119 Sutherland Building
Abington, PA 19001
Biography
Current and upcoming courses at Penn State Abington:
- ENG 015 Rhetoric and Composition
- ENG 202A Writing in the Social Sciences
- ENG 202D Business Writing
- ENG 211 Introduction to Writing Studies
- ENG 250 Peer Tutoring in Writing
- COMM 476 Philadelphia Sports Journalism
Teaching experiences: I’ve had the fortune of working in numerous roles that have each shaped how I conceptualize education, specifically, postsecondary writing education.
From 2009-2011, I taught English in the Philadelphia School District—first, at a “magnet” high school that focused on the creative and performing arts then, a year later, at a junior high school labeled “high risk and “persistently dangerous.”
From 2012-2016, while I pursued my Ph.D in southern California, I worked as a Writing Center Director of a small social justice-oriented university as well as a Teaching Assistant (Communication Department) and Teaching Associate (Writing Program) for a large “R1” university.
I’ve adjuncted at numerous other schools, including community colleges and a program for the visual arts. Most recently, I held a “postdoc” position as a lecturer with UPenn’s Critical Writing Program.
Previous courses taught:
- First-Year Composition
- Advanced Composition, Business Writing and Professional Communication
- Theories of Communication
- Communication Research Methods
- Introduction to Ethnography, Personal Journal, Public Speaking
Publications
De Piero, Z. (2020). COGs in the Pedagogical Machine: The Structuration and Perigenres Surrounding Classroom Observation Guidelines. In Neaderhiser, S. (Ed.), Writing the Classroom: Pedagogical Documents as Rhetorical Genres. Utah State University Press. Under review.
De Piero, Z & Johnson, J. (2020). Doorways to Disciplinarity: Using Threshold Concepts to Bridge Disciplinary Divides and Develop Theory-Practice Praxis. In Macauley, B. (Ed.), Threshold Conscripts: Liminalities and Thresholds in Rhetoric and Composition TAships and the Programs They Inhabit. Utah State University Press. Under review.
De Piero, Z. (2019). Illuminating Reading as Intellectual Work: The Tacit Labor of the Writing Classroom [Special issue]. Journal of College Literacy and Learning.
De Piero, Z. (2019). Using Data Analysis Software. In Fleischer, C. and Blakeslee, A. (Ed.), Becoming a Writing Researcher, 2nd edition. Routledge.
De Piero, Z. (2018). Leveraging reading-writing connections through three transformative reading lenses [Special issue]. Higher Education Research and Development. Routledge.
De Piero, Z. (2018). Review of Writing at the State U: Instruction and Administration at 106 Comprehensive Universities, by Emily Isaacs, Journal of Writing Assessment.
Education
Ph D, Language, Literacy, and Composition Studies , University of California Santa Barbara
MED, Secondary English Education, Temple University
BA, International Affairs; Philosophy and Religion, James Madison University