Brenda Hardin Abbott, PhD

Brenda Hardin Abbott joined the Bay Path University faculty in 1999, and she brings a wealth of teaching experience from Kentucky, Washington state, and upstate New York, to the first year writing program. Her prior experiences with learning disabilities, developmental writers and writing tutors inform her understanding of writing as a site of conflict and joy for students. She teaches all the courses in the first year writing program, children’s literature, and writing tutor theories and pedagogies.

Her areas of specialization are rural and working-class identity and literacies. She researches the intersection of inequality based on social class and region.

Abbott has a PhD from The University of Massachusetts Amherst in the College of Education. She holds an M.A. in English, with specializations in Composition/Rhetoric and American Literature, from Eastern Kentucky University. She is a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, the Council of Writing Program Administrators, the International Writing Center Association, the Appalachian Studies Association, and the Association of Working Class Academics. She is active in the Conference on College Composition and Communication and the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing.