Donald Socha
  • Position: Lecturer
  • Department: English Language & Literature
  • Campus Address: Anspach 023
  • Office Hours: Fall 2011
  • Phone: 989-774-7412
  • Email: socha1de@cmich.edu
  • Vitae: Curriculum Vitae

Courses:

  • ENG 100
  • ENG 101
  • ENG 134
  • ENG 201

About:

I have been teaching as a temporary instructor of English at Central Michigan University, since 1997, where I teach courses in composition and introductory courses in literature and have also worked as an active volunteer consultant for Writing Center at Central Michigan University from 1998 until 2000. I was born in Cheboygan, Michigan and completed my undergraduate at Central Michigan University where I also completed my Masters degree.

Degrees and Universities:

  • 2000 (May): M.A., Composition and Communication, Central Michigan University.
  • 1995: B.A., Double Major in English and Philosophy, Central Michigan University.

Honors and Recognitions:

  • 2007-2008: Awarded a FIT grant for “Reconceptualizing ‘Enemy Territory’ and ‘Enmity’ in Social Science Research.
  • 2003-04: Voted by peers to serve a second term on the Composition Committee
  • 2002-03: Voted by peers to serve on the Composition Committee
  • 2002: Ordained Bodhisattva, Montreal Zen Center, Montreal Canada
  • 2001: Faculty Appreciation Award, Central Michigan University.
  • 1998: Faculty Appreciation Award, Central Michigan University.

Professional Organizations:

  • American Anthropological Association
  • Michigan Sociological Association

Academic Conference Presentations and Workshops:

  • Presented in an Invited Session at the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (San Francisco, November 19th, 2008), Session Title: “Inimical Terrains” in Ethnographic Fieldwork.
  • FrontPage class on February 24th 2006
  • Workshop on the New 201 Syllabus Fall Semester 2005
  • The Sixteenth Annual National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing (Penn State, October 29-31, 1999). Proposal for Interactive Panel Discussion accepted for “Unmasking the Center.”
  • Annual International Virginia Woolf Conference (Plymouth, NH, June 12-15, 1997). Paper proposal accepted for “Woolf, Winterson, and the Moths of Modernism.” Women and Science Program Summer Institute (Oshkosh WI, June, 1998).

Conferences/Seminars Attended:

  • Summer Seminar in Rhetoric and Composition, Michigan State University, June 1-6, 2008
  • December 2007: I attended the Pervasive Challenges in Teaching/Learning Workshop facilitated by Todd Zakrajsek, FaCIT Director.
  • 106th Annual American Anthropological Association Conference: Washington, DC, November 28-December 2, 2007.
  • September 2007: I led the first Brown Bag discussion group for the department. It was based on an essay by Downs and Wardle entitled: "Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions: (Re)Envisioning ‘First-Year Composition’ as "Introduction to Writing Studies."
  • Fast but Fair Methods to Grade Writing Seminar, Central Michigan University, January 21st, 2005
  • 2nd annual Critical Thinking Conference, Traverse City, Michigan, June 3rd, 2004
  • The Thomas R. Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition “Composing Identity” Louisville KY, October 10-12, 2002
  • The Sixteenth Annual National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing (Penn State, October 29-31, 1999).
  • National Educational Association Conference on Higher Education: Savannah, GA 1998.
  • International Studies Association; San Diego CA, April 17-20, 1996.

Current Research Interests:

  • I belong to a reading group led by retired faculty members dedicated to reading current, theoretical texts.
  • I am also a member of a group of writers who meet weekly to discuss our work.
  • Composition and Rhetoric Pedagogies
  • Hermeneutics of the Subject
  • Writing Center Consultancy
  • Lyricism in poetry and prose
  • History and theories of poetics and aesthetics
  • Theories of Ethics from Mikhail Bakhtin to Immanuel Levinas
  • Postmodern forms of Discourse, Subjectivity, and Poetics
  • Qualitative, Ethnographic, and Heuristic Research