Faculty

Master Teacher

Christopher Burnham
Professor

Email:
cburnham@nmsu.edu

Office Address:
New Mexico State University
Department of English
P.O. Box 30001, MSC 3E
Las Cruces, NM 88003

Phone:
(575) 646-7993

Fax:
(575) 646-7725

Biographical Statement
Education:

Ph.D. English Literature and Language, University of Rhode Island, 1980; Dissertation: "An Examination and Description of Walt Whitman's Composing Process."
NEH Postgraduate Seminars in linguistics and rhetoric: Rutgers University Graduate School of Education and University of Nevada, Reno.
MA in English, University of Rhode Island, 1974.
BA in English with Honors in American Studies, Rutgers College, 1972.

I joined the English faculty in 1981 as Composition Coordinator after spending six years teaching writing and literature and developing writing programs at Stockton State College in New Jersey. NMSU offered challenges and opportunities for growth, especially developing a comprehensive writing program with General Education and Writing Across the Curriculum aspects, a Writing Center, and strong programs for training graduate assistants and writing faculty. NMSU has allowed me cultivate my interests in rhetoric, public discourse, and pedagogical theory. My primary pedagogical and scholarly objective is encouraging the ethical and civic development of students and assisting teachers in this same work.

Teaching Emphases and Research Interests
Composition pedagogy and contemporary rhetorical theory, especially social expressivist theory; writing program administration; evaluation and program assessment; faculty development and writing across the curriculum; the essay as a literary genre, journals and autobiography; Walt Whitman, John Dewey, and Thomas Merton.

Courses Commonly Taught

ENGL 111G: Rhetoric and Composition
ENGL 251: American Literature Survey I
ENGL 252: American Literature Survey II
ENGL 311G: Advanced Composition
ENGL 423: Seminar in Poe and Whitman
ENGL 449: The Rhetoric of Argument
ENGL 452/552: History of the English Language
ENGL 518: The History of the Rhetoric
ENGL 520: Graduate Workshop in Nonfiction Prose
ENGL 571: Composition Theory and Pedagogy
ENGL 590/690: Seminars in Rhetoric (The New Rhetorics, Liberatory Pedagogy, and Assessment and Evaluation)

Selected Publications
Rhetoric AND Inquiry. A comprehensive first-year writing emphasizing relations between science-based thinking, academic inquiry, critical thinking, and the writing process. Under contract to Allyn and Bacon. Proposed publication in 2009.

"WPAs and Identity: Sounding the Depths," (with Sue Green). Interrupting the Program: Critical Questions in Writing Program Administration, Donna Strickland and Jeanne Gunner, eds. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton-Cook, in press.

"Integrating Writing to Provide Context for Teaching the Engineering Design Process," (with R. Jacquez, V.G. Gude, A.T. Hanson, and M. Auzenne). Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, June 18-21, 2006.

"Building a Foundation for Pre-Calculus Engineering Freshmen Through an Integrated Learning Community," (with R. Jacquez, M. Auzenne, and S. Green). Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference, Portland, OR, June 13-15, 2005.

"Engineering as a Rhetorical Activity," (with M. Auzenne, A. Hansen, and R. Jacquez). Proceedings (electronic) of the Science, Engineering, & Technology Education (SETE) Conference, NMSU, Las Cruces, NM, January 12, 2005.

"Still Uptaught After All These Years: Reflections in Appreciation of Ken Macrorie," Writing on the Edge. 15 (Fall, 2004) 35-42.

"Reflection, Assessment, and Articulation: A Rhetoric of Writing Program Administration," The Writing Program Administrator's Guidebook, Theresa Enos and Stuart Brown, eds. NY: Erlbaum, 2002, 303-314.

"Experience and Reflection in Multiple Contexts: Preparing TAs for the Artistry of Professional Practice," (with Rebecca Jackson) Preparing College Teachers of Writing: Histories, Theories, and Programs, Betty Pytlik and Sarah Liggett, eds. NY: Oxford University Press, 2001, 159-171.

"Expressive Pedagogy: Practice/Theory Theory/Practice," A Guide to Composition Pedagogies, Gary Tate, Amy Rupiper, and Kurt Schick, eds. NY: Oxford University Press, 2001, 19-35.

"James Britton" Twentieth Century Rhetorics and Rhetoricians, Michael Moran and Michelle Baillif, eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000, 62-69.

"Merton's Ethos in The Seven Storey Mountain," The Merton Annual, 11 (1998) 108-118.

"Writing to Learn in Journals: Help for the ‘Homeless in the Universe,'" (with Mary French) The Journal Book for Teachers of Emerging Writers, Toby Fulwiler and Susan Gardner, eds. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, Boynton/Cook, 1999, 73-89.

"Expressivist Rhetoric," Theorizing Composition: A Critical Sourcebook of Theory and Scholarship in Contemporary Composition Studies, Mary Lynch Kennedy, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998, 107-116.

Investigating Astronomy: Model-Building and Critical Thinking (with B. McNamara, B. Bridges, and M. French). Philadelphia, PA: Moseby-Year Books, 1997.

"Out of the Shadows: Merton's Rhetoric of Revelation," The Merton Annual, 9. (1996) 55-73.

"Closing the Circle: Outcomes Assessment, TQM, and the WPA" (with Cheryl Nims). WPA Journal. (Fall, 1995) 50-65.

Journals (Blair Resources for Teaching Writing). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1994.

"Crumbling Metaphors: Integrating Heart and Brain Through Structured Journal," College Composition and Communication. (December 1992) 508-515.

"Expressive Rhetoric: A Source Study," Perspectives on Twentieth Century Rhetoric: Essays Toward Defining the New Rhetorics, eds. Theresa Enos and Stuart Brown. Los Angeles: Sage, 1992. 154-70.

Writing from the Inside Out, San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989.

"Reinvigorating the Tradition: The Personal Development Journal," in The Journal Book, ed. Toby Fulwiler. Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 1987. 148-156.

"Portfolio Evaluation: Room to Breathe and Grow," in New Teachers in the College Composition Class: Essays for Novice Teachers and Their Supervisors, ed. Charles W. Bridges, Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1986, pp. 125-138.

"Research Methods in Composition: Evolving a Disciplinary Identity," in Research in Composition and Rhetoric: A Bibliographic Sourcebook, eds. M. Moran and R. Lunsford. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984, pp. 191-210.

Professional Statement

Father and Son

Writing is an instrument for personal development, for learning and communicating that learning, and for acting powerfully in both academic and civic contexts. The aim of my teaching is enabling people to recognize the connections between writing, reflection, and powerful action.

I believe assessment is an integral element in teaching and learning and have spent a lot of time studying approaches to assessment in the classroom and at program levels. My interest in assessment dovetails with my interests in reflective practice and identity.

My research investigates the connections between reflection and public action, especially in journals. These connections are exemplified in the two writers I have studied most, Walt Whitman and Thomas Merton.

As a researcher, I am committed to furthering the convergence of composition studies and rhetorical studies, examining affinities and relationships between the generative and imaginative art of composition and the receptive and analytical work of rhetoric. Joining these two offers an opportunity to develop a unified sense or theory of writing/reading.

I am also committed to reminding all who teach composition and rhetoric that we study and instruct persons in the act of writing and reading. Those persons, those humans, are the actual object of our study.