CURRICULUM VITAE
Roger Thompson
487 Jacktown Rd.
Lexington, VA 24450
(540)462-2981
Thompsonrc@vmi.edu
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Last update 8/01/03
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
1999-Present Assistant Professor of American Literature, Virginia Military
Institute, Lexington, VA.
EDUCATION
1999 Ph.D. Rhetoric/Composition and American Literature, Texas Christian University.
Dissertation: "Controlling Kairos: Emerson's Rhetoric of Transcendence and a Nascent American Literature." Committee: Richard Leo Enos, Co-Chair, Fred Erisman, Co-Chair, Australia Tarver, James Kinneavy, University of Texas, Austin
1995 M.A. English, Baylor University—Major: American Literature;
Thesis: "'A Sad Self-Knowledge': Emerson’s Unreconciled Duality on the Problem of Evil." Director: J. R. LeMaster
1993 B. A. English, Baylor University—Major: English Literature
The History of Rhetoric, 2003
Literature and the Problem of Evil, 2002
The American Renaissance, 1999, 2001, 2003
American Nature Writing, 2001
Advanced Composition, 2000
American Literature Survey, 2000-2002
Public Speaking, 1999-2003
Major American Writers, TCU, 1998.
First-year Composition, VMI 1999-2001, 2002-2003; TCU, 1995-1996.
Second-year Composition/Argument, VMI 2000, 2001 , 2002-2003; TCU, 1997, 1998.
INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE
Banff Environmental Institute Committee, Chair, 2002-Present
Undergraduate Research Initiative Steering Committee, 2002-Present
Undergraduate Research Symposium Steering Committee, Spring 2002
Institute Internship Committee, 2000-Present
Executive Assimilation Oversight Committee, 2000-2002
Faculty Education Committee, Chair, 2000-2002
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT SERVICE
Career Development Committee, Chair, 2000-Present
Composition Committee, 1999-Present
Assessment Committee, 2000-2002
English Writing Awards Committee, Chair, 1999
English Honors Committee, 1999
Career Development Committee, Chair, 1999-Present
Developed and Initiated Graduate Student Newsletter, TCU, 1996-1999.
Speaker Selection Committee, Chair, TCU Rhetoric/Literature
Symposium,1997.
Program Organization, Chair, TCU Rhetoric Symposium, 1996.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Ralph Waldo Emerson Society Advisory Board, 2003-Present.
Editorial Board, Negations, 2000-2002
Chair, Rhetoric Session, South Central Modern Language Association, 2001.
Secretary, Rhetoric Session, South Central Modern Language Association, 2000.
Books:
Dictionary of Literary Biography. Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century American Nature Writers: Prose. Co-edited with Daneil Patterson and J. Scott Byrson. Forthcoming, 2005.
Dictionary of Literary Biography. Twentieth-Century American Nature Writers: Poetry. Co-edited with J. Scott Byrson. Forthcoming, 2004.
Dictionary of Literary Biography. Twentieth-Century American Nature Writers: Prose. Co-edited with J. Scott Bryson, BCL, Inc, 2003.
Articles/Chapters:
"Two Unpublished Longfellow Letters from the Agassiz/Shaw Family." Resources in American Literary Study. forthcoming 2003.
"Introduction," with J. Scott Bryson. Dictionary of Literary Biography. American Nature Writers: Prose. BCL, Inc. 2003
"'Fate', September 11, and an Ethical Hermeneutic" Pedagogy 2.3 (Fall 2002): 420-425
"Emerson, Divinity, and Rhetoric in Transcendentalist Nature Writing and Twentieth-Century Eco-Poetry" Ecological Poetry: A Critical Introduction, ed. Scott Bryson. Utah UP, 2002.
"Weaver's Culture Doctor: Curing the Commodification of the Word." Negations 4.1 (2002).
"Ralph Waldo Emerson and the American Kairos." Rhetoric and Kairos: Essays in History, Theory, and Praxis. Ed. Phillip Sipiora and James S. Baumlin. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2002.
"Kairos Revisited: An Interview with James Kinneavy." Rhetoric Review 19.1-2 (Fall 2000).
"Emerson's Debt to Plato and St. Augustine: An Unexplored Rhetorical Tradition." Selected Proceedings of the 1998 Texas Tech University English Graduate Conference. Lubbock, TX, 1998.
Reviews:
"James Perrin Warren's Culture of Eloquence: Oratory and Reform in Antebellum America." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 31.1 (Winter 2001).
Reference Entries:
"Edwin Way Teale," with Thomas Potter. Dictionary of Literary Biography. American Nature Writers: Prose. Ed. Roger Thompson and J. Scott Bryson. BCL, Inc., 2003.
"Charles Timothy Brooks." Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 243: The American Renaissance in New England, Fourth Series. Ed. Wes Mott. Detroit: Bruccoli, Clark, Layman, 2001.
"Reynolds Price" Contemporary Novelists, 7th ed. Updated entry by William Schafer. Detroit: St. James Press, 2001.
Non-Academic
"Reading on the Rocks: A Summer List of American Nature Writing" Blue Ridge Outdoors (June 2002)
ACADEMIC PRESENTATIONS
"Stowe, Slavery, and the Culture of Literacy Reform." RMMLA, MIssoula, MT, October 2003.
"New Prospects: Obligations to the Rhetorical Mr. Emerson." Ralph Waldo Emerson Society, American Literature Association, Cambridge, MA, May 2003.
"Nineteenth-Century Rhetorics and Emersonian Imagination" Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Vancouver, British Columbia, October, 2001.
"Rhetoric, Emerson, and Ecstasy" Ralph Waldo Emerson Society, American Literature Association, Cambridge, MA, May, 2001.
"Nineteenth-Century American Rhetoric, Ecstasy, and the Emersoniana." American Society for the History of Rhetoric, National Communication Association, Seattle, November 2000.
"Margaret Fuller and Mary Moody Emerson: Rhetorics Negotiating Silent
Spaces." Rhetoric Society of America, Washington, DC, June 2000.
"Knowing and Telling: Emerson’s Poet and the Case of ‘Benito Cereno.’"
SCMLA, Memphis, TN, October, 1999.
"Understanding American Literacy Reform: Frederick Douglass and the Culture
of Spirit." University of Tulsa Comparative Literature Symposium,
Tulsa, OK, February, 1999.
"Emerson, Kairos, and the Transcendental Rhetoricians." American Society for
the History of Rhetoric, New York City, November, 1998.
"Spiritualized Literacy and 19th Century Reform through Fuller and Stowe."
South Central Modern Language Association, New Orleans, November,
1998. Winner of SCMLA Best Paper in New Historical Literary Studies.
"Mary Moody Emerson, Kairos, and a Romantic Rhetoric." Texas A&M—
Commerce EGAD Conference, Commerce, TX, July, 1998.
"The Sacred Act of Writing: Stowe on Literacy and Reform." Rhetoric Society of
America, Pittsburgh, PA, June, 1998.
"Emerson's Debt to Plato and St. Augustine: An Unexplored Rhetorical
Tradition." Texas Tech Graduate English Conference, Lubbock, TX, February, 1998.
"Calvinistic Dogma to Theory of Language: Revelation, Incarnation, and the
Word in Mary Moody Emerson and Ralph Waldo Emerson." University
of North Texas Languaging Conference, Denton, TX, January, 1998.
"'Attendant of Wisdom, the Master of Eloquence': Plato and St. Augustine as
Forefathers of Transcendental Rhetoric." American Society for the History of Rhetoric, Chicago, November, 1997.
"Evil Confronted and Reconciled: Emerson and Tillich on the Problem of Evil."
University of Texas at Arlington Humanities Colloquium, Arlington, TX, April, 1997.
"Mistaya: Terry Brooks Blurring the Boundaries of Reality." South Central
Modern Language Association, San Antonio, TX, November, 1996.
"'Unity in Variety': Echoes of Emerson's Nature in the Works of Dillard,
Leopold, and Nelson." Kansas State University Cultural Studies Conference, Manhattan, KS, February, 1996.
INVITED PRESENTATIONS
Literature and the Problem of Evil. Virginia Public Radio, March 2003.
Lecture on Literacy Reform in 19th Century America. Course on the
American Renaissance, Professor Linda Walker, Baylor University, October, 1998.
Presentation on Composition Course Organization. Teaching Assistant Training,
TCU, August, 1997.
Lecture on Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance." Honors World Literature
Class, Trinity Christian Academy, December, 1996.
Lecture on the Problem of Evil and Suffering in the Works of Emerson. Graduate
Course on the American Renaissance, Professor Linda Walker, Baylor
University, September, 1996.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT/CONTINUING EDUCATION
American Literature Association, 2002
Spilman Symposium, November 1999, 2000.
Workshop with Gary Tate, November 1999.
The Art of Teaching, Workshop, October 1999.
Developing Assignments and Assessment, Workshop with Ed White, October
1999.
Academic Tutor, Baylor University, 1995.
Sigma Tau Delta, English Honor Society, 1990-1995.
Co-Editor, Phoenix, Literary Journal of Baylor, 1992-1993.
SCHOLARLY AWARDS
Awarded 1998 SCMLA Best Paper in New Historical Literary Studies Prize, Nov.
1998 SCMLA Conference.
TCU Dissertation Fellowship, 1997-1998 appointment, included primary research
at the Houghton Library, Harvard University.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Website Administrator, Camp Chippewa for Boys, a Not-for-Profit Organization, 1999-present
Judge, Ft. Worth ISD MLK Day Essay Contest, 1997.
Judge, Omni America Federal Credit Union Student Essay Contest, 1996.
Community Tutor 1989-1990.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS IN GRADUATE SCHOOL
Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies in English, 1998-99.
Dissertation Fellow, TCU, 1997-1998.
Graduate Instructor, TCU, 1995-1997.
Academic Support Counselor, Office of Student Retention, Baylor University,
1994-1995.
MEMBERSHIPS
American Society for the History of Rhetoric
Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association
Ralph Waldo Emerson Society
Rhetoric Society of America
Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association
South Central Modern Language Association