Biography

My doctoral work was in American literature, particularly 19th and 20th century, and those periods make up most of my literature offerings for the English department. However, approximately half of my teaching is in writing courses, and in recent years my professional work has been largely in the area of rhetoric. I published a textbook in 1997 (Rhetoric through Media), and have presented regularly at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) and other professional conferences. In 1982-83 I was one of SVSU's first two Fulbright Professors, accepting an appointment at Marie Curie-Sklodowska University (UMCS) in Lublin, Poland, and I received a second Fulbright to teach in 1987-88 at University of Gda?sk. I've drawn on those experiences to develop general education courses in Central European literature. Recent research interests are focused on performance studies as connected with both rhetoric and literature.