ERIC DROWN, Ph.D.

TEACHER | INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER | STUDENT SUCCESS COACH

A seasoned professional with the academic, technical, pedagogical & organizational skills needed to work effectively with students, faculty, administrators, and staff.

English professor with over 20 years designing, delivering, and assessing university courses in literature, media, folklore, cultural history, and writing. Expertise in writing pedagogies, American literature, film, television, and new media. Special interests in science fiction, cyberculture and Internet studies, and the impact of new media technologies on literacy. Documented dedication to professional development. Significant experience with program and curriculum building. Experienced faculty mentor and educational design consultant. College transition and success coach. Entrepreneur.

Recognized by students, colleagues, and clients for intellectual and pedagogical rigor, creative problem solving, critical thinking, and delivery of highest quality process-oriented, multi-modal, multi-media instruction. Excellent interpersonal and coaching skills. Expert level oral & written communication skills. Expert user of e-communication & collaboration technologies. Published writer and textbook author. National media appearances.

EDUCATION

Ph. D., American Studies. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2001.

Dissertation: Usable Futures, Disposable Paper: Popular Science, Pulp Science Fiction & Modernization in America, 1908-1937. A literary and cultural-historical study of the earliest roots of science fiction fandom in working class readers’ experience of changing conditions of employment due to mass production.

M. A., Critical Studies of Film and Television. University of California, Los Angeles, 1991.

B. A., English and Film Studies. University of Rochester, New York, 1989.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Recognized innovator: Designed highly successful student-centered writing courses wherein established learning goals were met by students collaborating in the design of the course. Early adopter of course management systems and collaboration technologies. Early user of wikis as authentic sites of collaboration for student research and writing projects. Piloted synchronous distance learning classes at The George Washington University. Developed rich qualitative methods for assessing student learning and pedagogical effectiveness throughout a rigorous course with complex learning goals.

Trusted teacher & advisor: Satisfied students returned to my courses semester after semester and praised me on course evaluations. Hundreds of students have asked for me for student success and career advice, help on graduate/professional school application essays, and letters of recommendation.

Valued colleague: Led or worked on committees charged with important work in program development, publicity, technological infra-structure, and student-experience. Designed and delivered professional development seminars for faculty, librarians, and teaching assistants.

Award nominated, published scholar and public intellectual: “Business Girls and Beset Men in Pulp Science Fiction and Science Fiction Fandom” was nominated for the 2006 Science Fiction Research Association Pioneer Award given to “the best critical essay-length work of the year.” “A Finer and Fairer Future: Commodifying Wage Earners in American Pulp Science Fiction,” “Is Clementa Science Fiction?” and “Mental Labor and the Cultural Work of Agency Panic” were solicited by editors. Featured guest on two hour-long appearances on Odyssey, Chicago Public Radio’s nation-wide program on ideas, quoted by print and television journalists.

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ACADEMIC SPECIALTIES

• Writing Pedagogies • 20th Century American Cultural History • New Religious Movements • American Film • Television • Popular Fiction • American & European Literatures • Contemporary Folklore & Urban Legends • Conspiracy Theory Studies • Internet Studies/Cybercultures

• Research Pedagogies & Methodologies • Science Fiction • Magazine Studies • Cultural Responses to Mass Production • Literary Subcultures • Comic Books • Writing Cultures • Audience Studies • Cultural Theory • Cultural Criticism

COURSES TAUGHT

• First Year Writing & Research • American Culture: Native America to

Industrialization • American Culture: Since 1945 • Writing the Senior Thesis • US Media & Cultural History • Cultural Criticism • American Cinema • Introduction to the Cinema • Introduction to Television • American Cinema • Television & American Everyday Life

• Postcolonial Literatures • The English Novel • Urban Legends • Space Culture(s) • Film & Politics Since 1945 • American Cultural Diversity • Science Fiction and American Myth • Writing for the Humanities • Writing for the Social Sciences • Conspiracy Theories • Science Fiction as Cultural History • Writing for the Arts

(Teaching Assistant) • Introduction to Folklore • Antiques Culture • American Indian Communities of the Great

Lakes

• Horror & Liminality • Disability Studies & Horror • Lesbian Folklore

SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS

In Progress: Writing the College Research Paper for Bridgepoint Publishing. Estimated completion date: Spring 2013.

“Business Girls and Beset Men in Pulp Science Fiction and Science Fiction Fandom.” femspec: an interdisciplinary feminist journal 7.1 (Fall 2006): 5-35. Nominated for the 2006 SFRA Pioneer Award.

“‘A Finer and Fairer Future’: Commodifying Wage Earners in American Pulp Science Fiction.” Endeavour: A Quarterly Magazine Reviewing the History and Philosophy of Science v. 30, n. 3 (September 2006): 92-97. 5600 words. Invited Article.

“Is Clementa Science Fiction?” Published online at www.clementanovel.com. 3600 words. March 2008. Invited Essay.

“Buffy, Who?” Review Essay of Athena’s Daughters, edited by Frances Early and Kathleen Kennedy. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2003. femspec: an interdisciplinary feminist journal 7.2 (Spring 2007): 138-42.

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“Mental Labor and the Cultural Work of Agency Panic.” Review essay of The Twilight of the Middle Class: Post-World War II American Fiction and White-Collar Work by Andrew Hoberek. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. Symploke v. 14, n. 1-2 (2006): 311-15. Invited Review Essay.

“Oooooo!, We Hate Bush!” Rev. of Hollywood’s New Radicalism: War, Globalisation and the Movies from Reagan to George W. Bush by Ben Dickerson. New York: J. B. Tauris, 2006. femspec: an interdisciplinary feminist journal 7.2 (Spring 2007): 143-5.

Developed content for new media artist Claudia Borges’s chat bot used at “Tangent_Conspiracy,” an online colloquium on conspiracy theory by the Media Design Group of the Piet Zwart Institute and V2_: Institute for Unstable Media. December 1, 2006.

Review Essay of Frek and the Elixir, by Rudy Rucker. New York: Tor, 2004. SFRA [Science Fiction Research Association]

Review 269 (July, August, September 2004): 16-18.

Rev. of Atomic Bomb Cinema, by James F. Shapiro. New York: Routledge, 2001. American Studies International v. 41, n. 3 (October 2003): 112-13.

Rev. of Death of a Nation, by David W. Noble. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 2002. American Studies International v. 41, n. 3 (October 2003): 113-14.

OTHER WRITINGS

“Airman's Uniform - Target of Hostile Comments in College Classroom.” E-zine syndication. Available at http://collegesupportservices.blogspot.com/2000/11/articles.html.

“Boston Report Says Two-Thirds of HS Graduates Who Enrolled in College in 2000 Failed to Earn Degrees.” Available at http://collegesupportservices.blogspot.com/2000/11/articles.html.

“Handling Quotes in Academic Writing.” Available at http://collegesupportservices.blogspot.com/2009/10/free-resources-for-students-guidance.html

“How to Read and Mark Up Texts When You Have to Write About Them.” Available on request.

“HS Valedictorian Feels Out of Place at Harvard.” Available at http://collegesupportservices.blogspot.com/2000/11/articles.html.

“It's Getting Cold, and All Around the Country, Bright College Students are Getting Ready to Fail their Midterm Exams.” Available at http://collegesupportservices.blogspot.com/2000/11/articles.html.

“Three Keys to Writing the Best Possible College Admissions Essay.” E-zine syndication. Available at http://collegesupportservices.blogspot.com/2009/10/free-resources-for-students-guidance.html

“Top 5 Books Every That Every Freshman Should Bring to College.” E-zine syndication. Available at http://collegesupportservices.blogspot.com/2009/10/free-resources-for-students-guidance.html

EXPERIENCE & ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Adjunct Assistant Professor of English, University of New England, Biddeford, ME, 2010 - present.

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• Designed, taught, and assessed courses in composition, Postcolonial Literature, and the English Novel. Principal Consultant/Owner, CaMDEN Consulting Group, LLC, Saco, ME, 2008 - present.

• Created CaMDEN College Support Services, a sub-division of CaMDEN Consulting Group, designed to help students to prepare for and make the transition to college successfully and to guarantee their success once there. Key elements of our support strategies are extensive use of online tools: whole-life scheduling, assignment sequence tracking, weekly work logs, and semi-monthly virtual meetings and support sessions. http://collegesupportservices.blogspot.com

• The Write Text, a sub-division of CaMDEN Consulting Group, provides instructional design, writing, publicity, and coaching services to individuals and small businesses. Recent clients: Bridgepoint Publishing, Teachers Learning Center, iInstructor, To Be A Champion, LLC, Maine Girls Hockey Academy, Mainely Stoves, Little Wonders Daycare.

Assistant Professor, The George Washington University, University Writing Program, Washington, DC, 2004-2009.

• Designed, taught, and assessed 5 sections of UW20, the first-year writing course. Course goals: enhance first-year students’ abilities to read, think, and write critically and analytically; explore emerging and traditional information resources; enhance students’ grasp of rhetorical principle; improve students’ ability to frame sound questions or hypotheses; develop their abilities to edit and proofread carefully, as well as to equip them with university-level research and project-management tools.

• Designed, delivered, and assessed hybrid (face-to-face and online synchronous) writing courses and distance (synchronous) writing courses. Designed lessons on advanced online research, writing, and e-literacies. Promoted a sophisticated analysis of the ways people use the internet for work, fun, learning, politics, and more.

• Used Blackboard, virtual meetings, chat, blogs, wikis, social networking/bookmarking sites, discussion lists, video and audio to enhance and support student learning.

• Helped develop a culture of technological experimentation among faculty by serving peer faculty as a consultant as they redesigned their courses to make use of expanding capabilities of Web 2.0, Blackboard, and digital video and audio technologies.

• Consulted with teaching assistants and faculty around the university on the implications of electronic technologies and the web for their pedagogy. Analyzed their instructional goals, objectives, and timelines. Analyzed tasks, learners, and subject matter. Provided intellectual resources, design guidance, and technological assistance as they redesigned assignments and course components to better serve student learning in the internet age and to forestall internet plagiarism. Led training sessions for teaching assistants and senior faculty.

• Mentored first year graduate student instructors and instructors new to the program’s innovative curriculum. • Developed and used rigorous assessment instruments and methodologies to determine the effectiveness of

instruction across sections. • Developed and used rigorous assessment instruments to measure student learning in the notoriously subjective area

of writing instruction. Visiting Assistant Professor, The George Washington University, American Studies Dept., Washington, DC, 2002-04.

• Designed, delivered, and assessed undergraduate and graduate courses in Cultural Criticism, American Cinema, Senior Thesis, Science Fiction, and US Media & Cultural History.

• Supervised, trained, and mentored 3 graduate teaching assistants. Faculty, Normandale Community College, Theatre Dept., Bloomington, MN, 2001-02.

• Designed, delivered, and assessed undergraduate courses in Film and Television. • Consulting Member, Instructional Technology Committee. Advised administrators on how to redesign and equip large

classrooms for improved instruction in media studies. • Used online and multimedia resources to improve student mastery of key concepts for film analysis. Taught

information literacy skills.

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• Used Blackboard discussion board & communication features to improve student learning and accessibility to faculty. Instructor, Trainer, and Mentor, University of Minnesota, American Studies Dept., Minneapolis, MN 1999-2001.

• Designed, delivered, and assessed undergraduate courses in American Civilization, Cultural Diversity, Science Fiction, Film & Politics, Television & Everyday Life, and Space Culture(s).

• Supervised, trained, and mentored 3 graduate teaching assistants.

Instructor, Trainer and Mentor, University of Minnesota, Composition Program, Minneapolis, MN 1993-1998.

• Designed, delivered, and assessed undergraduate courses in First-Year Writing, and advanced composition: Writing for the Humanities, Writing for the Social Sciences, Writing for the Arts, Senior Thesis.

• Co-designed and -led an 8-day course-design seminar for first-time composition instructors: included workshop sessions on learning goals, assignment sequencing, assignment design, reading selection, learning processes, evaluation, grading, assessment, teaching strategies, and the ethics of teaching.

• Mentored four first-year instructors.

MEDIA APPEARANCES

Interviewed on Science Fiction Films by Fadi Mansour. Al Jazeera in English. Fall 2007. Served as on-air expert for “‘Hate Crime Arrest [via Facebook].” Fox 5 News Edge at 11.

WTTC Fox 5 News, Washington, D.C. September 28, 2007. Reporter: Brooke Baldwin. Quoted in Trish Choate, “National Spelling Bee on ESPN and ABC This Week,” Scripps-Howard News Service, May 29,

2007.

Served as on-air expert for “‘Tech-Nos’ Avoid New Technology.” Fox 5 News at 10. WTTC Fox 5 News, Washington, D.C. January 11, 2007.

“Science Movies.” Odyssey: A Talk Show About Ideas.

WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, April 14, 2004. Audio file available online at: http://archive.org/details/Odyssey_WBEZ_Chicago_Public_Radio. Show Number 949. File name: od_040514.ram

“Science and the Amateur.” Odyssey: A Talk Show About Ideas.

WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, February 24, 2004. Audio file available online at: http://archive.org/details/Odyssey_WBEZ_Chicago_Public_Radio. Show Number 923. File name: od_040224.ram

COMMITTEES

• Publicity & Promotions, GW Writing Program (chair)

• Ad Hoc Committee on Research & Pedagogy, GW Writing Program (chair)

• Capstone Committee, GW Writing Program (member)

• Sr. Thesis Assessment Committee, GW American Studies Program (member)

• Instructional Technology Committee, NCC (consultant)

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FACULTY DEVELOPMENT SEMINARS & CONSULTATIONS

• Internet Plagiarism, GW Writing Program • Research Pedagogy, GW Writing Program • New Composition Teacher Training, U

Minnesota Composition Program

• Individual Consultations on Assignment Design, Rubric Development, Course Design, Assessment, Student Centered Pedagogies, Instructional and Collaboration Technologies, GW Writing Program

DIGITAL MEDIA FOR LEARNING

• Google Apps for Education • Edmodo • Blackboard & WebCT • Moodle • Edublog • Elluminate Live • Central Desktop • Wiki & Blog Design & Customizing

• Dreamweaver • MS Office Suite • MS Publisher • Adobe Acrobat • Adobe Live Cycle/Designer • Video/Audio/Photo Editing • Chat/IM • Other Collaboration Software

REFERENCES Michael Cripps, Ph. D. Associate Professor of English and Director of Composition University of New England 11 Hills Beach Road, Biddeford, ME 04005 mcripps@une.edu | (207) 602-2908 Rachel Riedner, Ph. D. Associate Professor of Writing, Director of Writing in the Disciplines The George Washington University 2100 Foxhall Road NW, Washington, DC 20007 rach@gwu.edu | (202) 242-5156 Julia Brandon 3rd Grade Teacher C. K. Burns School 135 Middle Street Ext. Saco, ME 04072 jbrandon@rsu23.org | (505) 803-3586 Jesse Miller, MFA Adjunct Instructor of Composition and Creative Writing University of New England 11 Hills Beach Road, Biddeford, ME 04005 jmiller12@une.edu | (207) 712-1148