Research Interests
History of rhetoric and literacy in the U.S., qualitative study of literacy, research ethics
Education
- Ph.D., University of California, San Diego, 1989
- B.A., University of California, San Diego (Revelle College), 1983
Additional Campus Affiliations
Interim Dean, College of Fine and Applied Arts
Director, Center for Writing Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Associate Professor, English
External Links
Highlighted Publications
Daniell, B., & Mortensen, P. (Eds.) (2007). Women and Literacy: Local and Global Inquiries for a New Century. (NCTE-Routledge Research Series). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003064503
Eldred, J. C., & Mortensen, P. (2002). Imagining Rhetoric: Composing Women of the Early United States. (Pittsburgh Series in Composition, Literacy, and Culture). University of Pittsburgh Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5vkg2d
Mortensen, P., & Kirsch, G. E. (Eds.) (1996). Ethics and Representation in Qualitative Studies of Literacy. National Council of Teachers of English.
Recent Publications
Eldred, J. C., & Mortensen, P. (2023). Returning to Literacy Narratives. College English, 85(6), 471-497. https://doi.org/10.58680/ce202332617
Mortensen, P. L. (2015). Afterword. In S. Webb-Sunderhaus, & K. Donehower (Eds.), Rereading Appalachia: Literacy, place, and cultural resistance (pp. 199-212). (Place matters: new directions in Appalachian studies). University Press of Kentucky. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183pf7d.13
Mortensen, P. (2012). The work of illiteracy in the rhetorical curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 44(6), 761-786. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2012.730282
Mortensen, P. (2012). Thirty-five questions. Advances in the History of Rhetoric, 15(1), 109-118. https://doi.org/10.1080/15362426.2012.657062
Anson, C., Cooper, M., Desai, G., Gere, A. R., Gilbert, P. K., Gilyard, K., Harris, J., Lee, V., Miller, S., Mortensen, P. L., Shumway, D., Sommers, N., & Vitanza, V. J. (2011). Symposium: How I Have Changed My Mind. College English, 74(2), 106-130. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23052355