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Headshot of Mya Poe

Associate Professor of English

Mya Poe’s research focuses on writing assessment and writing development with particular attention to equity and fairness. She is the co-author of Learning to Communicate in Science and Engineering (CCCC Advancement of Knowledge Award, 2012), co-editor of Race and Writing Assessment (CCCC Outstanding Book of the Year, 2014), and co-editor of Writing Assessment, Social Justice, and the Advancement of Opportunity (2019). Her scholarship has appeared in journals such as College Composition and Communication, The Journal of Business and Technical Communication, The Journal of Writing Assessment, and Assessing Writing. She has also guest-edited special issues of Research in the Teaching of English and College English dedicated to issues of social justice, diversity, and writing assessment. She is series co-editor of the Oxford Brief Guides to Writing in the Disciplines. Her research has received funding from the National Science Foundation, Northeastern College of Humanities and Social Sciences, College Composition and Communication, MIT School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities.

Her teaching and service have been recognized with the Northeastern University Teaching Excellence Award, the Northeastern College of Social Sciences and Humanities Outstanding Teaching Award, and the MIT Infinite Mile Award for Continued Outstanding Service and Innovative Teaching. She is a board member of the Journal of Writing Analytics, Assessing Writing, Journal of Writing Assessment, and Research in the Teaching of English. She has served on the NCTE College Steering Committee and on the CCCC Nominating Committee. She has chaired the NCTE Ohmann Award committee, the CCCC Research Impact Committee, and CCCC Outstanding Book Ward Committee. She is currently on the Task Force to revise the CCCCC Assessment Principles.

Read Professor Poe’s Faculty Spotlight.

View CV
  • Teaching Excellence Award, Northeastern University, 2015-2016.
  • Outstanding Teaching Award, Northeastern University, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2015-2016.
  • Outstanding Book Award in the Edited Collection, Conference on College Composition and Communication. Received for Race and writing assessment, 2014.
  • Best of the Independent Rhetoric & Composition Journals 2013. Received for “Re-Framing Race in Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum,” published in Across the Disciplines, 10(3).
  • Advancement of Knowledge Award, Conference on College Composition and Communication. Received for Learning to communicate in science and engineering: Case studies from MIT, 2012.
Since 2018

Nastal, J., Poe, M., & Toth, C. (forthcoming). Writing Placement in Two-Year Colleges: Case Studies of Postsecondary Education in Transition. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado; Fort Collins, CO: WAC Clearinghouse.

Palermo, G., Zhang-W., Q., Regan, D., & Poe, M. (forthcoming) Writing program assessment as a site for multi-generational mentoring: Building intergenerational research trajectories and resonances for justice. Mentorship and Methodology: Reflections, Praxis, and Futures. In Gruwell, L. and C. N.  Lesh (Eds.).

Poe, M. (forthcoming). Ethical issues in scientific publishing. Routledge Handbook of Scientific Communication. In Cutrufello, G., C. Hanganu-Bresch, S. Maci, and M. Zerbe.

Benda, J., Jones, C., Poe, M., & Stephens, A. (forthcoming). “Confronting super-diversity again: A multidimensional approach to teaching and researching writing at a global university.” In Daniel, J.R., K. Malcolm, and C. Rai. (Eds.). Writing across difference; Theory and intervention. Logan, UT: Utah State UP.

Edwards, L. & Poe, M. (2021). Writing and responding to trauma in a time of pandemic. Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments, 5(2). https://thepromptjournal.com/index.php/prompt/article/view/116/226

Randall, J., Poe, M., & Slomp, D. (2021). Ain’t oughta be in the dictionary: Getting to justice by dismantling anti-Black literacy assessment practices. Journal of Adolescent Learning and Literacy, 48(3), 594-599.

Poe, M. (2021). “Is there a shared conversation in writing assessment? Analyzing frequently-used terms in an interdisciplinary field.” The expanding universe of writing studies: Higher education writing research today. In Moore, C., C. Donahue and K. Blewett (Eds). Peter Lang. https://www.peterlang.com/view/9781433177323/html/ch23.xhtml

Poe, M. & Zhang-Wu. (2020). Super-diversity as a framework to promote social justice: Designing program assessment for multilingual writing outcomes. composition forum, Special issue: Promoting Social Justice for Multilingual Writers on College Campuses, 44, https://compositionforum.com/issue/44/northeastern.php

Poe, M. & Elliot, N. (2019). Evidence of fairness? Twenty-five years of research in Assessing Writing, Assessing Writing, 42, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2019.100418

Poe, M., Nastal, J., & Eliot, N. (2019). An admitted student is a qualified student: A roadmap for writing placement in the two-year college. Journal of Writing Assessment, 12(1).  http://journalofwritingassessment.org/article.php?article=140

Poe, M., Inoue, A., & Elliot, N. (Eds.). (2018). Writing assessment, social justice, and the advancement of opportunityBoulder, CO: University Press of Colorado; Fort Collins, CO: WAC Clearinghouse.

Related Schools & Departments

Courses

Course catalog
  • ENGL7392 engages MA and PhD students in the theory, practice, and praxis of teaching writing at the university level, drawing on recent scholarship in rhetoric and writing studies. We will explore theories and practices regarding the nature of written expression; the role of diversity, inclusion, and equity in writing instruction; the research on how people learn to write and how that writing might be assessed; the historical contexts for required writing in US higher education; the nature of multimodal composing; and the environments and activities best help students learn writing. The goal is for each graduate student to develop a coherent position on the teaching of writing, along with practical teaching materials that can be employed at Northeastern and elsewhere.  

  • Explores the various ways that linguistic diversity shapes our everyday, academic, and professional lives. Offers students an opportunity to learn about language policy, the changing place of World English in globalization, and what contemporary theories of linguistic diversity, such as translingualism, mean for writing. Invites students to explore their own multilingual communities or histories through empirical or archival research.