William Banks
About
Professor William P. Banks directs the University Writing Program, which coordinates Writing Across the Curriculum/Writing Intensive courses for East Carolina University, and the Tar River Writing Project, a local site of the National Writing Project. Will teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in rhetoric and composition, children’s literature, and women’s and gender studies. Will spends part of his summers leading a study abroad trip to London.
He is currently completing several book projects: 1) Failing Sideways: Queer Possibilities for Writing Assessment (with Nicole Caswell and Stephanie West-Puckett) works to disrupt traditional models of assessment which are built on normative frameworks in order to empower writing teachers to speak back to the powerful anti-student and anti-learning assessment frameworks that permeate higher education; 2) Queer Rhetorics explores the discursive work of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans people, and articulates a frame for understanding the rhetorical moves they use across media; and 3) English Studies Online: Programs, Practices, Possibilities looks at the many and varied ways that English departments have moved courses and degree programs into fully online spaces in an effort to engage a broader and more diverse audience of readers and writers.
In his spare time, Will bakes too much, knits too much, and seems never to be able to finish his young adult novel Darkness Like a Dream.
Education
- B.A. Georgia Southern University
- M.A. Georgia Southern University
- Ph.D. Illinois State University
Research Interests
- Queer Rhetorics
- Cultural Rhetorics
- Teaching of Writing
- Histories of Rhetoric
- English Education
- Computers and Composition
- National Writing Project
- Children’s and Adolescent Literatures
Courses Taught
- ENGL 8630: Advanced Cultural Rhetorics & Writing
- ENGL 8615: Advanced Rhetorical Theory: Queer
- ENGL 8601: Advanced Research Methods in Rhetoric & Composition
- ENGL 7666: Teaching English in the Two-Year College
- ENGL 7630: Cultural Rhetorics & Writing
- ENGL 7601: Research Design in Rhetoric & Composition
- ENGL 6625: Teaching Composition, Theory and Practice
- ENGL 5000: Women’s Studies Seminar: Gay and Lesbian Drama
- ENGL 4950: Literature for Children
- ENGL 4885: Digital Writing
- ENGL 4540: Special Topics Seminar
- ENGL 3890: Critical Writing
- ENGL 3810: Advanced Composition
- ENGL 2730: Functional Grammar
- ENGL 2201: Writing about the Disciplines
- ENGL 1100: Foundations of College Writing
Selected Publications and Presentations
- Re/Orienting Writing Studies: Queer Methods, Queer Projects. (Edited with Matthew B Cox and Caroline Dadas). Utah State UP. 2019.
- Curricular Innovations: LGBTQ Literature & the New English Studies. (Edited with John Pruitt). Peter Lang. 2019.
- Approaches to Teaching LGBT Literature. (Edited with John Pruitt). Peter Lang Publishers. 2018.
- Reclaiming Accountability: Using the Work of Re/Accreditation and Large-Scale Assessment to Improve Writing Instruction and Writing Programs. Eds. Wendy Sharer, Tracy Ann Morse, Michelle Eble, and William P. Banks. Logan: Utah State UP. 2016.
- “Writing Program Administration: A Queer Symposium.” (with Michael Faris, Collie Fulford, Timothy Oleksiak, Trixie Smith, and GPat Patterson). WPA Journal 43.2 (Spring 2020): 11–43
- “Valuing Editorial Collaborations as Scholarship: A Survey of Tenure and Promotion Guidelines.” College English. March 2019. (Co-authored with Michelle F. Eble, Tracy Ann Morse, and Wendy Sharer).
- “After Homonormativity: Hope for a (More) Queer Canon of Gay YA Literature” (with Jonathan Alexander). Beyond Borders: Queer Eros and Ethos (Ethics) in LGBTQ Young Adult Literature. Eds. Darla Linville and David Lee Carson. New York: Peter Lang. 2016.
- “Beyond Modality: Rethinking Transmedia Composition through a Queer/Trans Digital Rhetoric.” Routledge Handbook of Digital Writing & Rhetoric. Eds. Jonathan Alexander and Jaqueline Rhodes. London: Routledge. 2018. 341-351.
Awards
- CCCC Lavender Rhetorics Award for Excellence in Queer Scholarship for Re/Orienting Writing Studies: Queer Methods, Queer Projects.
- Distinguished Graduate Alumni Award, Illinois State University English Department.