Melissa Bender

Melissa Bender's picture

Continuing Lecturer

311 Voorhies
Office Hours
T 10:30-12:30 on Zoom; R 10:30-11:30 in 311 Voorhies

Research Areas:

Writing pedagogy with special interest in rhetorical approaches to disciplinary composition and source work; rhetoric of health and medicine; visual and material rhetoric; the rhetoric of public history; U.S. memoir and life writing.

Teaching Areas:

I teach a variety of UWP courses including Writing in the Health Professions (104F), Writing in Science (104E), Writing in History (102C), Writing in Fine Arts (102J), Technical Writing (104T), Business Writing (104A), Travel Writing (110), and Visual Rhetoric (12), as well as a first-year seminar on Travel, Education, and Global Citizenship. I have also led UC Davis study abroad programs in England, France, Italy, and Australia and a U.S.A. study course in Washington D.C. and New York City.

Education:

Ph.D., English, 2009, University of California, Davis.

M.F.A., Creative Writing, 1994, University of Pittsburgh.

B.A., English, 1990, University of Pittsburgh. 

Awards:

Non-Senate Faculty Professional Development Award, 2018.

Non-Senate Faculty Professional Development Award, 2016.

Publications: 

Work in Progress

Dysfunctional Family Values: Nurturing the Neoliberal Self in U.S. Memoir, Lexington Books, 2020.

Selected Publications

Contested Commemoration in U.S. History: Diverging Public Interpretations, Routledge, 2020.

Who's Your Source? A Writer’s Guide to Effectively Evaluating and Ethically Using Resources, with Karma Waltonen. Broadview Press, 2019.

"Dysfunctional Family Values: U.S. Memoir in the Neoliberal Age," Journal of Popular Culture, Volume 21, Number 2, April 2018.

Twenty Writing Assignments in Context: An Instructor’s Resource for the Composition Classroom, co-edited with Karma Waltonen. McFarland, 2017.

La Caricature 1830-1835: Lithographies Complètes (French to English translation), with Joanna Oseman. Alan Wofsy Fine Arts Press, 2017.

Research Interests & Expertise
  • Writing pedagogy with special interest in rhetorical approaches to disciplinary composition and source work; rhetoric of health and medicine; visual and material rhetoric; the rhetoric of public history; U.S. memoir and life writing.