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About
Personal Connection
Swimming was one of my favorite activities as a child. I loved being in the water and being able to feel free when I swam. My first swim meet took place at Corbett in the pool; it remains one of the most vivid memories for me from my childhood because of how poorly it went. I was involuntarily signed up for an event, which I can’t quite remember the name of, that was eight laps long. It was equal parts overwhelming and exciting. I started off the event feeling confident, and it ended in tears with a vow never to competitively swim again. While my swim career ended then, my love for competition didn’t end with swimming.
Years later, I found myself once again at Corbett Gym, this time in a basketball uniform on a consistently losing team. That season we went 1-10, but the memories that I made with that team, in Corbett, are some of my most fond and memorable. The smell of the old gym, the glow of the overhead lights, the echo of sneakers on hardwood. All of it was surreal and deeply impactful. I didn't realize then that I was becoming part of a legacy that stretched back decades.
Stacie Hayes Moore, McCall Moore playing basketball, 2009
McCall Moore, Senior Portraits, 2025
My family's connection to Corbett runs even deeper. In the 1990s, my mother taught step aerobics at Corbett, complete with the era's signature perm and Reeboks. She still speaks so fondly of those days, calling them some of her favorite memories as a UW student. Additionally, my mother majored in Kinesiology, spending most of her time in the Corbett building, earning her undergraduate degree and graduating from the University of Wyoming in 1997. As a Laramie native, the physical space that is the city of Laramie has become like a family friend whom I see every day.
The personification and nostalgia of Laramie’s physical infrastructure has raised me since I was a child. The UW campus was always like a hidden part of Laramie, with access only being granted to young adults pursuing their educations and learning who they were every day by walking on campus, past sandstone colored buildings that hold memories and collective energies. Corbett is one of those buildings that will remain as a constant reminder of who I am and what Laramie means to me
Boym , Svetlana . Nostalgia and Its Disconnects . 2007
Angela Childress, Newspaper Clipping, "Aerobics instructor combats stress through exercise", 1994, The Branding Iron (Wyoming Newspaper Digital Collection)
Classifieds, Newspaper Clipping, Advertisement for Stacie Hayes' Step Aerobics Class in Corbett Gym, 1994, The Branding Iron (Wyoming Newspaper Digital Collection)
Creation and Methods
In the spring of 2023, I took my first course with Dr. Nancy Small, and it changed my life forever. As an English major at the University of Wyoming, I had always felt drawn to connecting with powerful women in any capacity. The first time I heard Dr. Small speak was in the lower level of Coe Library, where she introduced a new course she would be teaching called "Survey of Rhetoric." In her opening statement, she pointed out how the physical arrangement of the room positioned her in power and explained how the class she would be teaching would explore rhetoric's evolution over time and what rhetoric is as a whole. Her approach to teaching and the topic of rhetoric made me curious and connect with her immediately, so I signed up for the course without knowing quite what to expect.
That Survey of Rhetoric course gave me a new perspective on what it means to be an English major and, more importantly, what it means to be a woman in college. I realized that my area of academic interest isn't just about understanding canonical works and texts, it's about furthering their exploration with my own voice and knowledge. After studying with Dr. Small, I felt a new kind of connection with great female rhetoricians of the past and present. Over time, I came to understand that learning and being a woman go hand in hand with one another. As women, we are rhetoricians and teachers of our lived, nuanced experiences in a world that doesn't always seem to understand, or want to understand, what that entails. Dr. Small made it clear that female experience holds great importance, especially when it comes to rhetoric, and she has been the physical embodiment of this philosophy. I couldn't be more honored to have been in her classes.
This project represents both a capstone to my entire academic career at the University of Wyoming and a homage to Dr. Small's mentorship. It reflects my appreciation for everything she has shared with me as a student, mentor, and friend. I want to thank Dr. Small for her hard work and dedication, and to honor those female rhetoricians and teachers who came before her: Enheduanna, Diotima of Mantinea, Julian of Norwich, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Toni Morrison, Sara Ahmed, Nancy Small, and so many more.
Students, 2440, et al. “Timeline of Rhetoricians.” Timeline of Rhetoricians, Google Sites, May 2023. Accessed 12 Nov. 2025.
Creating this website was an important exercise of creative freedom and joy. From the start, I knew that I needed to honor both the physical space of Corbett and John Corbetts legacy as a distinguished figure in University of Wyoming history. When I’ve shared my project with people outside of this class, the question I hear most often is “Who is John Corbett?” To answer this question, I knew I had to create a space that provided answers to this question both educationally and respectfully.
I work at the Library Sports Grille, where the brewer, Mitch Kunce, is a former UW football player and Economics professor. When I showed him my website, he was very impressed and elated about my work and my research. Mitch is exceptionally intelligent and wise, someone whom I respect enormously. He has published scholarly works on brewing and economics. Showing him my website was a spur-of-the-moment thing, but it paid off greatly. Being able to share this project with him felt special. I've always seen Mitch as embodying how to live life to the fullest, and what made our conversation particularly meaningful was his appreciation for the research as both a former UW athlete and professor. We talked further about my research at the American Heritage Center and through the Wyoming Digital Newspaper Collection, and how important it was for me to use primary sources in creating my website. We both agreed and talked about how John Corbett remains as one of the most influential figures in UW athletics, yet how he rarely receives the recognition that he deserves. As our conversation deepened, the importance of my website, this class, and this project came to light.
When I showed my mother the website, she was thrilled, impressed, and felt honored to have been the catalyst for my research. This project became a way for me to connect with her past, with who she was when she was my age attending UW. My mom is the physical embodiment of strength and perseverance. As a woman, she is the most important person in my life. She reminds me daily how to be both intelligent and ferocious in my academics. She tells me constantly that I'm smart, that I can do anything I want in this life. I pursue everything because my mom says I can.
I can picture her now at Corbett, with amazing energy and humor as she led her classes. I know she made people feel empowered and confident the moment that they stepped into her class at Corbett gym. The way she made people feel is exactly how I imagine John Corbett wanted to feel when they participating any athletic activity at the University of Wyoming.
Aden, Rodger C. “Public Memory.” The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods, 17 Oct. 2019, pp. 1355–1357, https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483381411.
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