Jenny Goransson recently joined the faculty at JHU after completing her PhD in Writing and Rhetoric at George Mason University (GMU) in May 2025. At GMU, she taught courses on composition and editing, worked as the Graduate Writing Coordinator at the Writing Center, and served as a clinical coach for preservice secondary school English teachers in the GMU Secondary Education (SEED) Program.

Goransson’s dissertation research focuses on mindfulness practices to support teachers as they offer written feedback on student writing. Other research interests include project-based clinical preparation models in teacher education, antiracist writing pedagogies, and writing centers expanding into learning centers or merging with learning centers. For two summers, she served as an adjunct instructor in the MA in Teaching Writing program at JHU, teaching a course on Peer Response and Writing Center theory.

Before beginning her PhD, Jenny worked for eleven years as a high school English teacher at West Springfield High School (WSHS) in Springfield, VA. In 2009 she earned her Masters in Secondary Education from the George Washington University and in 2015 became a National Board Certified Teacher. At WSHS she founded and directed the writing center for eight years, and has played an active role in the secondary school writing center movement since the early 2010s. She currently serves as the President of the Secondary Schools Writing Center Association (SSWCA) and the Research Strand Editor of the Journal for Peer Tutoring in Secondary Schools (JPTSS). 

Jenny is also a mother, distance runner, musical theatre nerd, and lover of podcasts and Billy Collins poetry.  

Selected Publications

Goransson, J. (in press). “Hopes and Fears”: What do writing center administrators think of merging with or converting into a learning center? The Writing Center Journal, 42(3).  https://doi.org/10.7771/2832-9414.2030

Goransson, J. (2024). Mindful Writing for Well-Being. Thriving Together Series. GMU Center for the Advancement of Well-Being. https://wellbeing.gmu.edu/thriving-together-series-mindful-writing-for-well-being/

Goransson, J. (2024). Consulting Myself Through the Dissertation Process. Connecting Writing Centers Across Borders: A Blog of WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship. April 17. https://wlnconnect.org/2024/04/17/consulting-myself-through-the-dissertation-process/

Jensen, A., Goransson, J., Haverlock, A. H., Leishman, L. (2023). Secondary School Writing Centers over 40 Years: A Review of the Literature, 1982-2023. The Journal of Peer Tutoring in Secondary Schools, 3(1). https://sswca.org/journal/3-1/

Goransson, J. (2023). Logistical Considerations. In Hahn, S. & Brown, R. (Eds.) The Toolkit: Writing Center Resources for Middle and High Schools. SSWCA Press.

Goransson, J., Zenkov, K., Taousakis, M. (2023). Windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors: Co-teaching and co-supervision internship models for teacher educator learning. In Butler, B., Cuenca, A., Ritter, J. (Eds.) (2023). Pathways into teacher education: Profiles in emerging teacher educator development. Information Age Publishing.

Goransson, J. (2022). When a writing center becomes a learning center: An activity theory analysis. Journal of Peer Tutoring in Secondary Schools, 2(1). http://sswca.org/journal/jptss-volume-2-issue-1/

EXPANDED Publications list:

Goransson, J. (2023). Writing in the Center: SSWCA 2023 Conference in Review. The Journal of Peer Tutoring in Secondary Schools, 3(1). http://sswca.org/journal3-1/

Zenkov, K., Taousakis, M., Goransson, J., Staudt, E., Ewaida, M., Stephens, M., Hostutler, M., Castorena, J., Kitchen, M. (2023). Positioned as pedagogues, finding their teaching personas: critical, project-based clinical experiences in PDS/school-university contexts. School-University Partnerships, 16(1). 71-91. DOI: 10.1108/SUP-02-2023-0005

Goransson, J. (2021). [Review of Advocating, Building, and Collaborating: A Resource Toolkit to Sustain Secondary School Writing Centers, by R. Brown & S. Waldrup]. The Writing Center Journal, 39(1/2), 399–406. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27172227

Blankenship, B., Gillen, K., Goransson, J., Hansen, K., Herndon, M., Hughes, A., Jensen, A., Jewell, J., Lehman, N., & Sloan, K. (2013). A writing center in every FCPS secondary school: Proposal to instructional services leadership team. https://guest.portaportal.com/downloads?i=MTQ1NzQxNDI=