Special Projects

Project co-leader and grant coauthor, American University Humanities Truck Fellowship, 2025-2026: This project is an oral histories collection project, led by Dr. Trembath and university librarian Derrick Jefferson. The pair will record interviews and collect archival objects from Washington DC’s spoken word/Hip Hop artists of the 1990s. It will preserve culture and provide a strong counternarrative to the stereotype of DC’s “crack era” notoriety.

Project leader and coauthor, American University AntiRacist LibGuide, 2019-2020, 2025-present. As chair of American University’s former Information Literacy Committee, Dr. Trembath led an editorial project aimed at providing a one-stop digital encyclopedic source for definitions of anti racist terminology. The source has been used widely, even globally, and gets between 4,000 and 5,000 hits a month. It is currently in revision–being updated, streamlined, and simultaneously expanded in important directions. 

Curriculum researcher/writer, The “Critical Rhetoric and Composition” framework and “The First Third” critical reading/writing course for first-year college students, launching 2026. Based on Dr. Trembath’s doctoral research, the framework and curriculum were created in order to help rhetoric and composition professors help our students de-link from culturally biased notions that they may have received K-12. The framework is for professors, and the curriculum is student-facing. They build, among other things, upon inoculation theory, which is based on the idea that students benefit from being exposed to something untenable (like educational racism) and supported in thinking critically about it. The framework and curriculum encourage writing students to read critically, relearn where necessary, post ethically, and write in a much more sophisticated and accurate way than they may otherwise have done. 

Columnist on critical reading, Washington Independent Review of Books “Critical Reader,” 2024-present. This column is an example of Dr. Trembath’s translated research. Even though it is based on her academic study of critical reading and her empirical research on it, “The Critical Reader” is written for everyday people. It appears regularly on a popular book review site, so it is written for the general reading public. However, through analyses of current public rhetoric, each article encourages readers to pay close attention to what they take in, especially deep reading for propagandistic or indoctrinating racialized subtext.  

Founding cochair, American University Critical Information Literacy Committee, 2023-2025; member, 2025-present. In response to the challenges of the post-truth era, the age of AI, and attacks on academic freedom, Dr. Trembath and two of her colleagues reinvented the university’s Information Literacy committee. Formerly, that interdisciplinary committee of university librarians and writing studies professors helped students learn to search databases and use library materials to inform their research projects. Now, as the Critical Information Literacy Committee, the committee also supports students in engaging deeply and mindfully with all the materials they encounter, especially questioning for credibility, power dynamics, and bias. To that end, we’re creating modules, tool kits, and other sources for professors and students alike.

Organizer, Antiracist Teach-In II for the Department of Literature and Library, American University, March 15, 2020. As co-chair of the university’s Information Literacy Committee, Professor Trembath led a follow-up event to the original “Teach In.” Members of the committee responded to questions that arose in the first teach-in and facilitated discussion groups that supported faculty members in addressing unintentional biases in their instruction. 

Organizer, Antiracist Teach-In I for the Department of Literature and Library, American University, Feb 5, 2020. As co-chair of the university’s Information Literacy Committee, Professor Trembath led a faculty learning event that brought 11 antiracist educators from a number of universities to our campus to facilitate discussion groups about bias in the classroom. Nearly 70 AU professors participated. Many reported that they learned a great deal that would help them meet their own stated goals of inclusivity.

Co-Director, American University Department of Literature Colloquium on George Orwell’s 1984, American University, Oct 18, 2017. Dr. Marianne Nobel led the university’s annual colloquium on the famous Orwell novel. Professor Trembath assisted her, lining up speakers, organizing panels, and working with students. 

Co-Organizer, “Teaching Cross-Culturally in a Way That Promotes Tolerance, Civil Discourse, Critical Thinking and Good Writing!” College Writing Program Teaching Round Table, American University Department of Literature, Feb 8, 2017. Professor Trembath, Professor Edward Helfers, and Dr. Lily Wong facilitated a discussion around race and concerns about racialized conversations in the classroom. The team practiced deep listening to their colleagues’ concerns and offered pedagogical interventions.

Curriculum researcher/writer, Faith, Reason, and Justice curriculum, Esperanza College of Eastern University, 2011. Professor Trembath worked with the dean of the college to revise a mandatory–but monocultural–curriculum to better meet diverse student needs. 

Curriculum researcher/writer, History and Culture of Hip Hop curriculum for Howard County Community College, 2009. Professor Trembath worked with dancer and dance professor Esperonto Bean to create a curriculum that explained the deeper cultural origins and historical roots of the popular art forms associated with Hip Hop culture. 

Sankofa Love Project. Dr. Trembath created this ad hoc collective effort to meet the ever-changing needs of grassroots, antiracist educators. Sometimes it functions as a publishing wing, sometimes as a space for mentorship and fellowship, and others as a physical space for study. This year, the Sankofa Love Project will function as a digital space for professors whose classes have been cancelled due to the assaults on academic freedom. These professors will be able to post and share their materials at no cost to them. 

American University Appointments & Affiliations

  • Interim Director, Antiracist Research and Policy Center 
  • College of Arts and Sciences DEI Fellow
  • College of Arts and Sciences, Dean’s Educational Policy Committee
  • Department of Literature Coordinator of Anti-Racist Pedagogy
  • Critical Race, Gender, & Culture Studies Faculty Affiliate

Awards

  • The Lemon Street Fund antiracist research grant, 2025, 2026
  • American University Humanities Truck Grant for the study of DC Hip Hop culture, 2025-2026
  • Mellon Grants for educational research, 2022, 2024
  • The Lemon Street Fund educational research grant, 2022, 2024
  • DEI Fellowship, College of Arts and Sciences, American University, 2021-2023
  • Merit scholarship, American University Ed.D. program in Education Policy & Leadership, 2020-2023 
  • American Studies Association Gloria Anzaldúa Award for Independent Scholars, 2019
  • Creative writing residency, Lazuli Literary Group/Mount Tremper Arts, 2019
  • Jane Stanhope Award for Outstanding Teaching, A.U. College Writing Program, 2016
  • Creative writing fellowship, Hambidge Center for the Arts and Sciences, 2008
  • Outstanding American Teachers, 2007
    •  Who’s Who Among American Teachers, 2005