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Academics - English Faculty & Staff

Academics - English Faculty & Staff

Crystal Benedicks

Associate Professor of English

CONTACT:

Center Hall 211
765-361-6156
benedicc@wabash.edu
Curriculum vitae

Picture of Benedicks, Crystal

Crystal Benedicks teaches writing, poetry, and a range of literature classes. Her research interests include Victorian poetics, composition theory, queer theory, and masculinity studies. Her most recent research project examines the legacy of the “Spasmodic” poets, a group of nineteenth-century writers who were laughed out of the literary canon because of their strange, excessive verse.

As the coordinator of the College’s efforts to teach expository writing, Prof. Benedicks takes a special interest in teaching composition courses at all levels, from introductory to advanced. She believes that writing is at the heart of a liberal arts education, and she enjoys the opportunity to work with Wabash students on honing their abilities.

Prof. Benedicks comes to Wabash from New York City, where she earned her doctorate but failed to learn how to cook or garden. She can often be found practicing both with her husband, Prof. Cherry (Theater Department), in their old house near campus.

EDUCATION

Ph.D. and M.Phil. in English, The City University of New York Graduate Center, 2005
B.A. in English, New College, 1998

RECENT COURSE OFFERINGS

ENG 202 - Writing with Power and Grace
ENG 105 - Introduction to Poetry
ENG 410 - Academic and Professional Writing
ENG 101 - College Composition
Victorian Poetry and Poetics
9/11 and American Culture

RECENT PRESENTATIONS

“Feminism in the 21st Century?” Wabash Women Opening Lecture, Fall 2010.

“’You’re like Venice’: Understanding Student Source Use and Changing Academic Policy.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Louisville, KY. 2010 .

“Teaching Grammar in Context” International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Bloomington, IN. 2009. 

“Spasmodic Bodies and Disorderly Empires: A Victorian Poetics of Disability.” Northeast Modern Language Association. Boston, MA. 2009.

“The Gentleman and the Spaz: A Report on the Wabash Writing Study.” Ides of August Conference. Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN. 2008.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

“Spasmodic Writers: Self-Control, Manliness, and the Victorian Legacy in the Composition Classroom” (forthcoming)

Co-editor (with Judith Summerfield). On Liberal Education: Claiming the Public University in the New Millennium. 2007: Peter Lang Publishing.

“The City University of New York and the Shaughnessy Legacy: Today’s Scholars Talk Back.” With J. Summerfield, P. Gray, et. al.. Journal of Basic Writing, Fall 2007 (26:2). 

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