Please join me in congratulating Dr. Mary Helen O’Connor who successfully defended her dissertation and graduated in May 2015.

Dissertation Title: THE RHETORIC OF REFUGEES: LITERACY, NARRATIVE AND IDENTITY FOR SOMALI WOMEN.

Dissertation Committee: Drs. Lynee Lewis Gaillet (Co-Chair), Michael Harker (Co-Chair), Elizabeth Lopez

Dr. O’Connor will continue as an Assistant Professor of English at Georgia Perimeter College where she has taught for 8 years.  She looks forward to continuing research and working with her refugee students and friends.

Pictured with Zahra Ali at her citizenship ceremony.