Henrietta Rix Wood, Ph.D.
Teaching Professor Emerita
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Fairway, KS
913.219.8010
woodhr@umkc.edu
Education
Interdisciplinary Doctor of Philosophy in English and History, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2011. Dissertation: “Praising Girls: The Epideictic Rhetoric of Young Women, 1895-1930.” Won 2012 Rhetoric Society of America Dissertation Award.
M.A. in English, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2002
B.A. in Journalism, cum laude, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, 1982
Academic Publications
Rev. of A Shared History: Writing in the High School, College, and University, 1856-1886 by Amy J. Lueck, Ohio Valley History, vol. 20, no. 3, Fall 2020, pp. 96-98.
“Collaborative Confrontation in the ‘Persistent Protest’: Lucile Bluford and the Kansas City Call, 1939-1942.” Wide-Open Town: Kansas City in the Pendergast Era, edited by Diane Mutti Burke, Jason Roe, and John Herron, University Press of Kansas, 2018, pp. 178-195.
“Confronting Injustice: Lucile Bluford and the Kansas City Call, 1939-1942.”Pendergast Years: Kansas City in the Jazz Age & Great Depression website of the Kansas City Public Library, 2017.
Praising Girls: The Rhetoric of Young Women, 1895-1930. Southern Illinois University Press, 2016.
Co-edited with Lori Ostergaard. In the Archives of Composition: Writing and Rhetoric in High Schools and Normal Schools. Co-wrote Introduction and contributed a chapter. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015.
With Lori Ostergaard and Amy Mecklenburg-Faenger. “Making Space for Writing: School Girls’ Newspapers, Writing Clubs, and Literary Magazines, 1897-1930.” Feminist Challenges or Feminist Rhetoric? Locations, Scholarship, Discourse, edited by Kirsti Cole, Cambridge Scholars, 2014, pp. 39-56.
“Transforming Student Periodicals into Persuasive Podiums: African American Girls at Lincoln High School, 1915-1930.” American Periodicals vol. 22, no. 2, 2012, pp. 199-215.
Rev. of A Feminist Legacy: The Rhetoric and Pedagogy of Gertrude Buck, by Suzanne Bordelon. Rhetoric Review, vol. 27, no. 3, 2008, pp. 311-315.
Writing, Editing, and Communications Experience
Editor and consultant, UMKC Emeritus College website, 2025
Associate editor, The Beacon, UMKC Emeritus College newsletter, 2024-2025
University of Missouri Press manuscript reviewer and developmental editor, 2024
External reviewer for writing-across-the-curriculum program review at Park University, 2022-2023
UMKC Honors Program promotional video. Co-produced video, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjXzriuaY6YaCLuwaQNVG_Q
Lucerna promotional video. Co-produced video for UMKC undergraduate research journal,
2022, https://youtu.be/9ecFmNk8_o0
Fellow for Teaching Writing for Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence. Promoted writing across the curriculum, September 2021-May 2022
Ohio State University Press manuscript reviewer, 2021-2022
UMKC Honors Program publicist and communications liaison, 2019-2024
Reviewer for Missouri Historical Review, 2017
UMKC School of Graduate Studies research grant reviewer, 2017
Faculty advisor to Lucerna, the UMKC undergraduate research journal, 2017-2024
UMKC Coordinator of Writing Assessment, 2013-2014
UMKC Writing and Reading Board, UMKC, 2013-2023. Co-chairperson, 2018-2023
Features writer, The Kansas City Star, 1982-1990
Teaching Experience
Teaching Professor Emerita, UMKC, September 2024-present
Affiliated Faculty, UMKC English Department, 2021-2024
Teaching Professor, UMKC Honors Program, 2019-2024
Associate Teaching Professor, UMKC Honors College, 2016-2019
Assistant Teaching Professor, UMKC Honors College, 2014-2016
Associate Faculty, UMKC Department of Race, Ethnic & Gender Studies, 2014-2024
Assistant Teaching Professor and Coordinator of Writing Assessment, UMKC, 2013-2014
Full-Time Lecturer, UMKC English Department, 2011-2013
Adjunct Instructor, UMKC English Department, 2008-2011
Graduate Teaching Assistant, UMKC English Department, 2000-2008
UNDERGRADUATE COURSES (designed and taught at UMKC)
• Honors 100: First-Year Seminar
• Honors Anchor 199: Reacting to the Past
• Honors 215: Researching Kansas City
• Honors English 225: Intermediate Academic Prose
• Honors Discourse 200: Culture and Diversity in Kansas City
• Honors Discourse 300: Public Urban Education
• Honors Discourse 300: Civic and Community Engagement
• Honors Discourse 300: Scotland Study Abroad
• Honors 330: Senior Thesis/Project Practicum
• Honors 360C: Leadership and Ethics
• Honors 360D: Kansas City History and Urban Engagement
• Honors 499: Senior Thesis/Project Writing Group
• Honors Anchor 397: Public Urban Education
• Honors Anchor 399: Social Action
• Honors Anchor 399: Scotland Study Abroad
• Roo Honors Academy: Kansas City as Text
• Anchor 299: Critical Issues in Women’s and Gender Studies
• Critical Thinking in the Arts and Humanities Honors: Kansas City as Text
• Community and Urban Engagement Honors: Social Action
• Culture and Diversity Honors: Investigating Identity, Power, and Change
• Discourse 100: Reasoning and Values
• English 110: Introduction to Academic Prose
• English 225: Intermediate Academic Prose
• English 204: Writing About Literature
• English 241: Women and Literature
• English 311: American Literature I (to 1865)
• English 311: American Literature I (to 1865) Online
• English 321: American Literature II (1865 to present)
• English 317: British Literature I Course Assistant
Administrative Experience
Advisor to UMKC Roo Honors Academy, summer enrichment program for high school students, 2021
Organizer and co-leader of UMKC Honors Program Scotland Study, 2017
UMKC Honors Program Faculty and Staff Hiring Committee, 2015-2024
UMKC Honors Faculty Curriculum Committee, 2014-2024
Coordinator for Carolyn Benton Cockefair Writer-in-Residence Program, UMKC, 2003-2005
Professional Service Experience
UMKC Emeritus College Executive Board, 2024-present
Great Plains Honors Council Conference, Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas, March 2023
Member of UMKC Teaching Evaluation and Teaching Enhancement Task Force, 2019-2021
Member of UMKC Community and Urban Committee for General Education 2.0, 2018-2019
Faculty Advisor for UMKC Honors College Internship, 2016-2017
Faculty Advisor to UMKC Honors College Student Association, 2016-2017
Chairperson of Rhetoric Society of America Dissertation Award selection committee, 2015-2016
UMKC Discourse Committee, UMKC, 2012-2013. Collaborated with faculty to develop student-learning
outcomes and syllabi for new general education courses.
Faculty Co-Sponsor of the UMKC Undergraduate English Council, 2011-2014. Advised students on
planning annual “Literature for Life” event and annual Interdisciplinary Student Symposium.
Academic Advisor, UMKC English Department, 2011-2012. Advised 50 undergraduates
Selected Awards, Fellowships, and Grants
Faculty Fellow for Teaching Writing, UMKC Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence, 2021-2022 ($10,000)
American Council on Education Course in Effective Online Teaching Practices, 2020-2021 ($750)
UMKC Faculty Institute for Teaching Inclusive Curricula workshop, 2019-2020 ($750)
UMKC Honors College Professional Development Grant, Boston as Text Masterclass, 2018
($1,300)
Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Award grant for Lucile Bluford essay on the Pendergast Years: Kansas City in the Jazz Age and Great Depression website of the Kansas City Public Library, 2017 ($1,000)
UMKC Women’s and Gender Studies Program Research Grant, 2015 ($1,000)
UMKC Scotland Study Abroad Site Visit Grant, 2015 ($3,500)
UMKC Honors College Professional Development Grant, Reacting to the Past Institute, Barnard College,
2015 ($1,000)
UMKC Sosland Professional Development Award for the Teaching of Writing, 2013 ($2,750)
Rhetoric Society of America Dissertation Award 2012
UMKC College of Arts and Sciences Grant for Online Course Design, 2012 ($2,500)
UMKC Sosland Teaching Award, 2009 ($1,000)
UMKC Ilus Davis Doctoral Teaching Fellowship, 2009-2010 ($8,000)
UMKC School of Graduate Studies Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2008-2009 ($15,000)
UMKC Davis Doctoral Teaching Fellowship, 2008 ($4,000)
UMKC College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Doctoral Fellowship, 2007-2008 ($5,000)
Preparing Future Faculty Fellowship, 2004-2007 ($45,000)
Presentations
“‘But I’m Not a Writing Teacher’: Helping Students Grow as Writers.” Organized and facilitated presentation for UMKC faculty by Dr. Amy Mecklenburg-Faenger, director of the writing across the curriculum program at Park University, UMKC, May 2022.
“Clio Orientation.” Organized and facilitated for regional faculty an introduction to Clio, an educational website and mobile application developed by Dr. David Trowbridge of the UMKC History Department, UMKC, March 2022.
“How Do You Teach Writing?: A Multidisciplinary Discussion.” Organized and facilitated discussion for UMKC faculty, October 2021.
“Reflecting on the Troost Divide: The Collaborative Research Project of AFIA and UMKC.” UMKC Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching and Rockhurst University, Fall 2019 Conference, Kansas City.
“Performing Civil Rights: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Body Rhetoric for Racial Equality.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Pittsburgh, March 2019.
“Honors Program to Honors College: Best Practices and Big Questions Roundtable.” National Collegiate Honors Council Conference, Atlanta, November 2017.
“Picturing Racial Equality: The Visual Rhetoric of Eleanor Roosevelt.” Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, University of Dayton, Ohio, October 2017.
“Enacting Equality: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Visual Arguments for African American Rights, 1935-1953.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Portland, Oregon, March 2017.
Praising Girls: The Rhetoric of Young Women, 1895-1930. Invited to make presentation for Missouri Valley Sundays speaker series at Kansas City Public Library, January 2017.
Praising Girls: The Rhetoric of Young Women, 1895-1930. Interview on Up To Date, KCUR-Radio, January 2017, Kansas City.
“Confronting Injustice: Mary McLeod Bethune and the ‘Persistent Protest’ for African American Rights, 1936-1942.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Houston, April 2016.
“Collaborative Confrontation in the ‘Persistent Protest’: Lucile Bluford and the Kansas City Call in Kansas City, 1939-1942.” Wide Open Town: Kansas City during the Pendergast Era Conference, the Kansas City Public Library, April 2016.
“Writing Stories: Archival Histories of Composition and Rhetoric in U.S. High Schools, 1961-1976.” Discussant for panel at the History of Education Society Conference, St. Louis, November 2015.
“Eleanor Roosevelt and the ‘Persistent Protest’ for African American Rights, 1934-1953.” Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, Arizona State University, October 2015.
“Collaborative Confrontation: The African American Women’s Campaign to Integrate Department-Store Diners in Kansas City, 1958-1959.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Tampa, March 2015.
“Lucile Bluford: The Rhetorical Genesis of a Civil Rights Activist, 1926-1941.” Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, Stanford University, September 2013.
“‘Composition-Rhetoric’ at Central High School in Kansas City, 1895-1924.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Las Vegas, March 2013.
“Disrupting Discourse about Native Americans: Helen W. Ball and Indian Girls at the Haskell Institute, 1897-1913.” Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, Minnesota State University, October 2011.
“Girls Creating Community at Central High School, 1895-1925.” Missouri Conference on History, Kansas City, April 2011.
“‘More Rhetoric, Less History/Less Rhetoric, More History’: The Challenges and Rewards of Producing Interdisciplinary Feminist Dissertations.” 20th Anniversary Feminist Workshop, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Atlanta, April 2011.
“The Rhetorical Praxis of Central High School Students, 1895-1930.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Atlanta, April 2011.
“Girls Creating Consubstantiality at Central High School, 1895-1900.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Louisville, March 2010.
“Praising Girls.” Women’s & Gender Studies Salon, UMKC, February 2010.
"Glossing (Over) Historical Realities to Imagine Community: African American Girls at Lincoln High School,
1917-1930." Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, Michigan State University, Lansing, October 2009.
“Girls Writing Region, Gender, Race, and Class in Kansas City, 1901-1920.” Missouri Conference on History, Springfield, Missouri, April 2009.
“Re/Writing Native American Girls at the Haskell Institute, 1897-1917.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, March 2009.
“Teaching North Americans about Native Americans through the Text of The Indian Leader.” Conference of the Society of the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing, Oxford, United Kingdom, June 2008.
“Writing and Picturing Girls at Miss Barstow’s School, 1901-1920.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, New Orleans, April 2008.
“Alice Morse Earle Revises American History.” Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, University of Arkansas-Little Rock, October 2007.
“The Political Rhetoric of Zitkala-Sa.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, New York, March 2007.
“Composing American Girls’ Culture in the Early Twentieth Century.” Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference, Indianapolis, October 2006.
“Urban Meets Rural: Finding a Center Space through Contact Zones.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, March 2006.
“Girls Co-Authoring Community: The Yearbook of Miss Barstow’s School, 1901-1910.” Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, Houghton, Michigan, October 2005.
“Navigating the Texts and Contexts of Zitkala-Sa’s Essays.” Conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing, Halifax, Nova Scotia, July 2005.
“The Page is a Stage: Dorothy Thompson’s Rhetorical Rehearsals of the ‘New Woman’.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, March 2005.
“The Girlhood Texts of Dorothy Allen Brown Thompson, 1909-1913.” Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, The Ohio State University, Columbus, October 2003.
Professional Learning
International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference 2021
Association of College and University Educators Course in Effective Online Teaching Practices, 2020-2021
Start Here 101: Online Course Design Basics Workshop, UMKC, 2020
Faculty Institute for Teaching Inclusive Curricula workshop, UMKC, 2019-2020
Boston “City as Text” Masterclass, National Collegiate Honors Council, 2018
Reacting to the Past Regional Institute, University of Missouri-St. Louis, 2018
Reacting to the Past Institute, Barnard College, 2015
Digital Media and Composition Institute, The Ohio State University, 2013
Certification in Online Teaching and Learning, UMKC, 2012
Greater Kansas City Writing Project Summer Invitational, 2004
Professional Associations
National Collegiate Honors Council
UMKC Emeritus College
References
Dr. Diane Mutti Burke
Professor
History Department
University of Missouri-Kansas City 210 Cockefair Hall
5121 Rockhill Rd.
Kansas City, MO 64110 muttiburked@umkc.edu
816.235.2549
Dr. Gayle Levy
Associate Professor and Director of Honors Program
Chairperson, World Languages and Cultures
University of Missouri-Kansas City 402 Cherry Hall
5030 Cherry St.
Kansas City, MO 64110 levyg@umkc.edu
816.235.2820
Dr. Jennifer Phegley
Professor
English Department
University of Missouri-Kansas City
106 Cockefair Hall
5121 Rockhill Rd.
Kansas City, MO 64110
phegleyj@umkc.edu
816.235.5973
(Updated 10-7-25)