Keywords

Tech-Mediated Communication
Gender Equity
Academic Expertise

Research Interests

• Tech-Mediated Communication
• Women’s Advancement in the Academy
• Verbal Data Analysis
• Expertise in the Academy
• Work-Life Boundary Management

Biography

• Ph.D. (Rhetoric), Carnegie Mellon University, 1986
• M.S., (Reading), Western Illinois University, 1977
• B.A., (English), Carleton College, 1976

• Professor of Rhetoric and Composition and Information Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1998-2009.

• Principal Investigator, RAMP-Up, Rensselaer’s NSF ADVANCE-funded project for institutional transformation whose goal is to make the academy a place in which women, especially in the sciences and engineering, can succeed, 2006-2009.
• Principal Investigator, TMC Project, funded by a major research grant from the Society for Technical Communication, as a multi-year effort aimed at exploring the implications of inserting technological mediation into the traditional Tech Communication mix
• Head, Language, Literature and Communication, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2005-2009 and 1995-1998.
• Founder and Coordinator, Forum for Integrated Design, a grass roots forum at Rensselaer dedicated to exploring design issues, 1993-96.
• Director, Writing Intensive Program, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1986-1994.

Professional Associations

• Chair of the Task Force on Gender Equity, Rhetoric Society of America, 2008 and continuing.
• Chair of the Research Committee, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, 2009 and continuing.

Grants, Gifts, and Fellowships (Selected)

• SettleNet: A Regional Settling-in Service to Benefit Women Scientists and their Families.  New Scholars Award. Elsevier Foundation 2008 for $80,000.
• RAMP-UP: Reforming Advancement Processes through University Professions.  Cheryl Geisler, Deborah Kaminski and Robert Palazzo. Project renewal by NSF’s Advance Program for Institutional Transformation. National Science Foundation 2008 for $1,082,047.
• Analyzing Media Representations of Muslim Women: Building Research Capacity in Qatar.  Amal Al-Malki and David S. Kaufer.  Qatar Foundation. Qatar Foundation 2008 for $135,433. Consultant to the project on content analysis.  
• Tech Mediated Communication:  Innovating the User Experience in a Mediated World.  Cheryl Geisler, Audrey Bennett, Jan Fernheimer, Roger Grice, Robert Krull, Patricia Search, and James Zappen. Society for Technical Communication 2006 for $138,000. Major Research Grant.
• RAMP-UP: Reforming Advancement Processes through University Professions.  Cheryl Geisler, Deborah Kaminski and Bud Peterson. Advance Program for Institutional Transformation. National Science Foundation 2006 for $659,356.
• Usable Content in a Post-Document World.  Cheryl Geisler, Audrey Bennett, Roger Grice, Katherine Isbister, Robert Krull, Patricia Search, James Watt, and James Zappen. Society for Technical Communication 2005 for $10,000. Planning Grant.
• Rensselaer's Learning Continuum: Cheryl Geisler, John Kolb, Don Millard, Mark Shephard, Al Wallace, Jack Wilson. Intel Corporation $2,400,000 over 1997-99. An equipment grant.
• The Collaborative Classroom at Rensselaer: NYNEX Technological Support for Intellectual TeamWork. Cheryl Geisler, Edwin H. Rogers, and John Tobin. NYNEX Excellence in Education Award $25,000 over 1996-97.
• Distributed Learning Collaborative Learning Environments.  Ephraim Glinert, Edwin H. Rogers, Cheryl Geisler. National Science Foundation $350,000 over 1996-1998.
• Certificate Program in Human-Computer Interaction.  A Distance Learning Initiative.  Cheryl Geisler, Robert Krull, and Roger Grice. IBM Information Development $120,000 over 1996-2001. A Program Development Gift.
• Improving Software Design and Development Education through Technological Innovation.  A Grant from the National Science Foundation.  Edwin H. Rogers, Cheryl Geisler, Ephraim P. Glinert, David R. Musser, and Robert P. Ingalls. National Science Foundation $424,753 over 1992-1996.
• The Nature and Development of Expertise in Essayist Literacy.  Cheryl Geisler.  Spencer Fellowship. National Academy of Education $30,000 over 1990-91.
• WARRANT: A Flexible Computer Environment for Critical Reading, Reasoning, and Writing. Fund for the Improvement of PostSecondary Education 1985-1987.

Publications (Selected) Books and Book Chapters

• 10 Heuristics for Usable Tech-Mediated Communication: The TMC Toolkit.  Cheryl Geisler, Roger Grice, Audrey Bennett, Janice Fernheimer, Robert Krull, Patricia Search, and James P. Zappen.  Book in review for the Series in Technical Communication and Rhetoric of Texas Tech University Press.
• Analyzing Steams of Language: Twelve Steps to the Systematic Coding of Text, Talk and Other Verbal Data. Cheryl Geisler. Pearson/Longman. 2004.
• Academic Literacy and the Nature of Expertise: Reading, Writing, and Knowing in Academic Philosophy.  Cheryl Geisler.  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994.
• Gender Equity in the Rhetoric Society of America.  Cheryl Geisler.  Rhetoric Society of America Conference Volume edited by Barbara Warnick and Michelle Smith.  Waveland Press, 2009.
• The Challenge of “Extending Our Reach”: The Changing Nature of Professionalism and Our So-Called Careers, Cheryl Geisler.  In Extending Our Reach of Influence: Composition Specialists in Positions of University Administration.  Susan M. Hunter and Sheryl I. Fontaine.  Parlor Press, in press for 2009.
• Remaking the World Through Talk and Text: What We Should Learn from How Engineers Use Language to Design.  Cheryl Geisler and Barbara Lewis. In R. Horowitz (Ed.), Talking texts:  How speech and writing interact in school learning. Erlbaum, 2007. pp. 217-334.
• Capturing the Activity of Digital Writing: Using. Analyzing and Supplementing Video Screen Capture.  Cheryl Geisler and Shaun Slattery. In Digital Writing Research: Technologies, Methodologies, and Ethical Issues. (Ed. Heidi A. McKee and Dànielle Nicole DeVoss).  Hampton Press, 2007.  Volume was winner of Computers and Composition's Distinguished Book Award, 2008.
• Mining Textual Knowledge for Writing education: The DocuScope Project. David Kaufer, Cheryl Geisler, Pantelis Vlachos & Suguru Ishizaki.  In Writing and Digital Media (Ed. Luuk van Waes, Mariëlle Leijten, and Chris Neuwirth). Studies in Writing - An International Series on the Research of Learning and Instruction of Writing, 17, Elsevier Press, 2006.
• Computer Support for Genre Analysis and Identification. David Kaufer, Cheryl Geisler, Suguru Ishizaki, Pantelis Vlachos. In Ambient Intelligence for Scientific Discovery  (Ed. Yang Cai) Springer, 2005, 129-151.
• Upon the Public Stage: How Professionalization Shapes Accounts of Composing in the Academy.  Cheryl Geisler.  In B. Couture and T. Kent (Eds.), The Private, the Public, and the Published: Reconciling Private Lives and Public Rhetoric (pp. 112-126). Utah State University, 2004.
• When Management Become Personal: An Activity-Theoretic Analysis of Palm Technologies.  Cheryl Geisler.  In C. Bazerman  and D. R. Russell (Eds.), Writing Selves and Societies: Research from Activity Perspectives. San Diego, CA: Mind, Culture, and Activity and Fort Collins, CO: academic.writing. Available at http://wac.colostate.edu/books/selves_societies, 2003.
• Temporal Analysis: A Primer Exemplified by a Case from Prehospital Care.  Cheryl Geisler and Roger Munger.  In E. Barton and G. Stygall, Discourse Studies in Composition.  Hampton Press, 2002.
• Going Public: Collaborative Systems Design for Multidisciplinary Conversations. Cheryl Geisler, Edwin H. Rogers, and J. Tobin.   In N. A. Streitz, J. Siegel, V. Hartkopf, and S, Konomi (Eds.), Cooperative Buildings:  Integrating Information, Organizations and Architecture  (pp. 89-100).  Springer, 1999.
• Writing and Learning at Cross Purposes in the Academy.  In J. Petraglia-Bahri (Ed.), Rethinking Writing:  Research into the Relationship between Rhetoric and Writing Instruction.  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1995, pp. 101-120.
• Toward a Sociocognitive Model of Literacy: Constructing Mental Models in a Philosophical Conversation.  Cheryl Geisler.  Textual Dynamics of the Professions.  C. Bazerman and J. Paradis, Eds. University of Wisconsin Press, 1990, 171-190.
• Recent Articles
• Designing the Total User Experience: Implications for Research and Program Development. James P. Zappen and Cheryl Geisler, CPTSC Programmatic Perspectives.  2009.
• The 13+ Club: A Metric for Understanding, Documenting, and Resisting Patterns of Non-Promotion to Full Professor. Geisler, Cheryl, Debbie Kaminski, and Robyn A. Berkley. The National Women’s Studies Association Journal 19(3), 2007, pp. 145-162.
• Work-Life Boundary Management and the Personal Digital Assistant: Practical Activities and Interpretative Repertoires.  Annis Golden and Cheryl Geisler. Human Relations 60(3), 2007.
• Flexible work, time, and technology: Ideological dilemmas of managing work-life interrelationships using personal digital assistants. Golden, A. G. & Geisler, C. (2006). The Electronic Journal of Communication /La Revue Electronique de Communication, Vol 16, available at .
• Teaching the Post-Modern Rhetor: Continuing the Conversation on Rhetorical Agency. Cheryl Geisler.  Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 35, Fal, 2005, 107-113.  Winner of the 2005 Kneupper Award for Best Article published in RSQ.
• How Ought We to understand the Concept of Rhetorical Agency?  Report from the ARS.  Cheryl Geisler.  Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Vol 34, No. 3.  2004, pp. 9-17.
• The IText Revolution, Introduction to the Special Issue.  Cheryl Geisler.  Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 18, 2004, 267-269.
• Textual Objects: Accounting for the Role of Texts in the Everyday Life of Complex Organizations.  Cheryl Geisler.  Written Communication, 18, 2001, 296-325.
• IText: Future Directions for Research on the Relationship between Information Technology and Writing. Cheryl Geisler, Charles Bazerman,  Stephen Doheny-Farina, Laura Gurak, Christina Haas, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, David S. Kaufer, Andrea Lunsford, Carolyn R. Miller, Dorothy Winsor, JoAnne Yates. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 15, 2001, 269-308.