Kristen LeFevers is a third-year PhD student on the Rhetoric, Writing, and Linguistics track and teaches first-year composition (FYC) at UTK and Pellissippi State Community College. Since 2021, she has taught composition and literature courses at various institutions, tutored at the Marshall University Writing Center, and served as the director of the Online Writing Lab at Huntington Junior College. In the classroom, she uses frequent low-stakes writing assignments to facilitate students’ deeper engagement with readings and course concepts and build their confidence toward larger projects. A homegrown West Virginian, she is passionate about confronting linguistic biases in the classroom and making space for students to write in their own voices and dialects, even as they prepare to compose in more formal, academic discourses. Kristen’s research interests include Appalachian studies, specifically Appalachian dialects and identities and the way they intersect with the demands and conventions of FYC. Through her scholarship, she hopes to advocate for the next generation of students from rural Appalachia and empower them to unapologetically embrace both their scholarly and regional identities. 

When she’s not teaching or lesson prepping, Kristen enjoys listening to audiobooks, watching urban exploration videos on YouTube, cross-stitching, baking sweet treats for her colleagues and students, and running Knoxville’s greenways. She also trying to keep a melodramatic but lovable cat named Grace out of trouble. But no matter what she’s doing, she’s always thinking, if not talking, about Appalachia.