Greetings from Professor Vandenberg in China

Professor Vandenberg, WRD Department Chair, is in Quanzhou (Fujan Province) China this week at DePaul’s sister school, Huaqaio University. His visit follows one that WRD’s Visiting Professor and Coordinator of WRD’s Graduate TESOL Coordinator, Jason Schneider, made to Huaqiao this summer. Professor Vandenberg gave a talk on writing instruction in US universities on Monday and is meeting with administrators to explore possible connections between WRD and Huaqiao’s English department, including student and faculty exchanges and opportunities for WRD alumni to teach in China.

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Skolnik to Speak on Spirituality and Neuroscience in Jerusalem

Dr. Christine M. Skolnik of the Department of Writing, Rhetoric & Discourse at DePaul University has been invited to speak on a panel about spirituality and neuroscience at the Neuroplasticity and Cognitive Modifiability conference in Jerusalem, June 2-5, 2013, sponsored by the Feuerstein Institute. Dr. Skolnik will speak on a panel titled “Materialism v. Spiritualism on Brain Plasticity” with experts on spirituality and neuroscience from Israel.

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Buckvold and Skolnik Receive QM Award

The DePaul Online Teaching Series recently awarded WRD faculty members John Buckvold and Christine Skolnik with the Quality Matters Star Award and Certificate. Buckvold’s WRD 202 and Skolnik’s WRD 204 each received a perfect 95 in the DePaul Internal QM Review. The QM Award recognizes DOTS-developed online and hybrid courses that meet course design standards of usability and quality.

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Vandenberg featured in ePortfolio Community Profiles

WRD Department Chair Peter Vandenberg is excited to be among the faculty featured in the ePortfolio Community Profiles found on DePaul’s Teaching Commons’ website. In his interview, Professor Vandenberg talks about using ePortfolios in his undergraduate capstone course (WRD 390) for the Writing, Rhetoric and Discourse major. Vandenberg says, “”The key thing about technology is that it always follows the learning outcomes… we don’t want technology to lead; we want technology to follow effectively.”

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News and Updates

Johnston Publishes New Poetry Collection

WRD instructor Allan Johnston’s new poetry collection, Departures, is being published by Finishing Line Press. Departures shares the richness of Johnston’s life growing up in Southern California. Gary Snyder says, “Johnston’s intimate knowledge of Pacific Coast L.A. suburb lifeways comes alive in an old language…even as the ever-present ocean washes over it all.” Whitney Scott, editor of the Black-and-White anthology series, says, “With its rippled tidal waters, dragonflies and cattails, Departures recalls a past that resonates powerfully, part of the present.”

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Seifert Inducted into the 25-Year Club

Twenty-five years, or a quarter of a century, that is the amount of time Eileen Seifert, WRD Associate Director of First-Year Writing, has dedicated to DePaul.  Seifert and other new members of the 25-Year Club were recently recognized for their service by the Office of Mission and Values. Seifert started at DePaul as a part-time first-year writing teacher in 1985, before she began working full-time as an instructor in 1987.

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