Faculty Directory
John Selzer
Professor of English
Contact:
116 Sparks Building
University Park, PA 16802
Office Phone: 814-865-1438
jls25@psu.edu
www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/l/jls25/
Office Hours:
By Appointment
Educational History:
Ph.D. Miami University
B.A. Xavier University
Research Interests:
Rhetoric and composition; rhetoric in technical and scientific communities; Kenneth Burke
Awards:
Fellow, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, 1999
Winner of awards for "best book" and "best article" from ATTW
Winner of Charles Kneupper Award for best article in Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 1996
Major Publications:
Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments (Allyn and Bacon, 2001; with Les Faigley)
Good Reasons (Allyn and Bacon, 2000; with Les Faigley)
Rhetorical Bodies (University of Wisconsin Press, 1999; with Sharon Crowley)
Kenneth Burke in Greenwich Village: Conversing with the Moderns, 1915-1931 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1996)
Understanding Scientific Prose (University of Wisconsin Press, 1993)
Conversations: Readings for Writing (Allyn and Bacon)
Technical Communication (Irwin; with several others)
Books in Progress:
Kenneth Burke in the 1930s (with Anne George)
1977: The Cultural Year in Composition (with Brent Henze and Wendy Sharer)
National Professional Service:
President Elect, Rhetoric Society of America
Recently President, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing
Review manuscripts for many journals and university presses
Teaching Statement:
For undergraduates, I enjoy teaching introductory and advanced writing courses; advanced electives in rhetoric (e.g., Rhetorical Bodies; The Rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement); and classes related to my work on Kenneth Burke (e.g., Kenneth Burke and His Circles: Greenwich Village in the 1920s). I also teach graduate courses on Burke, on the rhetoric of science and technology, and on history of composition. I try my best to keep several principles in mind in all my classes: that students and I ought to be engaged in a mutual, often collaborative intellectual inquiry; that graduate students and undergraduates can often publish work produced in courses; that critical reading, critical writing, and active citizenship go hand in hand; and that a good teacher somehow makes the classroom simultaneously "safe" and "dangerous."
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