Curriculum Vitae

Michael J. McDowell


Division of English and Modern Languages
Portland Community College
Box 19000, Portland, OR 97280-0990
Phone 503-977-4638; mmcdowel@pcc.edu

Education

PhD, 1992, English, University of Oregon. Dissertation title: "Finding Tongues in Trees: Dialogical and Ecological Landscapes in Henry David Thoreau, Robinson Jeffers, and Leslie Marmon Silko." Dissertation adviser: Professor William Rossi.

MA, 1975, English, University of Virginia

AB, with Distinction, 1973, English, Stanford University
 

Areas of Special Interest

American Nature & Landscape Writing  Nineteenth Century American Literature
Western American Writing Native American Literature
English, American, World Poetry English, American, European Fiction
Creative Nonfiction Creative Writing--Poetry & Creative Nonfiction

Professional Experience

Instructor, English and Modern Languages Division, Portland Community College, Portland, Oregon, 1976-present. Chair of Creative Writing Department and past chair of Literature Department.

Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of English, University of Oregon, Eugene, 1988-89

Senior Technical Writer, Corporate Payment Systems, Bank of America, San Francisco, California, 1980-81

Technical Writer and Editor, Manuals Publication Services, Fireman's Fund Insurance Companies, San Francisco, California, 1980

Reader and Section Leader, Department of English, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1974-75
 

Awards and Honors

Faculty Fellowship, Portland Community College, 2000-2001, 2001-2002.

Instructional Improvement Project Grant, Portland Community College, 1998.

Staff Excellence Award, Portland Community College, 1988

Award of Recognition, Oregon and Washington Community College Councils, 1988

Philip Francis duPont Fellowship, University of Virginia, 1974-75

James Southall Wilson Fellowship, University of Virginia, 1974-75

Phi Beta Kappa, Stanford University, 1973
 

Publications

"Robinson Jeffers." In Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment. Routledge Key Guides Series. Ed. Joy A. Palmer. London: Routledge, 2001. 181-89.

"Talking about Trees in Stumptown: Pedagogical Problems in Teaching EcoComp." In Reading the Earth: New Directions in the Study of Literature and Environment. Ed. Michael Branch, Rochelle Johnson, Daniel Patterson, and Scott Slovic. Moscow, ID: University of Idaho Press, 1998. 19-28.

"Green Culture: Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America. Ed. by Carl G. Herndl and Stuart C. Brown." Book review. ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 5.1 (Winter 1998) 130-31.

"The Bakhtinian Road to Ecological Insight." In The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Ed. Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1996. 371-91.

"Entering Importance Again: Dialogical Voices at the Death of Old Martial in 'Cawdor.'" Robinson Jeffers Newsletter 82 (April 1992): 5-7.

"Since Earth is Earth: An Ecological Approach to Robert Frost's Poetry." South Carolina Review 24 (1991): 92-100.

"The Invisible Man and 'The Ideology of Modernism.'" Glosses [Stanford, CA] 1 (1973): 21-25.

Plus a number of poems, a short story, and several investigative articles in various periodicals and newspapers.
 

Papers and Presentations

"Who Needs a GPS Device When You Know How to Read Poetry? Or, The Importance of Place in Discussing Poems." Community College Humanities Association Conference. Santa Fe, NM, Oct. 30-Nov.1, 2003.

"Faculty Fellows: A Training Model to Reach Faculty at a Deeper Level." Co-presenter.  League for Innovation in the Community College Conference on Information Technology," Minneapolis, MN, Nov. 14-17, 2001.

"From Dead Man's Cove to Klipsan Beach: Place Names and Perceptions at the Mouth of the Great River of the West." Joint Annual Meeting of the Western Literature Association and the Canadian Association for American Studies, Banff, Alberta, October 14-17, 1998.

"Edge Effects: Exploring Natural and Discursive 'Places' Through Computer-Assisted Ecocomposition." Convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, IL. April 1-4, 1998.

"Talking about Trees in Stumptown: Pedagogical Problems in Teaching EcoComp." First Bi-Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Fort Collins, CO, June 9-11, 1995.

"American Margins: Toward an Application of Ecological Literary Criticism." Keynote Presentation. Western Literature Association 26th Annual Meeting. Estes Park, CO, Oct. 3-5, 1991.

"Alchemy, The Process: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Student-Produced Literary Magazine." Co-presenter. Community College Humanities Association Conference. Costa Mesa, CA, Nov. 12-14, 1987.

Professional Memberships

Association for the Study of Literature and Environment

Western Literature Association

Lower Division Transfer Courses Taught (mostly at Portland Community College)

Literature

ENG 101, Survey of English Literature, medieval and Renaissance

ENG 102, Survey of English Literature, 17th and 18th centuries

ENG 103, Survey of English Literature, 19th and 20th centuries

ENG 104, Introduction to Literature--Fiction

ENG 104, Landscape and Nature Writing

ENG 105, Introduction to Literature--Drama

ENG 106, Introduction to Literature--Poetry

ENG 197, Film as Literature

ENG 201, 202, 203, Shakespeare

ENG 212, Biography and Autobiography

ENG 214, Literature of the Northwest

ENG 240, Introduction to Native American Literatures

ENG  244, Introduction to Asian American Literatures

ENG 250, Introduction to Mythology and Folklore

ENG 253, Survey of American Literature, to early 19th century

ENG 254, Survey of American Literature, mid-19th to early 20th centuries

ENG 255, Survey of American Literature, 20th century
 

Composition

WR 115, Introduction to Expository Writing

WR 120, Composition Review

WR 121, English Composition--Exposition

WR 122, English Composition--Argumentation and Style

WR 123, English Composition--Research Paper

WR 185, English Grammar

WR 216, Advanced Composition
 

Creative Writing

WR 240, Creative Writing--Nonfiction

WR 241, Creative Writing--Fiction

WR 242, Creative Writing--Poetry

WR 243, Creative Writing--Scriptwriting

WR 244, Advanced Creative Writing--Fiction

WR 245, Advanced Creative Writing--Poetry

WR 246, Advanced Creative Writing--Editing and Publishing
 

Business Communications

WR 114, Business Communications I

WR 214, Business Communications II


Last modified: September 4, 2004
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