Education

1985 Ph.D. in English.
University of Iowa.
Major Emphases: Rhetorical Theory and Writing
Minor Emphasis: 19th and 20th Century American Literature
Dissertation: Richard Selzer and the Rhetoric of Surgery

1976 MACT in English.
University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK).
Major Emphasis: British Literature.

1974 BA in English.
Texas Lutheran College.

Honors and Awards

Honors:

Commencement Speaker 1997. As 1996 Teacher of the Year, I was given the honor of speaking at the UALR May commencement ceremony. Read my commencement address.

Awards:

University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) University Wide Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching, May 1996. Selected from the top teaching candidates from each college by a nationally appointed committee.

UALR College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching, May 1996. Given by the college to the faculty member judged to be the top teaching candidate of the year.

Fellowships:

NEH Institute for Humanities and Medicine: Literary texts in Medical Contexts, 1991-92. Sponsored by Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and Hiram College. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Sessions focused on Literature as a Vehicle for Studying Issues of Health and Sickness, Aging and Identity, Health Issues of Women and Minorities, AIDS, and Communication.

Teaching Experience

Departments of English and Rhetoric and Writing, (UALR), 1985-present.

Courses Taught:

Division of Medical Humanities, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), Little Rock, 1987-present.

Courses taught:

Publications

Books:

Journey Time: A Meditation on Family, Fathering, and Forgiveness. Memoir manuscript in process. Click here to read an excerpt.

Writing and Healing: Toward an Informed Practice. Edited Collection. With Marian MacCurdy. National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), 2000. Click here to read the back of the book.

Richard Selzer and the Rhetoric of Surgery. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989.

Journal Special Issue:

Writing and Healing. Special issue of Literature and Medicine. 19.1 (Spring 2000). Editor.

Book Chapters and Articles:

Narrative in Bioethics: An American Journal of Bioethics Commentary. American Journal of Bioethics, March 2001.

"Forty acres of cotton waiting to be picked...": Medical Students, Storytelling, and the Rhetoric of Healing. Literature and Medicine 17.2 (Fall 1998).

"Absence." in Word Tastings: An Essay Anthology. Ed. Marilyn McEntyre. Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Review Publications, 1998.

"Carry me forward...into the future in your heart": The Place of Narrative in Health Professions Education. Medical Encounter: A Publication of the American Academy on Physician and Patient, 11 (Fall 1994): 9-11.

"It is the Poet Who Heals": Richard Selzer's Literature of Wholeness. Bioethics Forum, 9 (Summer 1993): 40-44.

Beginning the World Again: Metaphor and the Early Literature of AIDS. With Yvonne Hickey. Bioethics Forum, 9 (Spring 1993), 17-22.

The Exact Location of the Soul. Reprint of Chapter three of Richard Selzer and the Rhetoric of Surgery. In Murdo William McRae, ed. The Literature of Science: Perspectives on Popular Scientific Writing. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1993.

"Coming Into the Country . . . And Living There: Literary Nonfiction and Discourse Communities." In Katherine Adams and John Adams, eds. On Teaching Advanced Writing: What and How. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books, Inc., 1990.

"Literature and Medicine: Why Should the Physician Read . . . Or Write. "In Stuart Peterfreund, ed. Literature and Science: Theory and Practice. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1989.

Pedagogical Materials:

Ways to Use" Writing is Critical Action: Two Teachers' Perspectives." Instructor's Guide to Tilly Warnock's Writing is Critical Action. With Ed Lotto. New York: Scott Foresman and Company, 1989.

Reviews:

Review of E. B. White: The Emergence of an Essayist. Fourth Genre, 2.1 (Spring 2000).

"Kicking over the Traces." Review of Richard Selzer's Taking the World in for Repairs. Medical Humanities Review, 1 (January 1987): 6-10.

Review of Richard Selzer's Taking the World in for Repairs. Literature and Medicine, 6 (1987): 159-62.

Editorial Positions

Associate Editor. Literature and Medicine, July 2000 to the present.

Book Review Editor. Literature and Medicine. Selected books, recruited reviewers, and edited reviews. 1994-2000.

Peer reviewer. Journal of Advanced Composition, Journal of the Assembly on Expanded Perspectives in Learning, Social Science and Medicine.

Editorial Board. The Journal of Medical Humanities 1993-1996.

Manuscript Reviewer. I have reviewed textbook manuscripts and proposals for Scott Foresman, Heath, Blair Press, and many others.

Presentations

"Literature and Philosophy in Biomedical Ethics: An Argument for Cooperation, Collaboration, Engagement, and Marriage." American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH). Philadelphia, October 1999.

"Writing and Healing: Toward an Informed Practice." NCTE National Conference. Denver, November 1999. This was a 75 minute, multimedia session. I was the sole presenter.

"The Ethics of Genetic Knowledge." First-year UAMS medical school genetics class. December 1999.

"You Must Have Picked Some Cotton when You Were a Kid.": Story Telling and the Rhetoric of Healing. CCCC, Chicago, April 1998.

"Learning to Be a Doctor: Narratives in Medical Education." Literature Special Interest Section, ASBH National Conference. Baltimore, MD, November 1997.

"Assessing the Impact of Literacy on Care: The Case of a Young Physician." ASBH National Conference. Baltimore, MD, November 1997.

"Symbolic Convergences: Writing as Healing." Part of a Session I designed and proposed entitled Healing Words: Writing and Reading Toward Wholeness. (CCCC). Nashville, TN, March 1994.

Workshops for University and Other Audiences:

"Lines and Spaces." With Melinda Wright. A week-long, intensive writing workshop for children involved in school shootings from Colorado, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and other forms of violence and loss. Ferncliff Presbyterian Camp, Little Rock, July 2000, July 2001.

"Writing and Healing." One-hour presentation to the Arkansas Writers Conference. Little Rock, June 2000.

"A Pre-Conference Workshop for Writers." Presentation on writing and healing. CCCC. Minneapolis, April 2000.

"Publishing in Medical Humanities Journals." Presentation to the Medical Rhetoric Special Interest Group. CCCC. Minneapolis, April 2000.

"The Tradition of the Essay: Space for the Self." A half-day workshop for the Arkansas Chapter of the American Academy of Internal Medicine Reading Retreat. Eden Isle, AR. April 1999.

"Fact and Fiction, Truth and Art in A River Runs Through It." A half-day workshop for the Arkansas Chapter of the American Academy of Internal Medicine Reading Retreat. Eden Isle, AR. April 1998.

Literature and Medicine. Two half-day workshops on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and the essays of Lewis Thomas for the Arkansas Chapter of the American Academy of Internal Medicine Reading Retreat. Eden Isle, AR. Eden Isle, AR, April 1997

Rhetoric and the Medical Humanities. Intensive Workshop in Medical Ethics, UAMS Division of Medical Humanities. Little Rock, AR, July 1997. 4 hours contact time.

Rhetoric and the Medical Humanities. With Barbara Heifferon and Judy Segal. ASBH National Conference. Baltimore, MD, November 1997. 3 hours contact time.

"Narrative Ethics and the Healing Arts." A half-day workshop presented as part of the UAMS Medical Humanities Division Intensive Bioethics Institute. Little Rock, AR, June 1996.

"The Stories We Tell Ourselves": Personal Writing for Technical Communicators." A two-hour workshop conducted at the Society for Technical Communications National Conference. Seattle, WA, May 1996. This workshop received evaluations that placed it in the top 10% of all sessions at the three-day meeting attended by several thousand persons.

Encounter the others, Encounters with the Self: Narratives about writing in the Health Professions A three- hour pre-conference workshop for physicians, teachers, and other medical and medical school personnel. With Dr. Rita Charon. Society for Health and Human Values (SHHV) National Meeting. San Diego, CA, October 1995.

"Literature and Medicine: Developing the Clinical Imagination." A two-day pre- conference workshop for practicing physicians attending the American College of Physicians National Convention. The workshop covered reading and writing processes and explored the narrative relationships between literary texts and doctoring. With Dr. Rita Charon and Dr. Anne Hawkins. Atlanta, GA, March 1995.

"Writing and Healing." A two-hour Association for Expanded Perspectives on Learning Pre-Conference Workshop. CCCC. Washington, DC, March 1995.

"Literature for Physicians: Richard Selzer and Willa Cather." A two-day reading workshop for physicians. American College of Internal Medicine, Arkansas Chapter, Spring Retreat. With Dr. Marjorie Sirridge. Eden Isle, AR, April 1995.

"Narrative Writing in Health Professions Education." A three-hour pre-conference workshop for physicians, teachers, and other medical and medical school personnel. SHHV National Conference. Washington, DC, November 1993.

Administrative Responsibilities

Director, Little Rock Writing Project (LRWP), 1985-1994.
The LRWP's mission was to provide the best training possible to Arkansas classroom teachers interested in improving their teaching of writing and reading. It provided opportunities for teachers to participate in training programs for other teachers and to be recognized for their excellent work. Responsibilities of the Director included the following:

Coordinator, Technical and Expository Writing Program (TEW), 1993-2000.
The TEW program is the largest graduate program in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, enrolling some 60 Masters students and graduating 10-15 each year. During my tenure, the program experienced approximately 35% growth, and the graduation rate climbed to approximately 85% within two years of completing coursework. The Coordinator's responsibilities included the following: