Diane K. Olson
Education
State University of New York at Albany; Writing, Teaching and Criticism; English Department, PhD, 2006, Writing, Teaching and Criticism with High Honors and Distinction, Specializations: Composition Studies, Pedagogy, Rhetoric, Critical Theory, Critical Ethnography, Discourse Theory
University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, English Department, 1993-94, course work toward Ph.D. and graduate course work in the Interdisciplinary Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, B.A. English and Cultural Studies, 1992; Magna Cum Laude; University Honors Program
Teaching Experience
2010-2014 Inner Peace and Healing Courses taught in the Greater Des Moines and West Des Moines Metropolitan Region from 2010-2014. Co-taught Inner Peace and Healing Courses.
Brittain Teaching Fellow, Teaching Fellowship. The School of Literature, Culture and Communication, Georgia Tech
English 1101: Introduction to Cultural Studies (Fall 1999-Spring 2002)
A writing-intensive course intended to introduce students to critical inquiry in cultural studies. During the course, students learn about the theories and politics of representation characterizing ethnographic work, and they research and write mini-ethnographies.
English 1102: Introduction to the Cultural Studies of Science and Technology (Spring 2000-Spring 2002)
A writing-intensive course about the politics of developments in virtual technologies.
State University of New York at Albany, English Department
Reading Literature: Contemporary American Literature (Summer 1999)
A writing -intensive course introducing students to the multiple rhetorics of "postmodern" literature.
Reading Poetry: Contemporary & Experimental Poetics (Spring 1999)
A writing-intensive course in which students not only read poetry, but also conduct theoretical inquiry into the creation, interpretive strategies and cultural implications of poetry. A wide range of 'poetic' theorists, e.g., Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldua, Meena Alexander, Charles Bernstein, Trinh Minh-ha, Kathleen Stewart, Adrienne Rich, Maria Damon, John Berger are read and discussed in addition to the poetry.
Reading Prose Fiction: The Politics & Poetics of Critical Fiction (Spring 1997, 1997-98)
A writing-intensive course examining the interplay between literary experimentation and historical, technological and cultural developments over the past five decades. Particular attention is paid to the incorporation of literary techniques within the human sciences and journalism and to the "blurring of genres."
Reading Poetry: Multicultural Poetics (1995-96)
A writing intensive course investigating the diverse styles of contemporary and multicultural poetries and poetics. Assignments encourage students to practice writing in the multiple poetic styles represented.
Writing Tutor, SUNY Albany Writing Center (1994-95)
Worked with undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplinary and professional backgrounds on the revision of writing and development of writing strategies.
University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana (1993-1994)
Rhetoric 105 (1993-1994)
A course providing students with the rhetorical and analytical approaches necessary for writing in the university and beyond. The course also introduced students to a variety of forms of social critique.
Conference Presentations
"Emotional Cartographies: The Gender-Based Politics of Space in Academia," Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, March 2006
"Atomization: The Field (of Composition) from Afar," Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, March 2005
"A Reversal of Influence: How Composition Might Transform the 'Institution' of Cultural Studies." Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Antonio, March 2004.
"Navigating the Institutional Labyrinth: Substituting the Question of Effects for the Questions of Transformation." Conference on College Composition and Communication, New York City, March 2003.
"Performing Institutional Discourse: What It Feels Like for a Girl," Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, March 2002.
"Returning to the Aesthetic in Critiques of Expressivist Discourse: Experimental Ethnography as Critical Pedagogy," Conference on College Composition and Communication, April 2001.
"'The 'Other' Culture Wars: An Ethno-History of the Conflicts between 'High Theory' and 'Poetics' in a Graduate Program in Composition Studies," Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, April 1998.
"De-institutionalized Docility: An Autoethnographic Walk through an Ethnographically-Wild Museum," Cross-Cultural Poetics Conference, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, October 1997.
"Scripting Embodied Academic Selves: Transcending the Situated Self," Conference on College Composition and Communication, Milwaukee, March 1996.
"Border-crossing in the Honors Curriculum," Iowa Conference on the Teaching of English, Des Moines, October 1992.
Committee Work
Writing Program Committee, Georgia Tech's School of Literature, Culture and Communication, 2001-2002
Research Areas:
Rhetoric, Cultural Studies, Critical Ethnography, Composition Theory, Composition Pedagogy, Discourse Theory, Feminist Theory, Post-Marxist and Foucauldian Theory, Poetics as Cultural Critique
Graduate Courses Taken:
History of Rhetoric
Discourse Theory
Critical Pedagogy in English Studies
Composing Critical Pedagogies
Proseminar in the Teaching of Rhetoric
Research Methodologies in Ethnology
Cultural Studies: The Discourse of Otherness
Cultural Studies: The History of Cultural Studies
History of English Studies: 1880-Present
Feminist Theory
Feminist Research Methods
History of Literary Theory
Race in American Literature
Poetics and Literary Practice
Poetics Workshop
Poetics and Technology
Dissertation Committee/References
Dr. Steve North, English Department, State University of New York at Albany, Humanities Building, 1400 Washington Ave, Albany, New York, 12222, tel. (518)442-4069
Dr. Don Byrd, English Department, State University of New York at Albany, Humanities Building, 1400 Washington Ave, Albany, New York, 12222, tel. (518)442-4055
Dr. Ron Bosco, English Department, State University of New York at Albany, Humanities Building, 1400 Washington Ave, Albany, New York, 12222, tel. (518)442-4077
Dr. Cyril Knoblauch, Chair of the English Department, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28223-0001. tel. (704)547-2298
Dr. Daryl Ogden, Project Grad USA, Vice President Strategy, tel: 202-834-0229, [email protected] (My supervisor at Georgia Tech).