Rebecca Lorimer Leonard holds a Ph.D. in English from the program in composition and rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She specializes in literacy studies, language ideologies, multilingual writing, and comparative rhetoric. Her research examines how transnational literacy practices are valued according to shifting language ideologies.
Professor Lorimer Leonard teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on language diversity, writing center studies, and research methods. She also currently directs the UMass Amherst Writing Center.
Professor Lorimer Leonard is working on a book-length project that traces the writing practices of 25 multilingual immigrants across their languages and the places they have lived around the world. She has published in Written Communication, College English, WPA: Writing Program Administration, and Research in the Teaching of English.