RHIANNON MATON, Ph.D. 
Owner of Strategic Writing Consulting

​I became increasingly aware of the harm often caused by schooling while teaching in under-resourced urban high schools in Canada and the U.S. I saw that K-12 schools often unintentionally hurt young people and the teachers who are dedicated to their growth. And, I saw that this was particularly the case for people already experiencing historically-situated social and economic marginalization due to their race, class, gender, sexuality, linguistic, and disability identities. I viscerally experienced such harm myself at times, and bore witness to the challenging plights of my students.

 

I decided to dedicate myself to teaching students and professionals how to navigate higher education, so that they could access the professional positions and financial resources that they desired and deserved.

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

My first step was to better understand how higher education works. I earned a Masters degree in Educational Administration from the University of Toronto, which ranks in the global top-ten for my field. Here I focused on understanding the structural constraints shaping students, education workers, schools, and educational policy.

 

Next, I sought to learn about the specific needs of students and education professionals experiencing historically-situated social and economic marginalization. I earned a Ph.D. in Reading/Writing/Literacy from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) Graduate School of Education, which ranked in the top five Education programs in the U.S. Here, I worked with top international scholars in Literacy Studies and under the mentorship of Dr. Vivian L. Gadsden, Past President of the American Educational Research Association. 

 

Prior to the Ph.D., I had never before taken a standardized test—and I single-handedly guided myself through all stages of GRE studying, on my first try ranked in the 99th percentile in both Analytical Writing and Verbal Reasoning. My Dissertation earned the "with distinction" top honor at Penn, and I taught for one year in Penn's rigorous Critical Writing Program following my studies. Here, I honed my understanding of academic genre analysis and higher education writing instruction. 

​

​​​

​

​

I earned tenure and promotion in a well-respected teaching-focused public university, the State University of New York at Cortland, where I work closely with undergraduate and graduate students. Here, I continue to hone my instructional expertise in academic writing instruction and knowledge of college administrative structures and processes.

​

I conduct qualitative research in the social sciences at the intersection of labor studies, sociology, and education, and have established myself as a national (U.S.) and global scholarly leader in the area of teachers' work and unions. ​I am the author of 23 refereed publications, including six book chapters and 17 peer-reviewed journal articles in leading outlets such as Teachers College Record, History of Education Quarterly, Critical Studies in Education, Curriculum Inquiry, Journal of Educational Change, and Gender, Work & Organization.

​

I am Co-Editor of the forthcoming Routledge Handbook on Teachers' Work: International Perspectives on Research and Practice (2026), the leading international text in the field, and Co-Editor of the Routledge Critical Perspectives on Teaching and Teachers' Work book series​, I also serve as incoming Managing Editor of Wagadu: Journal of Transnational Women's and Gender Studies, and previous Co-Editor of a four-part special series for Critical Education Journal. My scholarship has been recognized with multiple awards, including SUNY Cortland’s Waring & DiNardo Outstanding Achievement in Research Award (as the first Assistant Professor to receive it) and the University of Pennsylvania’s Ralph C. Preston Award for social justice research.

​

I have held leadership roles as past Co-Chair of AERA’s Teachers’ Work/Teacher Unions SIG, as Visiting Scholar and Affiliated Researcher at Hunter College’s National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions and as Associate Professor (status-only) at OISE/University of Toronto.

​

For a full record of my publications and service, please see my CV and Academia.edu profile.

​

​

Now, I work with three main populations in my consulting business:

​

1. High school students seeking admission to top U.S. and international universities;

2. Graduate students completing theses and dissertations, and seeking to get published; 

3. University faculty seeking to strengthen their tenure and promotion portfolios, including across the organizational methods and portfolio writing processes. I also help faculty learn and hone the art of getting published in academic journals.

​​​​