Richard A. Courage

Education

Ph.D.  English Education | Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
M.Phil. English Education
Dissertation: Nontraditional Students and the Basic Writing Course: A Case Study of Classroom Interaction. 
Dissertation committee chair: Prof. Robert A. Bone

M.A. Teaching of English | Columbia University Teachers College

B.A. Philosophy | Manhattan College

Professional Experience [Fulltime]

2003-Present | Professor of English, Westchester Community College/SUNY

1999-2003 | Associate Professor of English, Westchester Community College/SUNY       

1990-1999 | Assistant Professor of English, Westchester Community College/SUNY        

WCC Teaching:

African American Literature, Modern American Writers, Short Story, History of Ideas (Honors), Composition and Literature 1 & 2, Basic Writing 1 & 2, College Success, Student Literacy Corps Seminar.

WCC Service: 

• Off-campus Adjunct Coordinator, 2007-2011. Observe adjuncts in English, communications, foreign languages.
• Assessment Fellow and Co-coordinator, WCC Assessment Initiative, 2002-2004. Organized four faculty retreats. Edited TALK: The WCC Assessment Newsletter.  Developed in-service course Assessment 101. Led workshops and mentored colleagues in developing assessment instruments and reporting data to SUNY Central.
• Faculty Advisor, 2002-2004.  Muslim Students Association and Higher Ground Club.
• Assistant Chair of English Department, 1993-2001. Coordinated placement testing in English, mentored and oriented new English instructors, organized scoring of Basic Writing exit exams and Composition and Literature 1 portfolios, assisted chair with general department procedures and policies. 
• Chair of various departmental and college-wide committees, including committee on information literacy outcomes, Faculty Development Day committee, and Basic Writing Committee. 
• Coordinator of lecture/performance series: Poets and Writers, 1993-1994; U.S.A.: Cultural Crossroads of the World, 1992-1993; Global Survival in the 21st Century, 1991-1992.
• WCC Project Director, 1991. U.S. Department of Education Student Literacy Corps Grant
• Participant in numerous English Department curriculum committees and department and college search committees, college committees on strategic planning, placement and testing, cultural diversity, faculty development and recognition, general education, cultural arts, retention, scholarships, and developmental skills.

1988-1990 | Teacher Trainer.  The Writing Project, Teachers College, Columbia University. Trained New York City teachers from K-12 in classroom applications of the writing process approach.

1986-1988 | Director. Adult Learning Center, New York City Technical College/CUNY. Managed adult basic education and English as a Second Language program serving over 800 students annually.

1982-1986 | Fulltime Instructional Staff in Humanities/Letters. School of New Resources, College of New Rochelle. Taught American and African American literature, freshman composition,  developmental writing, and critical reading.  Supervised part-time instructors.

Part-Time Teaching Experience [Graduate Level]

1993-1996 | Adjunct Instructor.  Graduate School of Education, Fordham University. Taught Reading and Writing across the Curriculum, an in-service education course cosponsoredby the Hudson Valley (formerly Westchester/Putnam) Writing Project.

1989 & 1990 | Adjunct Instructor.  Teachers College, Columbia University. Taught College Teaching of English Summer Institute in the Teaching of Writing.

Fall 1979 | Teaching Intern.  Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication,Teachers College, Columbia University.  Co-taught Methods of Teaching Shakespeare with Prof. Jonathan Lovell   

Part-Time Teaching Experience [Undergraduate Level]

Summer 1987 | Adjunct Instructor.  SEEK Program, New York City Technical College. Taught intensive college-preparatory writing courses.

1980-1981 | Adjunct Instructor.  Polytechnic University.  Taught remedial writing and freshman English.

1980-1981 | Adjunct Instructor.  School of Continuing Education, New York University. Taught remedial writing and freshman English.

Consulting/Outside Evaluation

2011-12 | Consulting Reader.  University of Illinois Press. Evaluated proposals/manuscripts in African American studies.

Fall 2010 | Evaluator.  National Endowment for the Humanities. Summer Stipends Applications.

2008–10 | Adjunct Professor, Member of Doctoral Committee. Union Institute and University.  Nathan Harpaz, Ph.D. candidate in art history.

Spring 2008  | School Inspection Team Member.  Charter Schools Institute, State University of New York

Spring 1997 | Curriculum Consultant in English.  Northern Westchester BOCES

1995-96  | Textbook Reviewer.  Harcourt Brace

1995 | Consultant for Portfolio Assessment. Norwalk Community/Technical College English Department

1990–93 | Staff Development Consultant. Teachers College Writing Project 

Scholarly Publications

• Essay: “Charles White and the Black Chicago Renaissance.” Accepted for 2012 publication by The International Review of African American Art.
• Essay: “James Weldon Johnson and the New England Imaginary.” Invited to revise and resubmit to MELUS.
• Essay in progress: “Chicago’s Letters Group: Missing Link in African American Cultural History.”
• Book:  The Muse in Bronzeville: African American Creative Expression in Chicago, 1932-1950. Co- author: Robert Bone.  (Rutgers University Press, 2011).
• Book manuscript in progress: Voices of Bronzeville [Companion anthology to The Muse in Bronzeville, proposal submitted to Multi-ethnic Literatures of the America Series of Rutgers UP at invitation of series editor Prof. Amritjit Singh]
• Essay: “New Media and the Scholarly Self” in Presence in the Mindfield: Art, Identify, and the Technology of Transformation. Eds. Roy Ascott and Luis M. Girao. Universidade de Aveiro, 2011. 
• Catalogue Essay and Artists’ Biographies: Convergence: Jewish and African American Artists in Depression-era Chicago, Exhibition at Koehnline Museum of Art, Desplaines, IL, February 7 - March 28, 2008 [co-curator]
• Research Note: “On First Looking into the Arna Bontemps Papers.” The Courant. No. 7 (Fall 2007). Syracuse University, Special Collections Research Center.
• Book Chapter: “Asynchronicity: Delivering Composition and Literature in the Cyberclassroom” in Delivering College, Composition: The Fifth Canon. Ed. Kathleen Blake Yancey. Boynton/Cook, 2006.
• Reference Articles:  “Lucy Terry Prince, Author” and “Education: Struggles and Achievements” in African American Heritage in the Upper Housatonic Valley. Ed. David Levinson. Berkshire Publishing Group, 2006.
• Review/Essay: “Dangerous Narratives: Live from Death Row by Mumia Abu-Jamal.” College Composition and Communication, February 1996. 
• Essay: “Interaction of Public and Private Literacies.” College Composition and Communication, December 1993.  Nominated by Prof. Ira Shor for the 1993-94 Braddock Award of the Conference on English Education.
• Review:  Carl Kaestle et al. Literacy in the U.S.: Readers and Reading since 1880. College Composition and Communication, May 1992.
• Essay: “Experiential Learning through Community Service: The Student Literacy Corps.” Colleague 92, a publication of the State University of New York community colleges.
• Review/Essay: “Basic Writing: End of a Frontier?” Journal of Teaching Writing, Fall/Winter 1990.
• Essay: “James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain: Voices of a People.” CLA Journal, June 1989.
• Essay: “Teaching Writing to Academically Underprepared Adult Students: The School of New Resources Experience.” ERIC Document 276 060, April 1987.
• Essay: “What’s Different about Teaching Adult Student Writers?” ERIC Document 259 372, December 1985.

Newspaper/Newsletter Articles

• “The Hidden Face of Globalization: A Video Review," WCCFT Newsletter, November 2006.
• “The Costs of War.” Op-ed page. Berkshire Eagle. October 29, 2005.
• “Three Little Words.”  Op-ed page. Berkshire Eagle.  February 11, 2005.
• “Public School Stakes Its Future on the Montessori Way.” Education page. New York Times. February 2, 2005.
• “Students Get into History by Getting into Character.” Education page.  New York Times. June 23, 2004
• “Tricks of the Trade.” Review of Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature like a Professor. Berkshire Eagle, February 8, 2004.
• “Celebrating Du Bois at Williams College.” Op-ed page.  Berkshire Eagle. December 1, 2003.
• “The Empty Nest.” Op-ed page.  Berkshire Eagle. October 6, 2003.
• “Closing the Loop: A Case Study.” TALK: The WCC Assessment Newsletter, October 2003.
• “Doing Better by Du Bois.” Op-ed page. Berkshire Eagle.  September 7, 2003.
• “The Way We Were; The Way We Weren’t.” Review of The Weather Underground. Berkshire Record. August 29, 2003.
• “Two Black Students, Two White Teachers.” Op-ed page. Gannet Suburban Newspapers, March 29, 1998. 
• Book Review: Live from Death Row by Mumia Abu-Jamal. Berkshire Eagle, October 1, 1995.
• When the Median Age of Freshmen is 33.” New York Times Education Quarterly, August 30, 1981.

Awards and Grants

• Superior Achievement in History Publication Award for The Muse in Bronzeville: African American Creative Expression in Chicago, 1932-1950. Illinois State Historical Society, April 2012.
• Co-director. The Role of Place in African American Biography.  National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for College Faculty, 2011. Partner institutions: Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and Williams College.
• Short-term Fellowship in African American Studies. Black Metropolis Research Consortium, University of Chicago, June 2009.
• Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship.  State University of New York, May 2009.
• Westchester Community College Foundation Excellence in Scholarship Award, September 2008.
• National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend – June/July 2008. Writers of the Bronzeville Renaissance.  Designated as a “We the People” Project.
• Co-director. Of Migration and Renaissance: Harlem/NewYork and South Side/Chicago: 1915-1975.  National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Humanities Workshop - 2007-08. Partner institutions: Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Boston Symphony Orchestra Education Programs, and Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail.
• Co-director.  The Shaping Role of Place in African American Biography. National Endowment for the Humanities “We the People” Curriculum Development Project - 2005-06. Partner institutions: Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail, three public school districts and four local history organizations in Western Massachusetts.
• Westchester Community College Assessment Fellowship.  Release time - 2002-04. 
• Westchester Community College Distance Learning Fellowships - 2001-04. Stipends to develop three online course sites: African American Literature, Modern American Writers, Short Story.
• Community College Leadership Program.  University of Texas – Austin. NISOD Excellence Award - 1998.
• Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.  State University of New York - 1997.
• Fellow of the Center for Faculty, Westchester Community College.  Release time to conduct Writing across the Curriculum research and lead workshops.
• National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend - 1993. One Literacy or Many?: Testing a Theory.

Scholarly Papers/Presentations

• “Of Migration and Renaissance: Chicago’s South Side as Crucible of Artistic Creativity.” Urban History Seminar. Chicago History Museum. Scheduled for October 18, 2012.
• “The Vexed Modernism of Katherine Dunham.” Paper accepted for Convention of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Pittsburgh, PA, September 26-30, 2012
• “Nihil ex Nihilo: Chicago’s New Negro Intellectuals of the 1920s and the Emergence of the Black Chicago Renaissance.” Paper accepted for American Literature Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, May 24-27, 2012
• “James Weldon Johnson and the New England Imaginary” and “Horace Cayton, Richard Wright, and the Documentary Spirit.” Both papers presented at Convention of the College Language Association, Atlanta, GA., March 28-30, 2012
•  “New Media and the Scholarly Self.” Presence in the Mindfield: Art, Identity and the Technology of Transformation. 12th Consciousness Reframed International Research Conference. Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, Portugal. November 30 - December 2, 2011
• “Re-presenting Racial Reality: Chicago’s New (Media) Negro Artists of the Depression Era.” Transcultural Tendencies /Transmedial Transactions. Shanghai Institute of Visual Art, Fudan University, PRC, August 26-27, 2011.
• “James Weldon Johnson and the New England Imaginary.” The Role of Place in African American Biography. NEH Summer Institute for College Faculty. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams, MA, June 27, 2011.
• “Visual Artists of the Black Chicago Renaissance.” Westchester Community College Faculty Development Day, May 17, 2011.
• “Fenton Johnson, the New Negro, and the New Poetry.” American Literature Association, San Francisco, May 28, 2010; also presented at Black Chicago History Forum, Roosevelt University, April 14, 2010.
• “Artists of the Black Chicago Renaissance.” Carol Russett Distinguished Chair for English Lecture. Westchester Community College, Valhalla, NY. November 4, 2008. 
• “Richard Wright and the ‘Wild River.’” Richard Wright Centennial Conference, American University of Paris.  June 20, 2008.
• “Artists of the Black Chicago Renaissance.” Of Migration and Renaissance: Harlem/NewYork and South Side/Chicago: 1915- | 1975. NEH Faculty Humanities Workshop. Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA.  May 31, 2008.
• “Reading Abolitionist Texts: Stowe, Douglass, Jacobs, Walker, Equiano.” Shaping Role of Place in African American Biography, NEH Curriculum Development Project Colloquium. Bushnell-Sage Memorial Library, Sheffield, MA, July 12, 2005.
• “Design and Assessment of Writing Assignments.” Assessment 101. Westchester Community College, February 18, 2004.
• “Using an Assessment Newsletter to Encourage Faculty Involvement.” SUNY General Education Assessment Conference. Albany, NY. November 13, 2003.
• “Through the Open Door: Teaching and Learning at Open Admissions Community Colleges.” Lecture and video presentation. Westchester Community College Division of Arts and Humanities Symposium, May 2001.
• “Interviewing: An Essential Skill in the Writer’s Repertoire.” Hudson Valley Writing Project Fall Conference, September 1995.
• “High School/College Articulation in English.” Mahopac High School Department of English, January 1995
• “Assessment of Writing Portfolios.” Norwalk Community/Technical College Department of English, September 1994.
• “Oral History Interviewing and Report Writing.” Teachers College Writing Project Spring Conference, April 1994.
• “Different Readers/Different Readings: A Collaborative Learning Demonstration.” Westchester Community College Faculty Development Day, March 1994.
• “Educators under Fire: Change and Reaction.” National Writing Project Annual Directors’ Meeting, November 1993.
• “Learning Journals in the Student Literacy Corps Seminar.” Westchester/Putnam Writing Project Fall Conference, October 1993.
• “Dilemmas of College Youth.” Westchester Community College Project Mainstream, April 1993.
• “Four Perspectives on Cultural Diversity.” Westchester Community College Faculty Development Day, March 1992.
• “Exploration of Multicultural Bases for Reading and Writing in College.” Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention, March 1992.
• “The Student Literacy Corps: Experiential Learning through Community Service.” SUNY Council of Writing Annual Conference.
• “Interaction of Public and Private Literacies in Basic Writing Courses.” Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention, March 1991.
• “Theory of Multiple Literacies.”  Teachers College Conference on Intergenerational Literacy, March 1991
• “Reading/Writing Connections in Memoir Writing.” Teachers College Writing Project Spring Conference, February 1990.
• “Teachers as Researchers.” Teachers College Writing Project Fall Conference, November 1989.
• “The Rich History of Community-based Reading Groups.” Teachers College Literature Project Year-end Conference, June 1989.
• “A Writer’s ABC’s.” District 27, New York City Board of Education Writing Process Conference, April 1989
• “Revision: Helping Students See Beyond First Drafts.” Teachers College Writing Project Spring Conference, January 1989.
• “Learning How to Learn from Errors: Another Look at Editing.” Teachers College Writing Project Fall Conference, October 1988.
• “Learning Disabilities and the Nontraditional College Student.” City University of New York and the Linguistic Society of America Conference on Language and Literacy, July 1986
• “Teaching Writing to Academically Underprepared Adult Students.” Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention, March 1986.    
• “Teaching Dyslexic College Students.” National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention, November 1985.
• “Developmental vs. Remedial Approaches to Basic Writing Instruction.” New York State English Council Annual Convention, October 1985.
• “Designing Effective Syllabi.”  School of New Resources, College of New Rochelle, Fall Faculty Conference, September 1984.
• “Incorporating Life Experiences into Writing Assignments.” School of New Resources, College of New Rochelle, Spring Faculty Conference, February 1984.
• “Writing across the Curriculum: Three Approaches.” School of New Resources, College of New Rochelle,
• Fall Faculty Conference, September 1983.
• “Learning Outcomes for Language Arts Courses.” School of New Resources, College of New Rochelle, Spring Faculty Conference, February 1983.
• “Writing with Clarity and Organization.” School of Continuing Education, New York University, Effective Learning Workshop, February 1981.

Presentations/Readings
based on The Muse in Bronzeville: African American Creative Expression in Chicago, 1932-1950

• Lecture/signing for Adult Education Program,  Temple Shaaray Tefila, Bedford, NY, scheduled for June 26, 2012
• Lecture/signing at Roosevelt University, sponsored by Black Chicago History Forum, March 19, 2012
• Lecture/signing at Hyde Park Historical Society, Chicago, March 17, 2012
• Lecture/signing at Montgomery Place Retirement Residence, Chicago, March 16, 2012
• Presentation for Black Metropolis Research Consortium Luncheon, Chicago History Museum, March 16, 2012
• Lecture/signing at Kendal on Hudson Retirement Residence, Sleepy Hollow, NY, February 28, 2012
• Lecture/signing at Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, Chicago, sponsored by Black Chicago History Forum, December 17, 2011
• Book Talk at Columbia University Teachers College, Tuesday, November 15, 2011
• Poets and Writers Series, Westchester Community College, October 13, 2011

Professional Affiliations 

• American Studies Association.
• College Language Association,
• Journal of Basic Writing  - Editorial Board since 1994.
• MELUS: The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States.
• Modern Language Association.
• National Council of Teachers of English – member since 1979.
• Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail - Advisory Council since 2004.

Printable C.V.