DR. JOHN VAN RYS
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Courses taught 2011/2012:
ENG221 Canadian Literature in English I
ENG331 US Literature I
ENG222 Canadian Literature in English II ENG302 Expository Writing II ENG426 Canadian Historical Fiction ENG485 Independent Study |
EDUCATION
Ph.D. (1991), English, Dalhousie University
Dissertation: "Loopholes and Catacombs: Elements of Bakhtinian Dialogue in the Poetry of Al Purdy."
B.A. and M.A. (1985), English, The University of Western Ontario
Thesis: "The Language of Landscape: Space in Ernest Buckler's The Mountain and the Valley."
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Modern and Contemporary Canadian Writers: Alice Munro, Margaret Avison, Al Purdy, Joy Kogawa, Guy Vanderhaeghe
- Canadian Historical Fiction, particularly concerns for historical suffering and trauma in authors such as Timothy Findley, Rudy Wiebe, Margaret Atwood, Joy Kogawa, Guy Vanderhaeghe, and Michael Ondaatje
- Cross-Border Writing: fiction and poetry of Canadian and U.S. writers who imaginatively address the border between the two countries
- Writing Pedagogy (particularly argumentation, research methods, and creative nonfiction)
RESEARCH FUNDING
Internal Research Grant, "Figures of Suffering in Joy Kogawa's Fiction and Poetry", 2009-2010
Post-Graduate Study Leave, Dordt College, 1997-1998
Killam Scholarship, Dalhousie University, 1986-87 and 1987-88 ·
SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, 1985 to 1989
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
SCHOLARLY
“Fictional Violations in Alice Munro’s Narratives.” Chapter 18 in Through a Glass Darkly: Suffering, the Sacred, and the Sublime in Literature and Theory. Ed. Holly Faith Nelson, Lynn R. Szabo, and Jens Zimmermann. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2010.
“‘A Tangle of Vegetation’: Suffering in Margaret Avison’s Jo Poems.” Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews 59 (Fall/Winter 2006): 62-81.
PROFESSIONAL
The Research Writer: Curiosity, Discovery, Dialogue. (Forthcoming September 2010). Co-authored with Verne Meyer and Pat Sebranek. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
COMP: Write and COMP: Read. (2010). Co-authored with Randall Vandermey, Verne Meyer, and Pat Sebranek. Boston: 4LTR Press (a division of Wadsworth Cengage Learning).
The College Writer: A Guide to Thinking, Writing, and Researching (3rd Edition 2009; 2nd Edition 2006; first edition 2004). Co-authored with Randall VanderMey, Verne Meyer, Dave Kemper, and Pat Sebranek. Burlington, WI: Write Source (division of Houghton Mifflin).
The Management-Writing Manual. (2007). Co-authored with Verne Meyer. Burlington, WI: UpWrite Press.
Writing Business and Sales Correspondence. EZ Series. (2007). Co-authored with Verne Meyer and Pat Sebranek. Burlington, WI: UpWrite Press.
The Basic Business-Writing Manual. (2007). Co-authored with Verne Meyer. Burlington, WI: UpWrite Press.
The College Writer’s Handbook. (2006). Co-authored with Randall VanderMey, Verne Meyer, Pat Sebranek, and Dave Kemper. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS
ACCUTE (Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English)
MLA (Modern Language Association of America)
NCTE / CCCC (National Council of Teachers of English / Conference on College Composition and Communication)
CCL (Conference on Christianity and Literature)
ACSUS (Association for Canadian Studies in the United States)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
May 1993 to present: Author and editor for Write Source Educational Publishing, a development house for Cengage Learning, and UpWrite Press, a division of The Sebranek Group. Work has included reviewing present books and materials and suggesting revisions, drafting new assignments and book chapters, and co-authoring writing handbooks, with sourcebooks and other support materials, for middle school, high school, college, university, and business.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Have led business-writing workshops at a number of organizations: Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (Washington, DC), National League of Cities (Washington, DC), Cooperative Credit Company (Sioux Center, Iowa).
Chair of Contract Partnership Committee, Dunnville Christian School
CROSS APPOINTMENTS
List
RELEVANT LINKS
Through a Glass Darkly (Wilfrid University Press Publication)
Cengage Learning publications
UpWrite Press