Woman placing flowers by lit candles beneath projected '1,701 Civilians' death toll

Marit J. MacArthur

Smiling headshot of woman with short brown hair and dangling earrings

Continuing Lecturer
UC Davis Writing Center

  • Performance Studies

Marit J. MacArthur is a Continuing Lecturer with the UC Davis Writing Center and a faculty affiliate in Performance Studies. Her research and teaching interests include AI and writing, digital voice studies, Writing Across the Curriculum, and 20th-century poetry. Prior to joining UC Davis full-time in 2017, she taught American literature, composition, and creative writing at CSU Bakersfield for 15 years.

Education and Degree(s)
  • Ph.D., UC Davis (2005)
  • MFA, Warren Wilson College (2013)
  • B.A., Northwestern University (1996)
Honors and Awards
  • Principal Investigator and Lead Writer, PAIRR (Peer and AI Review + Reflection), AI Grand Challenge grant, California Learning Lab, 2025–27
  • NEH-Mellon Fellowship for Digital Publication UC Davis, 2024
  • Co-Investigator, Center for Artificial Intelligence and Experimental Futures (CAIEF), UC Davis, NEH Humanities Research Centers on AI 2024–27
  • ACLS Digital Innovations Fellowship 2015–16
  • Fulbright Research Fellow, University of Lodz, Poland, 2008
Research Interests & Expertise
  • AI and writing, digital voice studies, Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), collaborative and interdisciplinary research, performance studies, cultural analytics and digital humanities, 20th century poetry
Publications
  • MacArthur, Marit. "Commercial GenAI Is a Good Idea for Teaching Writing." Forthcoming in Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Toward Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication. The WAC Clearinghouse, 2025.
  • MacArthur, Marit, Minnillo, Sophia, Sperber, Lisa, Stillman, Nicholas and Whithaus, Carl. "Teaching the Game while Leveling the Field: Pairing Peer Review with AI Feedback in a Business Writing Course." Forthcoming in Frontiers in Communication, 2025.
  • MacArthur, Marit. "Large Language Models and the Problem of Rhetorical Debt." AI & Society, June 2025.
  • Sperber, Lisa, MacArthur, Marit, Minnillo, Sophia, Stillman, Nicholas and Whithaus, Carl. "Peer and AI Review + Reflection (PAIRR): A Human-Centered Approach to Formative Assessment." Computers and Composition, June 2025.
  • MacArthur, Marit and Miller, Lee M. "Sound and Performance." The Cambridge Companion to Literature in the Digital Age. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
  • MacArthur, Marit. "AI, Expertise and the Convergence of Writing and Coding." Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 28, 2023.