Spencer Schaffner
Associate Head, Associate Professor of English and Writing Studies
Contact Information
- Address: English Bldg
- Email: spencers@illinois.edu
Office Hours
- instant message me @ "metaspencer"
Education
PhD, University of Washington, 2005
Teaching Interests
web writing, graphic narratives, visual composition, ecocriticism, environmental criticism, writing pedagogy
Courses
English 380: Writing in a Digital World / English 300: Graphic Novels / English 481: Composition Theory and Practice / English 482: Writing Technologies / English 505: Intro to Writing Studies / English 582: Genre Theory / English 582: Discourse Analysis / English 584: Rhetoric and Social / Engagement / English 584: Writing for the Web, / See course websites at www.metaspencer.com
Research Interests
writing studies, environmental criticism, comics and graphic narratives, emerging media, writing pedagogy
Selected Publications
Books
- Schaffner, Spencer. Binocular Vision: the Politics of Representation in Birdwatching Field Guides. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011.
Book Contributions
- Schaffner, Spencer. "Web Mockumentaries." Too Bold for the Box Office: A Study in Mockumentary. Ed. Cynthia Miller. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2012.
- Schaffner, Spencer. "Ecosee: Image, Rhetoric, and Nature." Field Guides to Birds: Images and Image/Text Positioned As Reference. Comp. Sean Morey. Ed. Sid Dobrin. New York: SUNY UP, 2008. 95-111.
- Schaffner, Spencer. "The Five-Paragraph Essay: Friend or Foe?." A Closer Look: The Writer's Reader. Ed. Anis Bawarshi and Sidney Dobrin. New York: McGraw Hill, 2003. 784-787.
Journal Articles
- Prior, Paul, and Spencer Schaffner. "Bird Identification as a Family of Activities: Motives, Mediating Artifacts, and Laminated Assemblages." Ethos: Journal for the Society of Psychological Anthropology 39.1 (2011): 51-70.
- McDowell, Jacqueline , and Spencer Schaffner. "Football, it’s a Man’s Game: An Exploration of Gendered Discourse in 'The Gender Bowl'." Discourse & Society 22.5 (2011): 1-19.
- Schaffner, Spencer. "Environmental Sporting: Birding at Superfund Sites, Landfills, and Sewage Ponds." Journal of Sport and Social Issues 33.3 (2009): 206-230.
- Schaffner, Spencer. "Response: Ursula Heise's 'Ecocriticism and the Transnational Turn in American Studies." American Literary History 20.1-2 (2008): 405-409.
- Schaffner, Spencer. "Projection: Grounding the Writing Major in the Socio-Graphemic Approach." Composition Studies: Special Issue on The Writing Major 35.1 (2007): 55-56.
- Schaffner, Spencer. "Strategic Simulations." JAC 47.3 (2007): 717-730.
Essays
- Schaffner, Spencer. "Birding with the First American Field Guides to Birds." Birding. American Birding Association, 2005. 90-93.
- Schaffner, Spencer, and Brandy Parris. "A Cinematic Critique as Public Humanities." Inside Higher Education. 2005. 1 Nov. 2005.
Websites
- Urban Literacy Center Manifesto. 7 Jan. 2008. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy. 7 Jan. 2008.
- Desktop MCing. 1 Jan. 2010. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy . 1 Jan. 2010.
Reviews
- Schaffner, Spencer. Rev. of Sensualities/Textualities and Technologies: Writing of the Body in 21st Century Performance. Edited by Susan Broadhurst and . Theatre Journal. (in press), comp. Josephine Machon. , ed. Susan Broadhurst. Theatre Journal (2012):
- Schaffner, Spencer. Rev. of Writing Genres, by Amy DevittEnculturation 5.2 (2004): 1 Jun. 2004.
- Schaffner, Spencer. Rev. of A Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music, by F. Schuyler Mathews (published in 1904).FatBirder.com (2002): 30 Dec. 2002.
