Graduate Studies, UNL

 

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

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First Advisor

Stacey Waite

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

English

Date of this Version

5-4-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Citation

A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy

Major: English

Under the supervision of Professor Stacey Waite

Lincoln, Nebraska, May 2026

Comments

Copyright 2026, Alexandra Bissell. Used by permission

Abstract

In a moment characterized by rapid technological advancement and sociopolitical volatility, the academy currently faces the need to redefine what a college education can offer students and reimagine how it delivers on that promise. This dissertation proposes a pedagogy centered on the process of connection as one way that English educators at the collegiate level might approach our teaching and respond to this call. Connection is relational, but also textual and conceptual, and I contend that establishing connection as the catalyst for our pedagogical practices is a powerful way to move forward and support our students’ intellectual growth as well as their humanity. In the spirit of connection, I draw on scholarship from Composition and Rhetoric, Literary and Cultural Studies, and English Education to explore the theoretical foundations of a process-driven pedagogy like the one I propose. By putting these pedagogical texts in conversation with my own teaching experiences and materials built on connection, this dissertation also offers a vision of what a pedagogy of connection might look like in practice.

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