Chidsey Dickson, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of English
University of Lynchburg
dickson.c@lynchburg.edu
(alternative email: chidsey@gmail.com)
+1-512- 745- 6116
Education
Ph.D English, The University of Texas-Austin, 1997.
Concentration: Rhetoric and Composition.
Dissertation: “Writing and Reading About Social Identity:
First-Year Composition as Cultural and Rhetorical Inquiry”
B.A., Philosophy, Union College 1988. Cum laude.
Courses Taught
First-Year Composition
Expository Writing
Advanced Expository Writing
Workplace Writing
First-Year Seminar: Animals and Human-Animal Connections
Science Writing for a Popular Audience
Teaching Writing in High School
Survey of British Literature and Culture
Survey of World Literature and Culture
Literature and the Body: Survey of Works from World Literature
History of Crime and Detective Fiction
University Teaching
2002-current, Tenured Professor of English
University of Lynchburg
1501 Lakeside Drive
Lynchburg, VA
2000-2002, Assistant Professor of English (Tenure Track)
Christopher Newport University
Newport News, VA
1999-2000, Assistant Professor of English
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA
1997-1999, Adjunct Professor of English
University of Houston-Downton and Houston Community College
Houston, TX 1990-1995
1990-1995 Graduate Student/Assistant Instructor
University of Texas-Austin.
Austin, TX.
Other Teaching Experience
2013-2020; 2024-present Creative Writing Teacher (Volunteer)
Payne Elementary. Lynchburg, VA
1989-1990 Teacher, ESL, Centro Educutivo,
Valle de Bravo, Mexico
Service
Director of First-Year Composition: Christopher Newport University (2001-2002), University of Lynchburg (2005-2011)
Elsie Ervin Bock Award for Excellence in Citizenship (2017)
Feature article on my volunteer with elementary student writers in the University of Lynchburg Magazine (Spring, 2024)
Faculty Committees: Steering, General Education, Technology Resources
Tenure and Promotion Committees
Hiring Committees
Recent Scholarly Work
Book Review: Jenny Rice: Awful Archives: Conspiracy Theory, Rhetoric, and Acts of Evidence. Ohio State UP, 2020, 226 pages. In JAAAS: Journal of the Austrian Association of American Studies. "Im/Mobilities" (Vol. 2, No. 2, 2021): Spring 2021. Available here: https://jaaas.eu/jaaas/article/view/133
Invited Talk. Daura Museum of Art, University of Lynchburg. "Paying Tribute to Frank O'Hara's Willful/Restless Delight." Available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l11wdPQTi3FpPRSafUR3iIiCRfa6UOaS6t3JcQlwZZI/edit?usp=sharing PPT here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1su_S7vAh-xYM_62zb9zVgO_bkcQvxtf5skfmibC65eE/edit?usp=sharing
Documentary (10 mins): “Monumental Art.” I received a DuPont Grant to take a short course in documentary production at UT-Austin. For my project, I wrote, filmed and edited a documentary on what I called monumental art (art that is large and outside). 2016. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdr3PzCAomo&list=UUttsBzHSBlsXQ7PitpfhNCA
Documentary (10 mins): “Gross Anatomy Lab in a DPT Program: The Challenges and Benefits of Working with Cadavers.” I collaborated with Professor Bill Noel (Communications) this semester to create a 11 minute documentary on DPT graduate students’ relationships with their cadavers in Gross Anatomy. I was approached by Dr. Sue Curfman after I gave a presentation on a DuPont Short Course Grant (see above). I took a course in documentary film making and made a short film on monumental art. Dr. Curfman wanted to do some research on whether her students, having watched a brief introduction to working with donors, might do better handling the emotional and ethical aspects of cadaver dissection. My part of the work included: working with Drs. Blair and Curfman to develop the interview questions, conducting the interviews with 12 students (approximately 30 minutes each), filming in the cadaver lab (with Bill), watching the interviews and “B” roll footage of the lab a number of times in order to figure which clips I would use, organizing/scripting those clips into a coherent narrative. I wrote the storyboard, and Professor Noel edited the footage. 2018. Available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18Gtt8Ly0SkzxQ5DrcilYGWcOYTuMKacV/view?usp=sharing
Other Scholarly Work
“What Does it Mean to Embody Learning?” Computers and Composition Online. Spring 2007. http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/
“Interchange: Responses to Richard Fulkerson, Composition at the Twenty-First Century.” College Composition and Communication. Volume 57 Number 4 June 2006. pgs 730-738.
“Cross-Conversations on Writing, Interviewing, and Editing: A Meta-Interview with Wade Mahon & Eric Schroeder’” Brad Lucas and Margaret Strain, with Chidsey Dickson and Alexis Hart. Kairos: A Journal For Teachers of Writing Volume 10. September, 2005. http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/10.1/
“Does Computer-Mediated Communication Have an Ethics?” in TnT: Texts and Technology. Eds Janice Walker and Ollie O Oviedo. Foreword by Jay Bolter. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, March 2003.
“E-zines and Freshman Composition.” With Dagmar Corrigan. Kairos: A Journal For Teachers of Writing (http://english.ttu.edu/kairos). August, 2002.
Book Review: The Outcomes Books: Debate and Consensus after the WPA Outcomes Statement. Utah State University, 2004. (Invigted by Michael Spooner, Director of USU Press, to give book review).
Book Review: Service-Learning in Technical and Professional Communication. By Melody Bowdon and Blake Scott. Kairos Vol 8 Issue 2. Fall, 2003. http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/8.2/binder.html?reviews/dickson/index.htm
Book Review: Internet Invention: From Literacy to Electracy. By Greg Ulmer. Kairos Vol 8 Issue 1 Spring 2003. http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/8.1/binder.html?reviews/dickson/index.html
Book Review: Composition in Everyday Life. John Mauk and John Metz. Heinle Publishing, 2003. Issue One. InReview. Available at http://www.asu.edu/inreview/Dickson.pdf
Conference Papers
Over the years, I have given peer-reviewed papers at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the Modern Language Association, the Popular Culture Association, and the International Conference on Information and Education Technology.
"Pop-Mythopoesis: the humorous-festive-oracular naturalism of Amy Leach (or: ‘Sometimes it avails to be a goat’)." Northeast Popular & American Culture Association Conference. Dudley, Massachusetts. October 12-October 14, 2023.
"How to teach reasoning as a practice of humility in the undergraduate composition classroom: case study on Immigration." Annual Conference of the Popular Culture Association. San Antonio, Texas April 5-8, 2023.
"Course Packets, Field Trips, Service Learning, Linked Courses, and So On!: Ramifications of the ‘Eccentric’First-Year Composition.” The National Council of Teachers of English’s CCCC Annual Convention. Paper Presentation. Las Vegas, Nv. March 12-15, 2013.
“Casting Gateways: Practical and Theoretical Applications of Screen Recording for Composition.” The National Council of Teachers of English’s CCCC Annual Convention. Paper Presentation. St. Louis, Mo. April 6-9, 2012.
“Multimodal Composition.” The National Council of Teachers of English’s CCCC Annual Convention. Paper Presentation. Atlanta, Ga. April 6-9, 2011.
"Course Packets, Field Trips, Service Learning, Linked Courses, and So On!: Ramifications of the ‘Eccentric’ First-Year Composition.” CCCC Annual Convention. Paper Presentation. New York, NY March 21- 24, 2007.
“Writing As Relationship: Assessing Trust in the Tutor/Student Exchange.” Southeastern Writing Center Association Annual Convention: Paper Presentation, co-authored with Lyndall Nair (Director of LC’s Writing Center) and Karen Hatter (Assist. Director). Chapel Hill, N.C. February 16-18, 2006.
“’Inappropriate For the Classroom’: Zines as (Dys/Dis)Functional Literacy?” Paper presentation. CCCC Annual Convention. San Francisco, CA. March 16-19, 2005.
“Information 'Services' and Invention 'Techniques': Metaphors of Undergraduate Research.” Georgia Conference on Information Literacy. Georgia Southern University. Paper Presentation coauthored with LC Humanities Librarian, Elizabeth Henderson. Statesboro, GA Oct 8-9, 2004.
“Mentoring Matters: A Best Practices Workshop for Mentors of Composition Instructors and Teaching Assistants.” CCCC Annual Convention. Workshop leader. San Antonio, Texas. March 24-27, 2004.
“Service Learning: College Freshman and Elementary School Students.” 24th Annual Spring Writing Conference: “Where Meaning Resides: An Approach to Writing Creatively in the Classroom.” Old Dominion University, May 3, 2002.
“What is Possible in First-Year Composition." MLA: Modern Language Association Annual Conference. Paper Presentation for Session 69: The Role of Theory in First-Year Composition (Hosted by the Association for Writing Program Administrators). New Orleans, Louisiana. December 29, 2001.
“Is Student Writing Worth Archiving? The Short, Happy Life of Student Composition.” Computers and Writing Conference. Ball State University. Muncie, Indiana. May 17-20, 2001.
Interview
“Irony in contemporary rhetoric after 9/11.” With Good Reason (Host: Sarah McConnell). Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Radio. April, 2003. 15 minutes. Archive of show available at: http://www.withgoodreasonradio.org/archives/apr03wgr.html