Director of the Westover Honors
Assistant Professor of English

434.544.8572
[email protected]

Publications

• Willis, R. (2026). “Gender Trouble: The Myth-Making Power of Country Music Playlists.” Ex-Centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media, 9. 62–83.

Conference Presentations

• “Negotiating Traumatized Masculinities in Ezekal Alan’s Disposable People,” South Atlantic MLA Conference, Virtual, 13-15 November 2020.
• “‘“Where Have All the Women Gone?”: Rhetorical Circulation of Old Hits and the Missing Women of Country Music.” Words, Music, and Marginalization, University of St. Andrews, UK, 1-3 September 2020.
• Accepted but deferred due to the Covid-19 pandemic, “Conspicuous Consumption and Social Capital on Instagram: The Case of Caroline Calloway.” Popular Culture Association, Philadelphia, PA, 15-18 April, 2020.
• “Podcasting in the Classroom,” with Jay Proffitt, Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, Blacksburg, VA, 5-7 February 2020.
• “Podcasting as Composition: The Risks and Rewards,” with Alissa Keith, UNC Writing Studies Conference, UNC Charlotte, NC, 25 October 2019.
• “Instead of a Paper: Practical and Inclusive Teaching with Digital Tools,” with Julie Sorg Way, HASTAC Digital Fridays, 10 May 2019.
• “’I Wouldn’t Be a Man if I Didn’t Feel this Way’: Rhetorics of Masculinity in Country Radio Playlists,” Popular Culture Association National Conference, Washington D.C., 17-20 April 2019.

Awards

• Phi Kappa Phi: “Love of Learning Award,” $1000– 2023-2024
• Delta Kappa Gamma: “DKG International Award,” $10,000– 2022-2023
• Sigma Tau Delta: “Edwin L. Stockton, Jr. Graduate Scholarship,” $4,000– 2021-2022
• University of Lynchburg Westover Honors College: “Faculty Appreciation Award”– 2020-2021