My CV

I’m Laura Leigh. I recently graduated with a PhD in Rhetoric and Writing Studies from BGSU.

Education

Ph.D., English (Rhetoric and Writing Studies) (2023)

Master of Arts, English and Creative Writing (2015)

  • Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, NH

Juris Doctor (2002)

  • University of Toledo, College of Law, Toledo, OH
  • Admitted to Michigan State Bar (2002)

Bachelor of Arts, Psychology (1999)

  • Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH

Higher Education Teaching Experience

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

  • Associate Professor – Adjunct (2024 – present)
  • Courses taught:
    • ENGL 1001: English Composition (Online)
    • ENGL 2089: Intermediate Composition (Online)

Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH

  • Adjunct Faculty, University Writing Program (2023 – present)
  • Courses taught:
    • WRIT 1110: Seminar in Academic Writing (face-to-face)
    • WRIT 1120: Seminar in Academic Research (face-to-face)

Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH

  • Graduate Assistant, University Writing Program
  • Courses taught:
    • WRIT 1110: Seminar in Academic Writing (face-to-face)
    • WRIT 1120: Seminar in Academic Research (face-to-face/online)

Monroe County Community College, Monroe, MI

  • Adjunct Faculty, English (August 2016 to August 2017; May 2018 – present)
  • Full-time Faculty, English (one-year temporary position, August 2017 to May 2018)
  • Courses taught:
    • ENG 090: Basic Writing Skills (face-to-face)
    • ENG 151: English Composition I (face-to-face, online, and summer sessions)
    • ENG 152: English Composition II (face-to-face and summer sessions)
    • HUMAN 151: Intro to Humanities (face-to-face)

Tiffin University, Tiffin, OH

  • Adjunct Faculty, English (August 2016 to December 2016)
  • Courses taught:
    • ENG 142: Rhetoric and Academic Writing (English Composition II) (face-to-face)
    • ENG 291: British Literature I (Old English through the Restoration) (face-to-face)

Higher Education Administrative Positions

Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH

  • Graduate Assistant, Webmaster/Social Media Assistant (2020 – 2022)
  • Updated and created website pages for English Department; created and updated BFA Thesis page which included uploading/editing/captioning BFA student video presentations; regular communication with faculty and staff; regular postings to English Department social media accounts.

Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH

  • Graduate Assistant, Assistant to Program Director of Rhetoric and Writing Studies Program (2021 – 2022)
  • Worked closely with the Rhetoric and Writing Studies Program Director to represent and promote the program, wrote a weekly newsletter for the program cohorts regarding program, university, and discipline news/events, assisted in running PPG (Post-prelim group) meetings with the Program Director.

Fellowships

Digital Rhetoric Collaborative, University of Michigan (2021-2023)

Peer Reviewed Publications

  • Dr. Laura Menard, Remember Women: How the Media Must Change the Narrative About Marginalized Women Victims of Violence, Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly Rowman and Littlefield Academic), publication forthcoming.
  • Dr. Neil Baird, Dr. Daniel Bommarito, Annie Cigic, Rachel Flynn, Emma Guthrie, Travis Hein, Krys Ingman, Morgan Buchs (McDougall) & Laura Menard, authored collaboratively under the pseudonym Adel Vielstimmig (Adel = anagram of our names, Vielstimmig = German for “many voices”), “Navigating Dual Identities as Doctoral Student and TA/RAs at Bowling Green State University,” Threshold Conscripts: Rhetoric and Composition Teaching Assistantships, 2023, https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/threshold/conscripts.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2IRIWr1VVcq4J6whCcXRjbcbk5lqO0qD8ltXGwSbg_z54dsYyyUBvkELs
  • Dr. Morgan Buchs, Rachel Flynn, Dr. Laura Menard, & Dr. Brandie Bohney, “Supportive Spaces: Creating (and Selecting) Doctoral Programs that Accept and Enhance the Experiences of Graduate Student-Parents,” Parenting While PhDing: Surviving and Improving the Working Conditions of Graduate Student Parents, publication Spring 2025.

Invited Publications

  • Laura Menard & Emma Guthrie, “Memory, Memories, and Public Memory at BGSU: Oak Grove Cemetery,” Student Digital Gallery, BGSU, University Libraries, 2019 

Conferences, Workshops, Showcases:

National:

Popular Culture Association National Conference, March 2024

  • Dr. Laura Menard, “Performative Allyship in Popular True Crime Podcasts”

Computers and Writing Conference, Practicing Digital Activisms, 2022

  • Digital Rhetoric Collaborative Fellows, “Digital Assignments with the DRC: Toward a Pedagogy of Accessibility, Ethics, and Activist”
  • Alyse Campbell (Univ. of Michigan), Laura McCann (Carnegie Mellon) & Laura Menard (BGSU), ethics in digital pedagogy portion of the presentation.

CCCC Annual Convention, We Are All Writing Teachers: Returning to a Common Place, 2021

  • Laura Menard, Annie Cigic & Rachel Flynn, “Promoting Learning Amidst Student Resistance through Labor Based Assessment”
  • Laura Menard, invisible student resistance (students resist engaging fully in the coursework or reading materials and doing what is needed to pacify the instructor to pass the class), and the instructor’s role in diminishing it including the use of labor-based grading contracts.
  • Panel canceled when conference moved to virtual due to COVID-19

Popular Culture Association National Conference, 2020 

  • Laura Menard, “Powerful Women, Sexual Agency, and Science Fiction: The Heterosexual Script in Another Life”
  • Conference canceled due to COVID-19

Local:

BGSU Post-Prelim Group, “Managing and Making Meaning from Data,”, 2023

  • An invited presentation where I discussed my collection and examination of my dissertation data using Critical Discourse Analysis
  • Attended by other PhD students

BGSU Brown Bag Series, “What a Fellowship Can Do For You: My Experience as a Graduate Fellow with the Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative,” 2022

  • An invited presentation where I discussed my fellowship with the Sweetland DRC, and what the DRC can offer to students
  • Attended by other PhD students and faculty in the program

21st Century Englishes Conference, Critical Divides: Coming Together in Crisis, 2020, Conference Co-Chair

  • Co-chaired conference with Annie Cigic and Rachel Flynn
  • Co-created theme and Call for Proposals 
  • Headed accessibility committee
  • Updated website to accommodate for a virtual conference which included adding pages with accessibility documents, pre-recorded and poster presentations, virtual meeting links and recorded meetings, keynote speaker page and link to recorded address.
  • Created RSVP link to track attendees
  • Moderated the panel: “’Now You Hear Us’”: Transmodal Approaches for Refugee Learners in Online Contexts”

BGSU Grad Student Spotlight, 2020

  • Laura Menard, “Celebrated Evil: Media Rhetoric and Serial Killers”

The Ray Browne Conference for Popular Culture Studies, Collections, Curation, and Collectors: An Exploration of Gathering, 2020

  • Laura Menard, “The Rhetorical Value of Nostalgia in Star Wars LEGO Collections”

21st Century Englishes Conference, 2019

  • Laura Menard, et al, “Researching, Writing, Teaching: Using Archival Photo Collages as a Metaphor to Explore Historical Research Methods”

Professional Development

  • Rhetoric and Writing Brown Bag Series, “Saying No So You Can Say Yes: Time Management Strategies,” 2019”
  • 21st Century Englishes Conference, 2019
    • “Art and Creative Writing in/as Scholarship: Creative-Critical Approaches to Research and Pedagogy”
    • “Write What You Know: Exploring Trauma in Cross-Genre Research and Writing”
    • “Popular Culture in Post-Secondary Writing and Pedagogy”

Awards and Honors

  • Adjunct Faculty of the Year (Nomination), Monroe County Community College, 2017
  • 2nd Place, The Case Against Napster, Nathan Burkan Memorial Copyright Competition [sponsored by the American Society of Composer, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP)], 2001

Service

To the community:

  • Computers and Writing Conference, 2024
    • Planning Committee Member/Proposal Reviewer
  • Computers and Writing Conference, 2023
    • Planning Committee Member/Proposal Reviewer/Mentor

To the institution:

  • Rhetoric Society of the Black Swamp (RSBS), Member/Officer, 2019-2023
    • Bowling Green State University Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) Chapter
  • 21st Century Englishes Conference, Co-Chair, 2020
    • Rhetoric and Writing Studies, Bowling Green State University
  • 21st Century Englishes Conference, Committee Member, 2019
    • Rhetoric and Writing Studies, Bowling Green State University
  • 21st Century Englishes Conference, Proposal Reviewer, 2019
    • Rhetoric and Writing Studies, Bowling Green State University
  • WRIT: Journal of First Year Writing, Submissions Reviewer, 2019-2020
    • University Writing Program, Bowling Green State University
  • One Book, One Community, Committee Member, 2017-18
    • Social Sciences and Humanities Division, Monroe County Community College
  • One Book, One Community, Book Selection Sub-Committee Member, 2017-18
    • Social Sciences and Humanities Division, Monroe County Community College

Legal Experience

  • Owner/Head Attorney (2011 – 2014)
    • Menard Law Office, LLC, Toledo, OH
    • Bankruptcy/Debtor Law and Social Security Law
    • Represented debtors before the Northern District of Ohio Bankruptcy Court
    • Represented Social Security applicants before administrative law judges
  • Senior Associate Attorney, (2006 – 2011)
    • Frego & Associates, PLC, Dearborn Heights, MI
    • Bankruptcy/Debtor Law
    • Represented debtors before Eastern District of Michigan Bankruptcy Court
  • Associate Attorney (2003 – 2006)
    • Stephen A. Thomas, PCS, Detroit, MI
    • Bankruptcy/Debtor Law and Social Security Law
    • Represented debtors before Eastern District of Michigan Bankruptcy Court
    • Represented Social Security applicants before administrative law judges
    • Wrote and argued appellate briefs 
    • Argued a case before the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (2005)