Composition Instructors
Barbara Levy has a B.A. in English from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in Old & Middle English from Cornell University. She taught at the University of Puerto Rico for sixteen years, then was a tutor in History in Literature at Harvard and has taught first-year English at Wellesley and Babson College. For the last twelve years, she has been teaching composition at Brandeis as well as first-year English at Suffolk University and given various language classes at Harvard Extension School's Institute of English Language Programs. She is the author of one book, Ladies Laughing: Wit as Control in Contemporary American Women Writers and published over fifty book reviews for the San Juan Star and several in The Women’s Review of Books.
Gordon Ruesch has taught Brandeis first-semester writers every fall since 1984. Before that, he took a B.A. in English Literature (U.Mass., Amherst), served two conscientious-objector years helping challenged epileptics, and four years in Korea first as Peace Corp tuberculosis-control volunteer, later as a university English instructor. At Brandeis, despite never quite completing his doctoral dissertation (on Samuel Beckett) he has found rich fulfillment helping Brandeis writers—alongside teaching at Harvard’s Institute for English Language Programs since 1990, in workplace literacy programs, and in A.D. Little MBA English Instruction. Current interests include devising science-focused composition curricula and practical writing instruction for Aspergers/autistic writers.