Michael Smedshammer

English Instructor
Modesto Junior College

Education

Ph.D. in English (August 1998), University of New Mexico
M.A. in Secondary Education (July 1996, TESL emphasis), University of New Mexico
M.A. in English (December 1991), University of New Mexico
B.A. in English (May 1988), University of California at Berkeley
A.A. (June 1985), Santa Rosa Junior College

Areas of Experience

Composition
English as a Second Language
Technical Writing
Southwest Literature
Modern British and American Literature
The Novel
Eastern and Western Philosophy
Developmental Studies
Reading

Teaching Experience

English Instructor
Modesto Junior College
Modesto, CA (August 2000 to present)

Courses:
English 49, Basic English Skills
English 50, Basic Composition and Reading
English 101, Composition and Reading
English 102, Advanced Composition and Introduction to Literature
English 103, Advanced Composition and Critical Thinking
English 131, Introduction to World Literature to 1500
English 132, Introduction to World Literature from 1500 to Present
English 135, American Literature: Colonial to 1850
English 136, American Literature: 1850-Present

English Instructor (sabbatical replacement)
College of the Sequoias
Visalia, CA  (January 2000 to May 2000)

Courses:
English 1, Reading and Composition
English 4, College Composition and Literature
English 251, Fundamentals of College Writing
English 360, Writing, Reading, and Study Skills

English Instructor (sabbatical replacement)
Santa Rosa Junior College
Santa Rosa, CA (August 1999 to December 1999)

Courses:
English 1A, Reading and Composition
English 100A, Reading Improvement
English 5, Advanced Composition and Critical Thinking

Professor of English
Universidad San Francisco de Quito
Quito, Ecuador (August 1998 to May 1999)

Courses:
English 100, Composition and Rhetoric
English 101, Advanced Academic Writing
Being 100A, Survey of Western Philosophy
Being 100B, Survey of Eastern Philosophy
ESL 6, English as a Second Language

English Instructor
Fulbright Commission
Quito, Ecuador (January 1999 to March 1999)

Course:
Level 6, English as a Foreign Language

Teaching Assistant
Department of English
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM (August 1992-May 1998)

Courses:
English 100, Developmental Composition
English 100, ESL Developmental Composition
English 101, Composition I
English 101, ESL Composition I
English 102, Composition II
English 102, ESL Composition II
English 150, Introduction to Literature
English 219, Technical Writing
English 296, Survey of American Literature

Literature Instructor
Office of International Technical Communication
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM (January 1998-May 1998)

Course: Introduction to Literature

Composition Instructor
Minority Engineering and Math Program
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM (summers 1995, 1996)

Course: English 101, Accelerated Composition

Part-time Instructor
Department of Developmental Studies
TVI Community College
Albuquerque, NM (September to December 1994)

Course: English 100, Developmental Composition

Publications

    "Clubs and Salons." In American History through Literature, 1870-1920, edited by Tom Quirk and Gary Scharnhorst, pp. 267-273. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 267-273.

    Review of Birthing a Nation: Gender, Creativity, and the West in American Literature, by Susan J. Rosowski. American Literary Realism, 34.1 (Fall 2001). 82-84.

    "Visualizing the Page: Cross-Cultural Influences in ESL Students' Technical Writing." The Selected Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Southwest Symposium 1997: 93-99.

"ESL Students and the Process Approach to Writing Instruction." The Selected Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Southwest Symposium 1996: 55-62.

"From the Word to the Sentence to the Story: Teaching Poe's 'Ligeia' in an Introductory Literature Course." Tag: The Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Southwest Symposium 1994: 168-172.

Review of Poverty in Rural America: A National Overview, by Kathryn H. Porter, and The Other Housing Crisis: Sheltering the Poor in Rural America, by Edward Lazere et al. The Workbook, 15.2 (Summer 1990): 83.

Review of Reshaping the Bottom Line: On-Farm Strategies for a Sustainable Agriculture, by David Granatstein. The Workbook, 15.1 (Spring 1990): 12-13.

Conference Papers

"Visualizing the Page: Cross-Cultural Influences in ESL Students' Technical Writing." Southwest Symposium, Albuquerque, April, 1997.

"Visually Contrastive Rhetoric: Teaching ESL Writers to Use Graphics in Technical and Professional Communication." Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Convention, Albuquerque, October, 1996.

"ESL Students and the Process Approach to Writing Instruction." Southwest Symposium, Albuquerque, March 1996.

"Document Specialization: New Directions in Technical Editing." Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Convention, Spokane, Washington, October, 1995.

"From the Word to the Sentence to the Story: Teaching Poe's 'Ligeia' in an Introductory Literature Course." Southwest Symposium, Albuquerque, April, 1994.

"'A Rightly Read Weede': George Gasgoine's The Adventures of Master F.J." Southwest Symposium, Albuquerque, April, 1991.

Editorial Experience

Co-Editor, First Person: Multicultural Student Voices (1995 and 1996). A collection of student essays, published by the Minority Math and Engineering Program at the University of New Mexico.

Editor, New Mexico Public Interest Research Group (NMPIRG), Albuquerque (1989-1995). NMPIRG is a non-profit, non-partisan research and advocacy organization.

Editor, English Graduate Students Association, University of New Mexico (1990-1992)

Dissertation:

"Modern Writers in New Mexico: Charles Lummis, Oliver La Farge, D.H. Lawrence, Willa Cather, and the Quest for Purpose and Place in the Southwest."  I argue that modern writers came to New Mexico seeking sanctuary from the modern, largely urban world.  They believed that the New Mexican people retained a spiritual, intellectual connection to the land and one another that was no longer possible in the modern world.  When modernists came to New Mexico, they tried to emulate and to some extent integrate with the Native American, Anglo, and Hispanic cultures they found.  Ultimately, however, the modernists were unsuccessful and remained isolated.  The experience of isolation within a well-integrated community became the focus of the writing they produced in and about New Mexico.  This experience charged their writing with modernist paradoxes, making their work complex and engaging.