Morrisville State to host presentation, book signing by award-winning author on October 8

Morrisville State will host a presentation and book signing by award-winning author and educator, Dr. Laura Gray-Rosendale, on Oct. 8 at 2 p.m. in the Little Theatre of the John W. Stewart Center for Student Activities (STUAC).



Gray-Rosendale, a President’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow, professor of English, and the director of the S.T.A.R. (Successful Transition and Academic Retention) English Writing Program for “at risk” students at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Ariz., is the author of the award-winning memoir, College Girl.



Published by SUNY Press, College Girl is a compelling narrative that weaves together both creative and scholarly approaches in an effort to better understand the power of sexual assault survivors’ stories.



Gray-Rosendale will take her audience back to the moments before her life was changed forever, when she was brutally assaulted by a stranger while a student at Syracuse University. She will also read an excerpt from her book. The presentation will be followed by a book signing.



Drawing upon her scholarly work and survivor discourse, Gray-Rosendale makes a case that survivors must tell their stories to challenge and disrupt the current culture of silence.



Published in the spring of 2013, College Girl won a Gold Medal IPPY Award in Memoir and was a finalist for the May Sarton Memoir Prize and the USA Book Awards in Memoir.



Active with survivor groups and an advocate for strong college policies and laws that hold colleges responsible for making campuses safer, Gray-Rosendale served as chair of The President’s Commission on the Status of Women.



She has published more than 40 articles, book chapters and books including Rethinking Basic Writing, Alternative Rhetorics, Fractured Feminisms, Radical Relevance, and Pop Perspectives.



Gray-Rosendale holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in English, a master’s degree in philosophy, and a doctorate in humanities, all from Syracuse University.