To honor the important work produced in courses aligned with the new Dietrich College General Education Program (launched fall 2021), the Dietrich College General Education and Department of English Writing & Communication Programs have launched a new academic journal, WOVEN.
The GenEd program asks students to think deeply and critically about our shared history and common humanity as it prepares them to tackle complex problems in work and in life. Courses aligned with this new GenEd program ask students to grapple with foundational questions of society and to seek solutions for social, political, and global challenges such as inequality and injustice, climate change and voting.
WOVEN will feature works of communication, from any and all genres. From essays to short films, proposals to podcasts, reports to websites, data stories to literature reviews, WOVEN aims to feature a wide variety of exceptional student work. WOVEN will release two publications each year: one in the fall semester and one in the spring semester.
Meet the WOVEN Editorial Team
Courtney L. Novosat
Co-Editor
Courtney L. Novosat (she/her) is a senior lecturer in the Writing and Communication Program in the Department of English, the course lead for Writing about Public Problems (76-108), and a founding co-editor of WOVEN. For more than twenty years, she has taught writing, literature, and other courses in the humanities — and she delights in the time she spends mentoring WOVEN’s student authors en route to publication!
Courtney is also program chair for the Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins Society and maintains a research agenda as literary historian. Her archival work contributes to the expansion of an Underground Railroad History Center in Pennsylvania, while her scholarly publication focuses on expanding modern understanding of Black intellectuals and histories of multiracial resistance in nineteenth-century American culture. Her work has been published in edited collections and in Poe Studies, From the European South, Modern Language Review, The Pittsburgh Review of Books, and Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers (forthcoming).
Julie Pal-Agrawal
Co-Editor
Julie Pal-Agrawal (she/her) is a senior lecturer in the Department of English's Writing and Communication Program, a course lead for Interpretation and Argument (76-101), and a co-editor of WOVEN. For more than twenty-five years, she has taught advertising, workplace writing, and composition, working alongside students at formative moments in their academic lives. Through the Eberly Center's Students as Partners program, she mentors undergraduates preparing for careers in secondary teaching. She especially values guiding WOVEN's authors from nomination through publication.
Trained first in the natural sciences and then in literary study, she helped develop Writing for the Health Professions (76-270) and prepares pre-health students for the multiple mini-interviews used in medical school admissions. Her scholarship is guided by how students come to see themselves as legitimate participants in research and public conversation. As a Provost's Inclusive Teaching Fellow, she completed a study on how self-reflection in research courses shapes students' sense of belonging. A 2026 Character Initiative Grant supports her current work on character and discourse in first-year writing. Most recently, her writing appears in The Norton Guide to AI Awareness (2026).
Colleen Libertz
Production Manager
Colleen Libertz (she/her) has been with Dietrich College since 2016, first serving as an Academic Advisor for undeclared students and now as the Program Manager for the General Education Program. Colleen earned her Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Ramapo College of New Jersey and her Master's degree in Higher and Postsecondary Education from Columbia University's Teachers College. Alongside the various elements she oversees for the General Education program, she is thrilled to support WOVEN and the co-editors with the administrative support needed to make this journal come to life!