Introductions

Normally when I teach a course, I introduce myself on the first day and ask all my students to do the same. Here is the sort of introduction I give:

I was born in Charleston, SC and grew up in Winston-Salem, NC. I received my undergraduate degree from Davidson College and my M.A. and Ph.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill. I taught at Emory University for a year as a visiting professor before coming to Mercer in 1992. I am a full professor in the Department of English, and served as Director of the First Year Seminar for five years, up until Spring 2009. I am currently serving as the new (and first) Director of the Writing Program in Mercer’s College of Liberal Arts. My wife and I have two children: a son, Carlyle, who is 20, and a daughter, Ellyson, who is 17. We also have a dog of uncertain origin (but perhaps a Irish wolfhound-terrier mix) named Katie, who is 12, and a cat who seems to be a Maine Coon named Cordie, who is not quite a year old. I play saxophone and love music, movies and food.

Please include a picture and background for yourself in your first blog post, so we can all get to know you!

Welcome to the Course

Welcome to the blog for my online English 264 course: Survey of English Literature, Romantics to Moderns. I have taught the course more than 30 times over my years at Mercer, but by far the majority of them in a traditional, face-to-face classroom setting. I taught my first online section in the summer of 2006. That experiment seemed successful enough to repeat, which I have done each subsequent summer. I look forward to offering the online course once again
this summer, and I am glad you are part of it.

During this summer session, I will use the blog to convey information about the class and about the readings and assignments. I will also use it to suggest discussion questions you may wish to pursue in your own blog for this course.

That’s right, you will be setting up and maintaining your own blog for this course, too! Let me reassure you that it is easy; there are instructions on our course’s web site and Blackboard page. On your blog you will analyze and discuss the readings. I also want you to read and comment on the blogs of your classmates. In this way I hope to emulate the classroom discussion that is a large part of the face-to-face English 264 course.