Min-Zhan Lu is a

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

professor and scholar. She serves as Professor Emerita of English at the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

. She is the 2005 recipient of the

Conference on College Composition and Communication The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC, often referred to as "Four Cs") is a national professional association of college and university writing instructors in the United States. Formed in 1949 as an organization within t ...

(CCCC) Richard M. Braddock Award and the 2012 CCCC Outstanding Book Award.

Early life and education

Lu grew up in China at the turn of the

Communist Revolution A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution often, but not necessarily, inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, socialism can be used as an intermediate stage ...

in the mid to late 1940s. She grew up speaking

Shanghai dialect The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the Districts of Shanghai, central districts of the Shanghai, City of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as ...

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern Standar ...

, and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

at a young age. She learned Standard Chinese while attending a private school after the Communist Revolution in 1949. Lu was awarded her MA and PhD at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

in 1983 and 1989 respectively, where she studied in the Cultural and Critical Studies Program. During her PhD program, she served as an

Andrew W. Mellon Andrew William Mellon (; March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937), sometimes A. W. Mellon, was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. From the wealthy Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylva ...

Predoctoral Fellow (1987-1988).

Career and research

As a non-native English speaker, Lu did not intend on becoming a composition teacher after completing her PhD. While searching for jobs, she found that this was one of the only options available to her. After becoming a TA for a writing studies course at the University of Pittsburgh, she became interested in how

composition studies Composition studies (also referred to as composition and rhetoric, rhetoric and composition, writing studies, or simply composition) is the professional field of writing, research, and instruction, focusing especially on writing at the college leve ...

examines the experiences of those with nontraditional schooling and how the pedagogy treated reading and writing as connected. After completing her TA position, Lu briefly lectured at

Des Moines Area Community College Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) is a public community college in central Iowa. The college served 35,488 credit students and 29,021 noncredit students in 200 programs in 2019. History Des Moines Area Community College was created on M ...

. She went on to teach at

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, law, and pharmacy. Drake's law school is among the 25 oldest in the United States. Hi ...

for over ten years (1989-2001) holding several positions including Endowed Professor of the Humanities. She went on to teach and direct several programs within rhetoric and composition at the

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

for five years (2001-2006). She has spent the majority of her teaching career at the

, where she is currently serving as

Professor Emerita ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

since 2014.

Selected works

* Lu, Min-Zhan, and Bruce Horner. "Introduction: Translingual Work." College English, vol. 78, no. 3, 2016, pp. 207–218. * Lu, Min-Zhan, and Bruce Horner. "Translingual Literacy, Language Difference, and Matters of Agency." College English, vol. 75, no. 6, 2013, pp. 582–607. * Lu, Min-Zhan, and Bruce Horner. "Composing in a Global-Local Context: Careers, Mobility, Skills." College English, vol. 72, no. 2, 2009, pp. 113–133. * Lu, Min-Zhan. "Living-English Work." College English, vol. 68, no. 6, 2006, pp. 605–618. * Lu, Min-Zhan. "An Essay on the Work of Composition: Composing English against the Order of Fast Capitalism." College Composition and Communication, vol. 56, no. 1, 2004, pp. 16–50. * Lu, Min-Zhan. "Articles - Redefining the Literate Self: The Politics of Critical Affirmation." College Composition and Communication, vol. 51, no. 2, 1999, p. 172–194.

Notable awards

* 2012 CCCC Outstanding Book Award (''Cross-Language Communications in Composition'') *2005 CCCC Richard Braddock Award ("An Essay on the Work of Composition: Composing English against the Order of Fast Capitalism") *1992 Mina P. Shaughnessy Award for Best Article Published in the Journal of Basic Writing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lu, Min-Zhan University of Louisville faculty Chinese women academics Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women academics 21st-century American women educators