Morris and Washburn Take Sabbaticals

Aparna Sinha

Dr. Paul "Skip" Morris, one of the English Department's composition and rhetoric specialists, spent his Fall 2004 sabbatical researching innovations in instructional technology and evaluating writing standards for different disciplines. Laura Lee Washburn, the Department's poetry writing specialist, took a Spring 2005 sabbatical to write new poetry and to travel internationally.

Morris interviewed fifteen instructors and administrators at six colleges in Kansas and Missouri investigating the applications of instructional technology, particularly online presentation, in undergraduate literature survey courses. "In online literature classes," Morris said, "students feel much freer to discuss a given story, play, or poem than in a traditional classroom setting." Morris consulted with Dr. Mark Waldo, University of Nevada-Reno, about the standards used in writing assignments and in assessing student writing in a variety of different disciplines.

In November, Morris chaired a panel entitled "Reading, Writing, Reflecting: Making Literacy Relevant" at the NCTE conference in Indianapolis, where he also presented a paper entitled "You Can't Bank on Meaning: Helping Students to See Themselves in Literature," demonstrating how to engage students on the basis of their own life experiences.

During his leave, Morris wrote two autobiographical essays, one of which he submitted to Sun Magazine. Morris also wrote a review of Literature in the New Media Age by Gunther Kress.

On her sabbatical, Laura Washburn wrote 66 new poems, 26 of which have been submitted for publication, and extensively revised three poetry book-length manuscripts. A few of her poems are available online at www.TheNovember3rdclub.com. Washburn says, "Daily writing gives me the expertise necessary to be in touch with my students' daily struggles with craft."

At the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities in January, she presented "Interrupting the Conversation: A Poet Responds to Visual Art," a reading of her poetry, which was published in the conference proceedings. Washburn also published "Book Recommendations for Undergraduate Courses: An Annotated Bibliography" in the Associated Writing Programs 2005 Pedagogy Papers, and she has been accepted on the international list of reviewers for New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing.

In midst of all this hard work, Washburn took a month-long trip through the diverse landscapes of New Zealand and Sydney, Australia, saw different cultures, visited historical museums, and met new people, but the favorite part of the trip was her swim with the dolphins in the Pacific Ocean.

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