Nicole MacLaughlin
Director, Writing and Rhetoric
Associate Teaching Professor, University Writing Program
Education
B.A., Teaching of English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.A., Center for Writing Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ph.D candidate, Department of Educational Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette
Profile
Full-time in the University Writing Program since 2007, Nicole's passions are to study and teach writing and higher education as vehicles for individual empowerment and economic and social justice. Her current scholarly interests include the study of self-efficacy and emotion in writing processes, first-generation student success, and third-space approaches to teaching academic reading and writing as hands-on, practicable crafts.
Nicole is an active member of the South Bend community and is regularly involved with community-based writing projects. Most recently, she managed a project engaging faculty, students, and community members in writing the history of the Robinson Community Learning Center. In past community-based courses, Nicole's students have experienced firsthand the impact of the performing arts on student achievement and social development, and, in cooperation with the Robinson Shakespeare Company, produced writing which helps sustain the organization and further its mission.
More recently, Nicole's pedagogy and scholarly work has focused on the development and implementation of The Writing and Rhetoric Tutorial, a supplemental, elective course where students in need of extra assistance can receive individualized instruction and coaching as they approach challenging reading and writing assignments across the curriculum. Nicole was awarded the Provost’s Award for Academic Support of Student-Athletes in 2020 for this work.
Since 2012, Nicole has served as a faculty advisor to Show Some Skin, a cross-disciplinary student writing and performance project which seeks to support diversity and give voice to unspoken stories about identity, marginalization, and difference at Notre Dame.
Nicole lives in South Bend with her husband, Daniel Graff, and their two daughters, Ellen and Elizabeth.
Scholarly Work
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“Mapping a Moment: Making Abundance Visible Through Writing Program Cartography.” Panel Presentation. College Composition and Communication. April 5, 2023.
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“Writing Emotion into the Writing Process.” Panel Presentation. College Composition and Communication. Delivered Virtually. March 9, 2022.
“Shifting Dynamics: A Curriculum for Faculty-Student Interaction.” Panel Presentation. College Learning and Reading Association, New Orleans, LA. November 2019.
“Staging Class: Exploring the Possibilities of the Performed Narrative.” Panel Presentation. Conference on College Composition and Communication, Pittsburgh, PA. March 2019.
“Building a Show, Building a Movement.” Panel Presentation and Facilitated Workshop, Community Theater for Social Action Conference, South Bend, IN. April 2018.
“Show Some Skin: Live, Re-mixed, and Flexible Rhetorics for Social Change.” Panel Presentation, Conference on Community Writing, Boulder, CO. October, 2017.
“Integrating Tutors into Studio Course,” Presentation and Workshop Co-Facilitated, College Composition and Communication, Portland, OR. March 2017.
- "Reading in the Studio: Taking Action in the Studio to Teach Disciplinary Reading Practices." Accepted Poster Presentation, College Composition and Communication, Houston TX. April, 2016.
- "The Reader's Apprentice: Unlocking the Magic of Disciplinary Reading Practices." Panel Chair and Presenter, International Writing Center Association, Orlando, FL. October, 2014.
- "Going Public through Partnership: Basic Writing as a Nexus for Transfer, Advocacy, and Activism.” Panel Presentation (delivered in absentia). The Conference on College Composition and Communication, Las Vegas, NV. March, 2013.
- “Re-writing the Boundaries: The Ensemble Approach to Community-Based Learning,” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Atlanta, GA. 6 April 2011.
- Paul Prior, Gail Hawisher, Sibylle Gruber, and Nicole MacLaughlin (1997). "Research and WAC Evaluation: An In-Progress Reflection." In Kathleen Blake Yancey and Brian Huot (eds.), WAC and Program Assessment: Diverse Methods of Evaluating Writing Across the Curriculum Programs (pp. 185-216). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Email: nmaclaug@nd.edu
Phone: (574) 631-3269
Office: 217C Coleman-Morse Center