronting the Unimaginable: Emergencies, Responses, and Responsibilities.” With Jacob Babb, Kristi Murray Costello, and Kate Navickas. Invited chapter to Writing Emergencies: Composing (Ourselves) in Times of Crisis. Eds. Holly Hassel and Kate Pantelides. Utah State University Press, 2026, pp. 327-330.

“Recalibrating Agency, Expertise, and Collaboration in Response Practices to Graduate Student Writers.” With Jacob Babb. In Reconceptualizing Response: Using Instructor Feedback to Promote Equity and Linguistic Justice in the Writing Classroom. Eds. Kelly Blewett, Justine Post, and Lizbett Tinoco. Utah State University Press, 2026.

“Writing Programs Should Quickly Create Unilateral AI Policies: Faculty Development Should Precede Any Collective AI Policies.” With Ariel M. Goldenthal. In Bad Ideas About AI and Writing. Eds. Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, and Shyam Sharma. WAC Clearinghouse, 2026, pp. 345-350.

“Emotional Labor in Program Leadership.” With Jacob Babb, Kristi Murray Costello, and Kate Navickas. Invited chapter to The Routledge Handbook of Language Program Development and Administration. Eds. Alan V. Brown, Cori Crane, Beatrice Dupuy, and Estela Ene. Routledge, 2025, pp. 610-620.

Expanded Publication List

“As My Dad Lay Dying.” WPA: Writing Program Administration, vol. 47, no. 1, 2023, pp. 13-19.

“Research is a Team Sport: A Collaborative PARS Approach to Sustainable Hybrid and Online Writing Instruction Development.” With Lourdes Fernandez, Ariel M. Goldenthal, Kerry Folan, and Jessica Matthews. In PARS in Charge: Resources and Strategies for Online Writing Program Leaders. Eds. Jessie Borgman and Casey McArdle. WAC Clearinghouse, 2023, pp. 102-113.

“Beyond the Anecdote: Rhetorical Processes of TA Sensemaking.” In Sensemaking in Writing Programs and Writing Centers. Ed. Rita Malenczyk. Utah State University Press, 2023, pp. 23-41.

“When Communities of Practice Fail to Form: Perceptions of Peer-to-Peer Networks and Developing Competence in Hybrid Course Design.” With Brian Fitzpatrick, Ariel M. Goldenthal, Lourdes Fernandez, Jessica Matthews, and Brandon Biller. WPA: Writing Program Administration, vol. 46, no. 1, 2022, pp. 77-96.

“The Pursuit of (Un)Happiness in Rhetoric and Composition TAs’ Experiences.” In Threshold Conscripts: Rhetoric and Composition TAships. Eds. Bill Macauley, Leslie R. Anglesey, Brady Edwards, Kathryn M. Lambrecht, and Phillip K. Lovas. WAC Clearinghouse, 2023, pp. 289-310. Available at https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/threshold/chapter11.pdf.

“First-Generation WPAs as Literacy Sponsors for First-Generation College Students.” With Jacob Babb. Chapter accepted in Beyond Fitting In: Rethinking First-Gen Writing and Literacy Education. Ed. Kelly Ritter. Modern Language Association, 2023, pp. 300-316.

"Feedback Practices in Hybrid Writing Courses: Instructor Choices about Modality and Timing." With Ariel M. Goldenthal, Jessica Matthews, Brian Fitzpatrick, and Lourdes Fernandez. Journal of Response to Writing vol. 8, no. 2, 2022, pp. 40-72.

“Drown[ing] a Little Bit All the Time: The Intersections of Labor Constraints and Professional Development in Hybrid Contingent Faculty Experiences.” With Brian Fitzpatrick, Lourdes Fernandez, Ariel M. Goldenthal, Jessica Matthews. Academic Labor: Research and Artistry vol. 6, 2022, pp. 1-26.

“‘I Get Some Discrimination They Don't Get, They Get Discrimination I Don't Get’: Childfree Reproductive Experiences in English Studies.” College English vol. 83, no. 5, May 2021, pp. 379-402.

“Rethinking SETs: Retuning Student Evaluations of Teaching for Student Agency.” With Brian Ray and Jacob Babb. Composition Studies 46.1 (Spring 2018): 34-56.

Received the Council of Writing Program Administrators Outstanding Scholarship Award, 2020.

“Collegiality as Surveillance? Implementing Collegiality Statements in Institutions of Higher Education.” With Megan Condis. Academic Labor: Research and Artistry 2.1 (2018): 1-13.

“Control and Constraint: Margaret Thatcher and the Dynamics of Gendered Rhetoric During Prime Minister’s Questions.” Peitho 20.2 (Spring 2018): 337-362.

“Travels, Transitions, and Leadership.” With Jacob Babb. In WPAs in Transition.Courtney Adams Wooten, Jacob Babb, and Brian Ray, eds. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2018.

“Traveling on the Assessment Loop: The Role of Contingent Labor in Curriculum Development.” With Jacob Babb. In Contingency, Exploitation, Solidarity. Eds. Seth Kahn, William Lalicker, and Amy Lynch-Biniek. WAC Clearinghouse. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2017. 169-182.

“WPAs Reading SETs: Confronting Authority and Contingency.” With Brian Ray and Jacob Babb. WPA: Writing Program Administration 40.1 (Fall 2016): 50-66.

“Dottie and Me: Constructing Childless-by-Choice Alternative Rhetorics.” Harlot 13 (2015): n.p. Web.

“The Mediation of Literacy Education and the Extension Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, 1912-1924.” Composition Studies 41.2 (2013): 40-57.

Courses Taught

ENGH 101: Composition

ENGH 302: Advanced Composition

ENGH 615: Proseminar in Composition Instruction

ENGH 697: Composition Theory (Emotion and Affect)

ENGH 722: Composition Pedagogies and Programs in Context

Education

Ph.D in English (Rhetoric and Composition), University of North Carolina at Greensboro, May 2014.

M.A. in English, Winthrop University, May 2008.

B.A. in English with Honors, Wingate University, May 2006.

Recent Presentations

“Researching WPA Work: The Challenges of Recruiting Broadly.” Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference. Laramie, WY. July 2026.

“Convening Around Modality: Frameworks, Experiences, and Shared Resources for Hybrid Writing Instructors and Writing Program Administrators.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. With Ariel Goldenthal, Christina Grieco, and Shyam Patel. Cleveland, OH. March 2026.

“(Mis)Aligning Rhetorics of Leadership at Institutions: Listening as Leadership Praxis.” Modern Language Association Conference. Toronto, Canada. January 2026.

“Blending General Education and Majors: Enhancing a Vertical Writing Curriculum.” Association for General and Liberal Studies Conference. With Thomas Polk. Louisville, KY. October 2025.

In the Media

Interview with New Books Network about Childfree and Happy: Transforming the Rhetoric of Women's Reproductive Choices.

Hybrid Teaching and Learning Website.

Dissertations Supervised

Kelby Gibson, “And it Really Has Changed My Perspective on Language as a Whole”: Students’ Perceptions of Linguistic Justice in the First-Year Writing Classroom (2026)

Emily Sok, Reading Identity in Composition Scholarship: A Content Analysis on Reading (2026)

Jenny Goransson, Contemplative Feedback Practices for the Endless Stack: A Qualitative Study of Mindfulness Practices for Writing Teachers’ Response Work (2025)

Joan Jiyoung Hwang, Beyond Linguistic Variations: Translingual Identities and Audience Awareness In Writing Contexts (2024)