Associate Professor

Rhetoric and Writing

Faculty Senate President

Contact Information

Email: celder@unm.edu
Office Location: Humanities 355

Biography

Cristyn's research and teaching focus on supporting historically underrepresented student populations through writing program administration, writing across the curriculum, composition, and writing center theory and practice. She earned her MA in TESOL from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey with a specialization in Language Program Administration and her doctorate in English from Purdue University with a specialization in Rhetoric and Composition and a focus on Writing Program Administration and Second Language Studies/ESL.

Cristyn has taught English language and teacher education courses in Morelia, Mexico; as a Peace Corps Master’s Internationalist in Ukraine; as an English Language Fellow in Guatemala; and as an English Language Specialist in Tajikistan, Panama, and El Salvador. In the U.S., she has taught WAC/WID courses in composition, professional writing, teacher education, and public speaking for both native and non-native speakers of English at the postsecondary level. 

Cristyn has published in WPA: Writing Program Administration, Composition Studies, Composition Forum, Across the Disciplines, and the Writing Center Journal. She is co-editor with Dr. Bethany Davila of the collection Defining, Locating, and Addressing Bullying in the WPA Workplace (2019) published by Utah State University Press.

Cristyn is also a co-founder and editor of Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Society  and a co-founder of WPA-GO  (the Council of Writing Program Administrators Graduate Student Organization).

She received UNM’s 2018-2019 Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award, 2015-2016 Outstanding New Teacher of the Year Award, and 2015 Golden Louie for Outstanding Faculty Student-Service Provider. She is also co-recipient with Dr. Bethany Davila of the 2016 Award for Innovation from the Council on Basic Writing.

Cristyn is an ally of the LGBTQIA community and undocumented students and their families.