DePaul Winter Student Research Showcase

I’m excited to be speaking virtually at this WRD DePaul event next Monday! If you'd like to tune in, scan the QR code above.
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Please join us for an upcoming Writing, Rhetoric and Discourse Department  event featuring two of our outstanding students as they share their recent self-designed research projects. We hope you’ll also share this information with friends, students, and colleagues.

Monday, March 2, 2026
4:00–5:30 PM
SAC 301 & Zoom (see attached flyer for details)

FEATURED PRESENTERS
Brittany Griffiths
Writing and Rhetoric BA Online Graduate (WQ26)
“From Proposal to Conference: A Case Study in Undergraduate Research”
Recipient of the LAS Summer Undergraduate Research Grant (SURG)
Faculty Sponsor: Justin Staley

Amber Corkey
Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse MA Student
“Safety Tools in TTRPGs: A Pilot Study” (Table Top Role Playing Games)
Graduate Student Independent Study
Faculty Supervisor: Timothy Elliott

Everyone is welcome for what promises to be a fascinating pair of talks. We hope to see you there! —Organized by the WRD Student Community Committee

Navigating Publishing Pathways | Guest Speaker for PSPB 6203: Business of Publishing (GWU)

Last week, I had the pleasure of serving as a guest speaker in John Warren’s Business of Publishing course at George Washington University’s Master’s in Publishing program.

We explored today’s evolving publishing landscape, including traditional, independent, and hybrid pathways and discussed how authors and publishers can strategically evaluate which model best aligns with their goals.

It was a thoughtful and engaging conversation about decision-making in a rapidly changing industry. If you're interested in the frameworks and research behind the discussion, you can view the slide deck here.

My Conversation with Author Lucy Antek Johnson

I had the opportunity to interview Lucy Antek Johnson, author of This Was Toscanini: The Maestro, My Father, and Me for the Brown Books Publishing Group newsletter on Substack a few weeks ago.

In this conversation, I speak with Johnson about her book’s rare insider perspective, shaped by the firsthand experiences of her father, Samuel Antek, who performed under the legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini. We explore the music, the discipline, and the careful preservation of a deeply personal viewpoint from within one of the twentieth century’s most influential orchestral legacies. Discover more from Lucy Antek Johnson on her website, and pick up your copy of This Was Toscanini today!

At Long Last!

As of last Friday, I have officially wrapped up my undergraduate career at DePaul University! This has been nearly a 17-year journey to earn my bachelor’s degree. I began in ’08, right out of high school, with a scholarship to play softball at the University of Arkansas. After three years, I hung up my cleats and transferred to KU. When that didn’t work out, I moved back to Dallas and worked just about every job under the sun until I finally got my foot in the door in publishing.

Finishing school would have been so much more difficult without the support of my partner, family, and friends who encouraged me to finish and reminded me I’d regret it if I didn’t. They knew how long this had been hanging over my head, and they kept me accountable over the last three years to keep my head down and stay the course.

I’m equally grateful for the faculty in the WRD department, who in all my years of schooling, have truly exemplified the best of what faculty leadership can and should be. I cannot speak highly enough of them or the work I witnessed them do to help students succeed. Endlessly happy to bring this chapter of my professional career to a close! 😭 🙂

Proceedings from the 15th GW Ethics in Publishing Conference

The proceedings from the 15th GW Ethics in Publishing Conference are live! My presentation was part of the Equity and Inclusion in Publishing session and explored ideas around hybrid publishing and its role in shaping access and representation.

It was a privilege be in the company of such forward-thinking publishing professionals whose work continues to steer conversations about education, scholarship, and equal access in a positive direction.

📄 Slide Deck: https://lnkd.in/g3_ri92A

Q&A with Voyage Dallas

I recently had the chance to do a brief Q&A with Voyage Dallas about my career path in publishing.

I had a bit of a ground-up entry into the industry, which I think is true for many of us here in the south, where publishing has been gaining momentum in Texas, but still isn’t quite the job hub the East Coast has always been. I’m always curious how other folks in the south found their way into publishing, so please share if you're open to it!

Huge thanks to Jonathan Chang for reaching out and to VD for the feature.

Presenting at the 15th Annual GWU Ethics in Publishing Conference

I’m so happy to share that I’ll be presenting my research at the The George Washington University Ethics in Publishing Conference this October! This will also be my first time in D.C., and I’m truly honored for the opportunity to be in such great company.

My presentation, “The Rhetoric of Hybrid Publishing: Negotiating Legitimacy and Stigma in the Modern Publishing Landscape,” builds on my Summer Undergraduate Research Grant at DePaul University. It examines how hybrid publishing has emerged as a disruptive force that challenges traditional notions of legitimacy, authorship, and artistic authority. My research uses a rhetorical framework to examine public and institutional discourse, drawing on publishing scholarship, digital ethnography of platforms such as Reddit and Instagram, and many, many interviews with publishing professionals.

I’m excited to join the conversation around publishing ethics, access, and creative agency in an evolving publishing ecosystem.

Full conference schedule here.

Dean's Award for Scholastic Excellence

Honored to Be Recognized for Academic Excellence in May 2025

I'm incredibly proud to share that I was recognized by DePaul University’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the Annual Honors Convocation this May.

This award was presented to seniors who maintained a GPA of 3.7 or higher, and I’m honored to be among those acknowledged for academic achievement. It’s been a challenging but deeply rewarding journey, and this recognition means a great deal to me.

Being part of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences has shaped me intellectually and personally. I’m grateful for the faculty, peers, and mentors who have supported and inspired me throughout my time at DePaul.

DePaul SURG Grant Award Winner!

I'm very excited and so grateful to share that my proposal for the Summer Undergraduate Research Grant at DePaul has been approved! I’ll be diving into the world of hybrid publishing, a model where authors share costs with professional publishers, to explore how it challenges long-held ideas about legitimacy, credibility, and who gets to shape the literary landscape.

The project itself will be a kind of hybrid: blending literary review, digital ethnography (Reddit threads, Substack newsletters, and lit-world Instagram), and conversations with publishing professionals. I’m especially interested in the rhetorics of value, gatekeeping, and creative control and what that reveals about the future of publishing.

Ebb & Flow is Available Wherever You Buy Books!

I quietly released the second edition of my debut poetry collection, Ebb & Flow, earlier this month. The first edition came out way back in 2017 with a very, small limited run sold mostly within the Dallas cultural arts community.

While it never had a strong online presence, it’s been one of the most meaningful projects of my life. It has sort of become this de facto, rhetorical tool for communicating with other creatives, and it has connected me with so many people who have shaped me as a writer and as a person existing in the world.

This new edition features a refreshed layout, omits a few earlier pieces, and introduces new poems that better reflect how my voice and perspective have evolved over time.

It's available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Lulu. If you grab a copy, please show some love and leave a review (they matter more than you know). 🙂 🙏

Amazon: https://shorturl.at/VqncB
B&N: https://shorturl.at/5Z6QA
Lulu: https://shorturl.at/UnvBc
Website: https://shorturl.at/efzmJ