Vita -- Randolph Cauthen

Major Emphases: Rhetorical Theory, Composition Pedagogy and Research Methodology.

Cauthen, Randolph. Black Letters: An Ethnography of a Beginning Legal Writing Class. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. Forthcoming; contract signed June 20, 2001.

Cauthen, Cramer R. "The Breadth of Composition Studies: Professionalization and Disciplinarity." Interview with Joseph Comprone, Lisa Ede, Peter Elbow, Janice Lauer, Andrea Lunsford, and Richard Young. History, Reflection, and Narrative: The Professionalization of Composition, 1963-1983. Ed. Beth Boehm, Debra Journet, and Mary Rosner. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1999.

Cauthen, Cramer R., and Donald G. Aplin. "The Gift Refused: The Southern Lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird, The Client, and Cape Fear." Studies in Popular Culture 19.2 (October 1996): 257-275.

Cauthen, Cramer R. "Writing Ritual and the Cultural Unconscious: The Great Mother Archetype in the Composition Classroom." JAEPL: The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning 1 (Winter 1995-1996): 58-65.

Cauthen, Cramer R. "Deep Image and the Poetics of Oppen's 'Of Being Numerous'." Sagetrieb 13 (Winter 1994): 71-82.

My study explores issues of enculturation, identity negotiation, gender, and genre in the initial language training of law students. Data are derived from one year of field observations of a Basic Legal Skills class at a medium-sized Midwestern law school, analyses of both student writings and teacher response, and interviews, with particular emphasis on six students who vary in age, gender, ethnicity, educational history, and work history. The study achieves validity through the use of multiple theoretical foci -- most notably Bakhtin's work on language, genre, and ideology and Tronto's recession of Gilligan's work on relational ethics. My analysis indicates that students receive the paradigms of legal composition as, in Bakhtin's terms, "authoritative" rather than "internally persuasive," and that they therefore experience a disjunction between their professional lives and their former lives as laypeople, a disjunction which is evident in their methods of narration and textual interpretation, as well as in their diction and syntax. By using an ethnographic method that compares the enculturation processes in law school to my own enculturation into the field of Composition and Rhetoric, I relate my findings to the Writing Across the Curriculum movement and to larger questions of how writers both inside and outside academia use language to construct varied identities for themselves. Revision for book publication is in process.

"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: How First-Year Students Read the Credibility of Internet Sources." EAPSU Conference, East Stroudsburg, October 2000.

"Writing, Rhetoric, and the American Self in Franklin and Douglass." EAPSU Conference, East Stroudsburg, October 2000.

"Electric Blue: Law Students' Uses of Online Research Technologies." Thomas R. Watson Conference On Rhetoric and Composition, Louisville, October 2000.

"Teaching Rhetoric Through Literature." Oklahoma Council of Teachers of English Conference, Norman, March 1998.

"Level Playing Fields: A Bosnian Student in an American Legal Writing Course." College Composition and Communication Conference, Washington, March 1997.

"A Tariff Policy for the Millennium: Student Perspectives on Utopia in a First-Year College Composition Course." Social Theory Commonwealth Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, October 1996. In collaboration with Jane Mathison-Fife.

"Catastrophist Pedagogy: The Effect of Case-Study Narrative Paradigms on Composition Teachers-in-Training." Wyoming Conference on English, Laramie, June 1996.

"'Intrigue with the Specious Chaos': Lamia, Irigaray, and the Subject of Woman." American Conference on Romanticism, Milwaukee, September 1995.

"Fish's Constructions of the Interpretive Community, the Parol Evidence Rule, and the First Amendment." Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition, State College, Pennsylvania, July 1995. (Available as ERIC Publication ED 390 040.)

"Deep Image and the Poetics of Oppen's 'Of Being Numerous'." Twentieth Century Literature Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, February 1995.

"Interdisciplinary Carnivalization in the Composition Classroom." Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, Charleston, South Carolina, February 1995.

Assistant Professor of English, Bloomsburg University, 2000-present: Writing for the Internet, Theory and Practice of Writing, Composition II (Computer-Assisted Instruction), Technical Writing (Computer-Assisted Instruction), Writing in the Professions (Computer-Assisted Instruction), Composition I (Computer-Assisted Instruction), Literature and Society.

Visiting Assistant Professor of English, Shippensburg University, 1999-2000: College Writing, Major American Writers I, Introduction to Drama.

Assistant Professor of English, Cameron University, 1997-99: Introduction to College Composition, Developmental Composition, Composition and Literature, Advanced Composition, Law and Literature, Advanced Grammar and Usage, English Linguistics, Nonfiction Prose Workshop, Introduction to Literary Studies, Directed Writing (Poetry).

University Fellow Teaching Internship, University of Louisville, 1996-97: Introduction to College Writing (Computer-Assisted Instruction).

Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Louisville, 1993-94: Introduction to College Writing, Intermediate College Writing.

Instructor, Syracuse University Higher Education Opportunity Program, Auburn Correctional Facility, Auburn, New York, 1991-93: American Literature of the 1960s, American Romanticism, Survey of American Literature, Introduction to College Composition, Contemporary American Literature.

Instructor, Cayuga Community College, Auburn, New York, 1991-92: Composition and Literature, Introductory Composition, American Literature to 1900.

Instructor, Trident Technical College, Charleston, South Carolina, 1990-91: Composition and Literature, Introduction to College Composition.

I was solely responsible for the management of all of these courses, including the planning and execution of daily lesson plans, evaluation of student work, and selection of texts (with the exceptions of courses at Trident Technical College and Intermediate College Writing at the University of Louisville, which used department-wide standardized texts). In addition, I designed the course “Writing for the Internet” at Bloomsburg University.

Composition theory on graduate and undergraduate levels; composition at all levels, including basic, first year, and pre-professional courses; technology and society; legal studies; teacher training; creative writing; gender studies.

Solicited, selected, and helped revise curricular materials for a national initiative in Writing Across the Curriculum. Available as of November 2002 at http://aw.colostate.edu/ resource_list.htm.

Member, Library Liaison Committee, Bloomsburg University English Department, 2002-present.

English Department Representative, Bloomsburg University Teaching and Learning Enhancement Center, 2002-present.

Helped organize and publicize faculty development activities related to teaching.

Assisted student officers in administering campus organization dedicated to environmental protection, peace, economic justice, civil liberties, feminism, and other humanistic goals.

Selected, trained and supervised writing tutors; initiated Writing Center Workshop Series; initiated Writing Center newsletter and web page.

Member, Public Relations Committee, Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, Bloomsburg University, 2001-present.

Worked with volunteers in Bloomsburg and Lewisburg to organize and publicize anti-war opinion in the Northeast Pennsylvania area.

Chair, Composition Pool Search, Bloomsburg University English Department, Spring 2001.

Screened initial applications with two other committee members, organized interviews for selected candidates, acted as liaison between the department and candidates and between the department and the Social Equity Office.

Co-ordinator, Composition Placement Exam, Bloomsburg University English Department, 2001-present.

Administered testing of 206 incoming first-year students. Duties included: selecting and training evaluators, producing the exam itself, working with personnel inside and outside the English Department to identify, notify, and direct eligible students, statistical analysis, liaison work with Office of the Provost, Office of Student Affairs, and Registrar.

Initiated and continue to plan and schedule meetings for organization dedicated to advocating progressive causes in the county.

Member, Writing Committee, Bloomsburg University English Department, 2000-present.

Participated in planning of Writing Center Director rotation, of possible Writing Track within the English major, and of Placement Examination for incoming students.

Participated in revision of internal assessment programs, development of composition program handbook, co-ordination with Library Services on general education issues.

Read, commented on, and gave recommendations regarding publication of submissions to the journal.

Wrote funding proposal, managed editorial board, and supervised production of university literary magazine.

Wrote successful grant proposal to the Leslie Powell Foundation to begin a small press publishing chapbooks by Southwest Oklahoma poets. Selected poets for publication, produced books using PageMaker, and supervised publicity efforts.

Initiated and participated in adjunct instructor mentoring program. Initiated and co-edited composition program handbook, describing the program philosophy, all courses in the sequence, evaluation methods, and program resources. Participated in revision of Composition II (Composition and Literature) departmental syllabus and program evaluation.

Evaluated scholarship applications and selected recipients in consultation with other committee members.

Evaluated applications for position in Composition with secondary specialties in 19th Century British Literature and Gender Studies. Recommended appointment in consultation with other committee members.

Initiated and administered monthly lecture series, providing university faculty a means of discussing research in progress and increasing collegiality among departments.

Coordinator, Writing Across the Curriculum Program, Faculty Orientation, Cameron University, 1998.

Initiated WAC sessions for new faculty, planned and presented sessions on informal writing-to-learn strategies, evaluation of formal writing, and course development.

Supervised all activities of the organization, inlcuding fund-raising activities, social events, and Spring Speaker Series. Represented English graduate students on Graduate Student Council. Initiated an outreach program to part-time M.A. students.

Graduate Volunteer, Writing Across the Curriciulum Program, University of Louisville, 1996-97.

Conducted statistical analyses of writing-intensive courses campuswide; wrote for the program newsletter; participated in training sessions for faculty implementing writing-intensive courses.

Helped revise university-wide academic honesty policy and academic grievance procedures.

Organized and publicized workshops on writing for academic publication, attending academic conferences, and preparing vitae.

University Fellowship, University of Louisville, granted April 1994, renewed April 1995, April 1996.

Metroversity Poetry Contest, First Prize, Graduate Division, Louisville, Kentucky, March 1994, March 1995, March 1996.

Metroversity Fiction Contest, First Prize, Graduate Division, Louisville, Kentucky, March 1996.

South Carolina Readers' Circuit, South Carolina Arts Commission, appointed June 1990.

Raymond Carver Poetry Award [for best poem by a graduate student], Syracuse University, April 1989.

Jeremy Lake Memorial Award [for best play by a graduate student], Syracuse University, April 1989.

University Fellowship, Syracuse University, granted February 1987, renewed February 1988.

Poetry readings: over three dozen. Sponsors have included Elmira College, The Twentieth Century Literature Conference, Cayuga Community College, The School of Irish Studies [Dublin], Syracuse University, The Spoleto Festival [Charleston, SC], The City of Charleston Literary Arts Series, and Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis.

Poems in many literary magazines including Yemassee, Rust, Spinning Jenny, Alternator, The Devil's Millhopper, Tinderbox, The Salt Hill Journal, Poor William's Omnibus, Charleston Magazine, and Collage.

User facility and limited programming facility in Composer, FrontPage, Dreamweaver, Authorware, Excel, Visio, PageMaker, PowerPoint, NetOp, and Interchange.

Dr. Brian Huot, Director of Composition, Department of English, University of Louisville.

Professor Jeffrey Skinner, Director of Creative Writing, Department of English, University of Louisville.

Dr. Pamela Takayoshi, Director of Computer-Assisted Instruction, Department of English, University of Louisville.

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