David Powers Corwin

David holds a B.A. in English and Humanities from Milligan University, and an MAIS in Women and Gender Studies, an MA in English literature, and a Ph.D. in Writing and Rhetoric--all from Mason. They also hold a graduate certificate in Qualitative Research Methods.

They began at Mason in 2013 and before they joined SIS in 2021, they had a variety of roles in Women and Gender Studies. They began as the graduate assistant for the Women and Gender Studies Center. In addition to this role, they served in LGBTQ Resources from 2014-2015 as a graduate assistant. From 2016-2023, they served as program coordinator, associate director, and director of undergraduate programs for Women and Gender Studies. Across these roles, they led the effort to develop the minor in LGBTQ Studies, were part of the team that developed the Integrative Studies major concentration in Women and Gender Studies, moved WMST 208: Introduction to LGBTQ Studies to the Mason Core, developed a new peer to peer student leadership model, and co-developed with students the Intersectionality 101 training module. 

They have also been heavily involved in term faculty advocacy and faculty governance through serving as chair of the CHSS Term Faculty Affairs Committee (2022-2024); a member of the CHSS Workload Guidelines Committee (2021-2022); chair of the Term Faculty Promotion and Workload Guidelines committees for the School of Integrative Studies (2023-2025); and Secretary of CHSS Faculty Assembly (2024-present). 

In 2022, an award was named in their honor for their teaching and curriculum efforts in LGBTQ Studies, the Dr. David Powers Corwin Award for Teaching and Scholarship.

David also serves as a Co-Lead for Leadershape and as Area Chair for the Pedagogy and Popular Culture area and Professional Development Coordinator for the Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association (SWPACA).

Education

• B.A. in English and Humanities, Milligan University
• M.A. in English, George Mason University 
• MAIS in Women and Gender Studies, George Mason University 
• Ph.D. in Writing and Rhetoric, George Mason University 
• Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research Methods, George Mason University. 

Research Interests

• An ongoing grounded theory study of traumatic friendship experiences
• Rhetorics of trauma and friendships in the Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford hearing and media coverage 
• Gendered media rhetoric in the Menendez brothers' case
• Queer theory and normalization in The Golden Girls
• The rhetoric of heteropatriarchy in the Michael Kimmel sexual harassment allegation and its media coverage 
• The scholarship of teaching and learning as it relates to the teaching of friendships, rhetoric, feminist pedagogy, and self-study  
• A short story collection on trauma and friendships in Appalachia 

Awards and Research

Awards

• Mary Roper Award  (2017)
• University's Patriot Pathbreakers Award
• Spirit of the King Faculty Award (2022)

Research

• Lafrance, Michelle; Caravella, Elizabeth; Polk, Thomas; Wooton, Lacey; Johnson, Sarah; Russo, Robyn; Corwin, David; “Fingerprinting Feminist Empirical  Methodologies: An Analysis of Research Trends in Four Composition Journals between 2007 and  2016,” College Composition and Communication vol 72, no 4, 2021. 
• Powers Corwin, David, and Angela Hattery. “Taking It Virtual: A Model for Successful Co-Curricular Student Experiences in Women and Gender Studies During COVID-19.” About Campus, vol. 27, no. 2, May 2022, pp. 13–17
• Powers Corwin, David, Klemmer, Casey and Westermeyer, Victoria, “Peer to Peer Leadership Models in Women and Gender Studies Centers: Bridging Academic and Student Affairs through Student Leadership Opportunities ”Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education vol 16. no 4. 2023, pp 315-318
• Powers Corwin, David and Mason Badra, Holly, Oxford Bibliography: “Role of Gender Equity Work on University Campuses through Women, Gender, and LGBTQ+ Centers” DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0322
• Powers Corwin, David, Klemmer, Casey, Timpane, Julia "Teaching Oral Communication and Critical Thinking Skills Through Friendships" Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy Vol 11 Iss 2
• Powers Corwin, David “The Fragility of Hegemonic Masculinity: Elizabeth Gaskell’s Ruth as Radical Neoliberal Critique” Women’s Writing 0.1080/09699082.2025.2455281
• Powers Corwin, David; Lalukota, Siri; Lovelace, Angelica and Lowry, Lindsay “Occupying All Sides of the Desk: A Feminist Methodological Approach to Teaching, Research, and Mentoring” in Journal of Feminist Scholarship  Vol. 26. Iss 26. doi: 10.23860/jfs.2025.26.04
• Powers Corwin, David “Can Friendship be a Sexuality?: Intimacies Among Friends in Michael Cunningham’s Novels” Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture (accepted)

Courses Taught

• CHSS 101: Introduction to CHSS-LLC
• CHSS 490: Undergraduate Teaching Practicum 
• ENGH 101: Composition
• HE 792: LGBTQ+ Perspectives in Higher Education 
• HNRS 130: Gender, Sexuality, and 1990s Culture
• HNRS 360: Feminist Theory into Practice
• INTS 202: Public Speaking and Critical Thinking Skills
• INTS 310/WMST 320/WMST 550: Violence, Gender, and Sexuality
• INTS 319/575: Contemporary Youth Studies
• INTS 347: Gender Representation in Popular Culture
• INTS 400/575: Temptress: Sexuality and Power 
• INTS 475/575: LGBTQ+ Literacies and Activism in Professional Contexts
• INTS 434: Research for Social Change 
• INTS 491: Senior Capstone
• WMST 100: Global Representations of Women 
• WMST 200: Introduction to Women and Gender Studies 
• WMST 208: Introduction to LGBTQ Studies 
• WMST 300: Gender, Sexuality, and Friendships
• WMST 330: Feminist Theories of Gender, Sexuality, and Race
• WMST 375/INTS 374/INTS 575/WMST 550: Gender, Race, Sexuality, and TV
• WMST 402: Queer Theory 
• WMST 410: Feminist and Queer Research Methods
• WMST 412/WMST 550: Race, Class, and LGBTQ Communities 

Recent Presentations

• 2025-Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Conference, Albuquerque, Neq Mexico "Gender is a Major Piece of Evidence: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Menendez Brothers' Case" 
• 2024: -Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico“In Support of "Nasty Women" Politics: How Second Wave Feminism Foreshadowed Alt-Right Women Politicians”
• 2023: Appalachian Studies Association Conference, Ohio University- “Teaching Appalachian Studies to Non-Appalachian Students”
• 2023: Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico: "Can Friendship be a Sexuality?: Intimacies Among Friends in Michael Cunningham’s Novels"
• 2022: Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico- “Teaching About Friendships in the Popular Culture Classroom”
• 2021: National Women’s Studies Association (virtual due to COVID-19)- “Maintenance and Support Take a Village: Women and Gender Studies Program Administration from Multiple Disciplinary Perspectives” Co-presenters: Leah Adams and Wendi Manuel-Scott
• 2021 Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Conference, (Virtual due to COVID-19)- “Toward a Rhetoric of Trauma and Friendships: A Feminist Rhetorical Analysis of Shonda Rhimes’s Private Practice 
• 2019 College Composition and Communication, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania “Can TV be a Form of Social Justice?: Integrating Television into the Writing Classroom” 
• 2019 Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico “Who Owns the Narrative?: Gender, Friendship and Narrative Capital in 13 Reasons Why”
• 2018 College Composition and Communication, Kansas City, Missouri "The Feminist (Un) Consciousness of Writing Studies: An Analysis of a Decade of Research Trends in Four Major Writing Studies Journals" Co-presenter with Robyn Russo, Thomas Polk, and Lacey Wooton 
• 2018 Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico "This is Man: The Rhetoric of Silence and Masculinity in This is Us" 
• 2017 Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico "The Queerness of Straight Masculinity in Dawson's Creek" 
• 2016 Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico  “Lucy Audley’s Deadly Secrets: Power, Violence, and Masculinity in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret”
• 2015 Gender, Race, and Transformation Conference, Pacific University, Portland, Oregon “Have We Improved Upon Positive Racial Representation in Television? African American and Asian American Representation in Grey’s Anatomy”
• 2015 Southwest Popular/American Culture Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, “Queering Spira: Gender, Power, and Defeat in Final Fantasy X”