Kelly Dunn

Teaching Assistant

My name is Kelly Dunn, and I am a fourth-year PhD student in Linguistics here at the University of Florida.  My background is primarily in linguistics and Spanish language, and I hold my MA in linguistics from the University of New Mexico.   I have been working with the University Writing Program (UWP) at UF now for two years.  Here at the UWP, I have had the opportunity to teach English Composition 1101, 1102, and 2256.  In my extended university teaching career, I have also worked within UF’s Quest program and instructed both beginner and intermediate-level Spanish.  As a UWP instructor, I am interested in seeing students develop and grow as professional and academic writers within their field.  Understanding and navigating the demands of written work across distinct disciplines is a primary focus in my classrooms.  In my own academic career, I work primarily in topics related to language documentation, morphology, and grammaticalization, with my current focus being on Valley Zapotec languages of Oaxaca, Mexico.  In this context, I give a great deal of consideration to the development of written literacy skills for language learners.  Extending this into the world of university-level writing, I encourage my students to approach written literacy as part of a lifelong practice.