Participating Professors
Though the six 2008-09 Davis Faculty Fellows are from different disciplines, all are committed to teaching writing. Using the rubrics they develop together during the fall term, each will teach a writing-intensive class in his discipline in the spring. Learn more about these professors below.
Marc Brettler, professor of Biblical studies, teaches classes which include Introduction to the Hebrew Bible and Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls. His main areas of research are religious metaphors and the Bible, biblical historical texts, and women and the Bible. Brettler will be teaching a writing intensive class entitled The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (NEJS 111a) during spring 2009.
David Cunningham, associate professor of sociology, teaches classes which include Approaches to Sociological Research (SOC 240a) and How To Travel (USem 55b). His research interests focus on community-level contexts for the emergence of social change. Cunningham will be teaching a writing-intensive class entitled Applied Research Methods (SOC 182a) during spring 2009.
Daniel Kryder, associate professor of politics, teaches classes which include Political Science Research Design and Analysis (POL 100b). His research focuses on the relationship between police and democracy in American history; reparations, presidency at war and its relationship to domestic reform; and qualitative and historical methods. Kryder will be teaching a writing intensive class called Social Movements in American Politics (POL 108a) during spring 2009.
James Morris, assistant professor of biology, teaches classes which include Evolution (BIOL 60b), Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy (BIOL 43b), the University Seminar Darwin's on the Origin of Species, and Project Laboratory in Genetics and Genomics. (BIOL 155a) He has research interests in genetics and epigenetics, organismal and evolutionary biology, and medicine. His current research focuses on an unusual way that genes are turned on and off. Morris will be teaching a writing intensive class entitled Project Labratory on Genetics and Genomics (BIO 155a) during spring 2009.
John Plotz, professor of English and American literature, teaches classes which include The Modern Novel: Public, Private and Social (ENG 218b), The English Novel, Jane Austen to Thomas Hardy (ENG 105b), British Literature in the Age of Darwin and Dickens (ENG 5a) and The Political Novel (ENG 68a). He has research interests in Victorian literature, the novel, politics and aesthetics. His current work explores the relationship between aesthetic and political conceptions of "society," "the social," socialism and antisocial behavior in 19th- and 20th-century Britain and America. Plotz will be teaching the writing-intensive class entitled Reading Literature (ENG 1A) during spring 2009.
Malcolm Watson, professor of psychology, teaches classes which include Developmental Psychology (PSYC 33a) and Child Development across Cultures (PSYC 131a). He has research interests in developmental psychopathology, in particular the developmental pathways leading to aggression in children and adolescence. Watson will be teaching a writing-intensive entitled Advanced Topics in Developmental Psychology (PSYCH 136b) during spring 2009.