Bruce Kovanen

Assistant Professor & Director of Upper Division Writing

Faculty

English

Bruce Kovanen smiling confidently at camera.

Bruce Kovanen is an Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Upper Division Writing Program at North Dakota State University. He received his BA in Psychology from Knox College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Honors in Composition & Rhetoric. He received his MA in English and PhD in English with a Concentration in Writing Studies and Certificates in Labor Studies and Labor & Employment Law from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Prior to arriving at NDSU, he completed a postdoctoral research associate position with the Writing Across Engineering and Science team in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

His current research project examines the literate activities of a graduate worker union’s bargaining team as they engage in contract negotiations with university administrators.

He currently serves as the Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication’s Labor Caucus. With Sue Doe, Bruce is editor-in-chief of Academic Labor: Research and Artistry and, with Kevin Roozen and Ryan Ware, Bruce is a founding editor of Literate Activity: Perspectives on Textual Practices in the World.

Areas of Study & Research

  • Literate Activity
  • Situated, Historical, Embodied Semiosis
  • Labor Studies
  • Sociocultural Perspectives on Learning
  • Cultural-Historical Activity Theory
  • Writing Across the Curriculum
  • Transdisciplinary Action Research
  • Ethnographic and Video Methods
  • Workplace Communication
  • STEM Communication

Courses Taught

ENGL 320 - Business and Professional Communication

ENGL 324 - Writing in the Sciences

ENGL 459/659 - Researching and Writing Grants and Proposals

ENGL 756 - Composition Research

ENGL 765 - Upper Division Writing: Pedagogy, Practice, and Technology

ENGL 899 - Doctoral Dissertation Research

Professional Associations

Association for Writing Across the Curriculum

National Council of Teachers of English

Conference on College Composition and Communication

American Educational Research Association

International Society of Cultural-Historical Activity Research

International Society for the Advancement of Writing Research

Labor Research & Action Network

Links

Education

  • PhD in English (Writing Studies Concentration), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2023)
  • MA in English, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2017)
  • BA in Psychology, Knox College (2015)

Publications

Diab, K., Bowman, A., Kovanen, B., Miller, L., & Isaac, J. (2025). Challenging the “We” in academia: Activist cases of resistance. Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, 36(1), 129–144.

Kovanen, B., Prior, P., Gallagher, J., Elliott, C., Popovics, J., Cooper, S., & Zilles, J. (2024). Supporting STEM faculty in adopting and adapting writing pedagogies. 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, 1–9.

Prior, P., Hengst, J. A., Kovanen, B., Mazuchelli, L., Turnipseed, N., & Ware, R. (2023). Rearticulating theory and methodology for perezhivanie and becoming: Tracing flat CHAT assemblages and embodied intensities. Outlines. Critical Practice Studies, 24(1), 4–44.

Kovanen, B., Turnipseed, N., Mericle, M., & Roozen, K. (2022). Tracing literate activity across physics and chemistry: Toward embodied histories of disciplinary knowing, writing, and becoming. Across the Disciplines, 19(1/2), 62–77.

Presentations

"Journal editors roundtable: Publishing in WAC." Roundtable with Julie Bleakney, Cameron Bushnell, Michael Cripps, Sue Doe, Rick Fisher, Justin Hayes, Yndalecio Hinojosa, Kelly Kinney, and Julia Voss. International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference. Fort Collins, CO. 2025.

“Tracing semiotic activity and lifespan becoming-with across union activism, academic life, and wolf rescue.” Panel presentation in Diffractive research on situated, historical, embodied semiosis in accounts of lifespan becoming-with and worlding with Paul Prior, Kevin Roozen, Anna Prior, and Anna Smith (Discussant). American Educational Research Association. Denver, CO. 2025.

“’Solidarity forever!’: Academic labor, university austerity, and the student movement for a free Palestine.” Panel presentation with Kathleen Dillon, Jennifer Grouling Snider, and Olivia Wood. Conference on College Composition and Communication. Baltimore, MD. 2025.

“Mapping genre systems in a union bargaining team.” Paper presentation. Conference on College Composition and Communication. Baltimore, MD. 2025.