Curriculum Vitae

Dr. James Ray Watkins
writinginthewild.com

Education

• PhD in English, The University of Texas at Austin (May 1999)
Thesis: “The Inexorable Sadness of Pencils: English Language Education and Class in the American Century”
Directors: Professor John Slatin and Assistant Professor Margaret Syverson

• MA in English, The University of Texas at Austin (May 1986)
Master’s Report: “Irony, Criticism, Allegory: The Rhetoric of Temporality”
• BA in English, The University of Texas at Austin (May 1983)

Employment

• 08-present: Full Time Faculty, General Education, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division
• 06-present: Online Instructor, Center for Talented Youth, Johns Hopkins University
• 06-08: Online Instructor, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division
• 06-08: Online Instructor, Colorado Technical University
• 06-07: E-structor, Smarthinking.com
• 00-06: Assistant Professor, Eastern Illinois University
• 02-03: Director of Composition, Eastern Illinois University
• 1999-00: Knight Leadership Resident in Technology and Writing, Temple University
• 1996-98: Assistant Director, Undergraduate Writing Center, University of Texas at Austin
• 1993-98: Assistant Instructor, Department of English, Division of Rhetoric and Composition, University of Texas at Austin
• 1998 and 1999: Nominee, Maxine Hairston Prize for Teaching Excellence, Division of Rhetoric and Composition, English Department, University of Texas at Austin
• 1989-93: English Instructor, English Language Study Group, Paris, France
• 1987-89: U.S. Peace Corps Education Program, Conception, Philippines

Courses

Art Institute Online, Art Institute of Pittsburgh (online)
• Composition I
• Composition II
• Strategies for Online Learning
• Transitional English

Center for Talented Youth, Johns Hopkins University (online)
• Writing Analysis and Persuasion
• Crafting the Essay

Colorado Technical Institute (online)
• English Composition
• English as a Second Language Laboratory

Eastern Illinois University
• Rhetoric and Composition, Graduate Seminar
• Professional Writing (computer-networked classroom)
• Advanced Composition (computer-networked classroom)
• Introduction to Professional Writing (computer-networked classroom)
• Composition and Language (computer-networked classroom)

Temple University, and at the University of Texas, Austin
• American Literature (Summer 2000)
• Business Writing (Spring 2000)
• Freshman Honors English, “The Aesthetics of Everyday Life” (Fall 1999)
• Freshman Rhetoric and Composition (traditional and computer-networked classrooms)
• Masterworks of American Literature
• Freshman Rhetoric and Composition, Non-Native English Speakers
• Provisional Rhetoric and Composition (summer program for provisional-status students)

Service: Eastern Illinois University

  • September 2000 to May 2006: University Professors of Illinois, Eastern Illinois University, Unit A English Department Representative
  • September 2003 to May 2006: University Professors of Illinois, Eastern Illinois University, College of Arts and Humanities Representative
  • September 2003 to May 2006: College of Arts and Humanities Representative, Council on University Planning and Budget
  • September 2003 to May 2006: College of Arts and Humanities Representative, Council on University Planning and Budget, Academic Affairs Subcommittee
  • September 2000 to May 2006: Member, Composition Committee
  • September 2000 to May 2006: Member, Chair, Computer Resources Committee
  • September 2003 to May 2006: Member, Chair, Publicity Committee
  • September 2003 to May 2004: Colloquium Committee
  • October 2003 to May 2004: Member, Search Committee
  • September 2002 to August 2003: Chair, Composition Committee
  • September 2002 to August 2003: Member, Executive Committee
  • September 2002 to August 2003: Member, Assessment Committee
  • September 2000 to May 2003: Member, Special Subcommittee on Professional Writing, Undergraduate Studies Committee
  • FY 2005: Recipient, TEAM Professional Development Grant, Eastern Illinois University
  • FY 2004: Recipient, TEAM Professional Development Grant, Eastern Illinois University
  • Summer 2002: Recipient, Technology Enhanced and Delivered Education Grant, Eastern Illinois University, for Professional Writing Resource Website
  • October 2002: EIU Brown Bag Presentation, “The Writing in the Wild Research Model”
  • April 2002: Computer Services Committee Workshop, “Maintaining Your Computer”
  • April 2002: Brown Bag Co-presentation, “Plagiarism and the Web”
  • April 2001: Participant, University Professionals of Illinois, Lobby Day, Springfield, IL
  • August 2001: Participant, “Workshop on Enhancing Professional Education Courses Using the Internet,” College of Education and Professional Studies
  • December 2000: Judge, Cultural Diversity Essay Contest, English Department
  • October 2000: Participant, Roundtable, “Top Ten Things to Look for in a Graduate Program” and “Top Ten Ways to Use Your English Degree”
  • October 2000: Participant, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Community Colleges Council and Universities Council Conference, Oak Brook, Illinois

    • Service: Temple University and the University of Texas, Austin

  • March 2000: Workshop Presentation, “Web Cams as Autobiography”
  • October 1999: Workshop Presentation, “The New Writing Technologies and the Public Schools”
  • October 1999: Workshop Presentation, “HTML for Beginners”
  • March 1999: Panel Moderator, “Making a Space for Interdisciplinary Feminist Approaches to Social Research: the Process of Creation,” Feminist Identities: Around the Globe and in the Academy, 13th National Feminist Graduate Student Conference
  • 1997-98: Project Committee Director for Undergraduate Writing Center’s Electronic Technology (Wrote, designed and supervised World Wide Web pages; supervised online consulting)
  • 1996-98: Undergraduate Writing Center Workshop Presentation Series, Writing for the World Wide Web
  • 1996-98: Undergraduate Writing Center Workshop Presentation Series, on Consolations with Non-Native Speakers
  • 1996-98: Contributor, Undergraduate Writing Center Handbook
  • 1996-97: Participant in online writing project with Roma High School, Roma, Texas
  • 1996: Project Coordinator, Undergraduate Writing Center Professional Development Survey
  • 1996: Participant in online Hamlet writing project with Garden Valley Collegiate High School, Winkler, Manitoba, Canada
  • 1994-95: Support Staff for Computer Writing and Research Lab
  • 1995: English Graduate Group, Committee on Professional Development; Organizer and Moderator, Roundtable, “Getting Funded,” The Price of Professionalism: Survival In and Beyond the Academy, The Spring 95 Graduate Colloquium, University of Texas, Austin

    • Conferences and Publications

      A Taste for Language: Literacy, Class and the Identity of English Studies, forthcoming, November 2009, Southern Illinois University Press’ Studies in Writing and Rhetoric
      “A Sustainable Culture: John Slatin’s Ludic Pedagogy,” co-authored with Albert Rouzie, Currents in Electronic Literacy. John Slatin Memorial Issue. 2009
      “A Taste for Language,” presentation, Conference on College Composition and Communication 2008, March 2009
      “A Rust Belt Education: Online Writing Instruction and the Contraction of Disciplinary Space,” paper presentation, Computers and Writing 2007, May 2007
      “Student Identity and Wikipedia: Networks and Social Capital,” paper presentation, March 2007, Conference on College Composition and Communication
      “As Important as Electricity: Self-Designed Faculty Websites,” paper presentation, May 2006, 2006 Computers and Writing Conference
      “The Emerging Digital Divide: Pedagogy and Epistemic Design in Freshman Writing,” paper presentation, March, 2005, Conference on College Composition and Communication
      “Composition and the Market,” Agora, May 2004
      “Bourdieu and Freshman English: A Composition Course as an Inquiry into Class,” paper presentation, M/MLA, November 2003
      “The Future of English: Cultural Capital and Professional Writing,” Tenured Bosses and Disposable Teachers, 2003, Southern Illinois University Press
      “The Unbearable Strangeness of Acronyms: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Electronic Writing Portfolio,” Agora, December 2002
      “The Writing in the Wild Research Model: Using Ethnographic Methodologies for Post-Freshman Composition Courses,” forthcoming, Papers of the Illinois Philological Association (http://www.eiu.edu/%7Eipaweb/pipa/)
      “Writing in the Wild: the Theoretical Underpinnings” (panel presentation), Sixth Annual Illinois Philological Society Conference, April 19, 2002
      “In Pursuit of Solidarity,” Democratic Culture, Volume 6, Number 3, Spring 2001
      “Ethnographic Methodology and Critical Thinking in a Basic Business Course,” American Folklore Society (sponsored panel), Modern Language Association National Conference, December 29, 2000
      “Professional Writing and the Future of English Departments,” English Department Colloquium, October 12, 2000
      “Hypertextual Bordercrossing: Students and Teachers, Texts and Contexts,” Computers and Composition, December 1999
      “Unions, Universities and the State of Texas,” Workplace, Volume One, Number One, February 1998 (http://www.workplace-gsc.com/workplace1/workplace.html)
      “Organizing for Your Rights in Right to Work States” (conference paper), Council of Graduate Student Employee Unions 7th Annual Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, July 31, 1998
      “Unions on Campus” (conference paper), Labor… University… Community: A Conference Seeking Common Ground, University of Texas Law School, November 21, 1997
      “Looking Backwards for Models: The Bridge as Hypertext Precursor” (conference paper), Structured Possibilities, Overwriting and Underwriting Hypertext, Twelfth Annual Computers and Writing Conference, Utah State University, May 31, 1996
      “Hart Crane’s American DataBase: The Bridge as Modernist HyperText Precursor” (conference paper), Hypertextual Boundaries: Producing, Reproducing, Self-Producing Texts, Publishing, and the Changing Shape of the Text, University of Texas at Austin, September 23, 1995