Aetna Chair of Writing

Established in the 1980s, the Aetna Chair of Writing draws from the Aetna Life and Casualty Foundation’s Aetna Endowment to initiate, enhance, and otherwise further University of Connecticut writing programs.

Programs and Initiatives

The Aetna Chair of Writing and its associated funds support initiatives that promote writing initiatives for students, educators, and the UConn community. Examples include:

Student Development

  • Aetna Celebration of Student Writing, a poster fair and awards celebration that showcases student work and writing-related research.
  • The Aetna Graduate Research and Travel Award, which awards for site research or professional travel aimed at studying or presenting on writing in academic disciplines, workplaces, or other contexts.
  • Numerous Aetna Writing Prizes recognize writing excellence among UConn undergraduate and graduate students.

Community Engagement

Educator Events

Meet the Aetna Chair


 

Brenda Jo Brueggemann

Aetna Chair of Writing and Professor of English
 
Brenda Jo Brueggemann is Professor of English and Aetna Endowed Chair of Writing at the University of Connecticut; she also teaches at the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College during the summer. She has been deaf (genetic) from birth. After college, she taught high school in her rural Kansas community for five years before going to graduate school. In the mid-1990s, bolstered by the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, she helped conceptualize the new field of Disability Studies.

She has written, co-written, edited, or co-edited 16 books, including nine memoirs in the “Deaf Lives” series she created for Gallaudet University Press, and more than 70 essays and articles at the intersections of Deaf/Disability Studies and writing/art. Her current research centers on disability and deafness in the visual and literary arts.

Brenda Jo Brueggemann
Brenda Jo Brueggemann, UConn Professor of English and Aetna Chair of Writing

Past Aetna Chairs

Lynn Z. Bloom

Professor Emerita of English

2023-2024 Advisory Board

Pamela Bedore
Associate Professor of English
Writing Coordinator at UConn Avery Point

Lisa Blansett
Assistant Professor-in-Residence of English
Director of the First-Year Writing Program

Scott Campbell
Associate Professor of English
Writing Coordinator at UConn Hartford

Ellen Carillo
Professor of English
Writing Coordinator at UConn Waterbury

Jason Courtmanche
Assistant Professor-in-Residence of English
Director of the Connecticut Writing Project

Tom Deans
Professor of English
Director of the UConn Writing Center

Hannah Dostal
Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, Neag School of Education

Sean Forbes
Assistant Professor-in-Residence of English
Director of Creative Writing Program

Serkan Görkemli
Associate Professor of English
Writing Coordinator at UConn Stamford

Sara Harrington
Associate University Librarian for Academic Engagement, UConn Library

Robert Hasenfratz
Professor of English

Yohei Igarashi
Associate Professor of English
Assistant Director of Digital Humanities and Media Studies, UConn Humanities Institute

Blair Johnson
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences

Douglas Kaufman
Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, Neag School of Education

Adam McClain
Ph.D. Candidate in English

Victoria Ford Smith
Associate Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies