Writing Program Faculty

Bedell, David
Lecturer II
3064CB 436-9186
ddbedell(at)umd.umich.edu

David Bedell (Ph.D., Wayne State) has been teaching writing at UM-Dearborn for the past eighteen years. Early in his career, he worked as an illustrator and fine artist for Ford Motor Company and a Detroit advertising studio. His research interests include environmental and scientific issues and the adverse impact of modern technology on human and planetary survival. He is an avid sportsman, a writer, and a graphic artist.

Buchanan, Heather
Lecturer I
3025CB 593-1887
Buchanan301(at)sbcglobal.net

Heather Buchanan (M.A., University of Michigan, Dearborn) is the editor or author of several books of fiction and nonfiction, including Eyes on Fire: Witnesses to the Detroit Riot of 1967 (2007). Ms. Buchanan is a past winner of the MetroTimes' "Best Of: Literary" category.  A Poet-in-Residence for the Detroit Public Library system for several years, Ms. Buchanan has also served as Fiction Writer-in-Residence at the Westland Public Library and was a Master Fiction Writer in the YMCA New York Program. She is the publisher of a new journal, Reverie: Midwest African American Literature. Heather teaches creative writing workshops across the country and has presented at events such as the Marjorie Cook Poetry Festival at Miami University and the Midwest MLA Conference.

Cobb, Tom
Lecturer IV
3082CB 583-6388
tcobb(at)umd.umich.edu

Tom Cobb (Ph.D., Yale) has enjoyed writing since he was a child and won numerous writing awards in Detroit area contests while a student at Cranbrook. He wrote a dissertation while at Yale on Robert Greene, a sixteenth-century English writer interesting for his pioneering attempts to create not only fiction but also journalistic texts that capture a wide audience of readers. Dr. Cobb has taught writing courses for thirty years at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, including offerings in the Honors program, and has also taught composition and technical writing at Henry Ford Community College and Oakland Community College. His interests are wide and embrace not only expository and creative writing but also an appreciation of the great literature that language has inspired.

DeGenaro, Bill
Assistant Professor of Composition and Rhetoric
3064CB 583-6383
billdeg(at)umd.umich.edu

William DeGenaro (Ph.D., The University of Arizona) teaches composition, creative writing, and Comp 364: Writing for Civic Literacy, and emphasizes writing as revision, writing with "voice," and writing about social issues and community. A member of UMD's Civic Engagement Project, he incorporates community-based research and community-service writing projects into many of his classes. Professor DeGenaro writes about discourses of social class, rhetoric, and open-access education and has published articles in journals like Rhetoric Review, JAC, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College; various anthologies; and in his book Who Says?: Working-Class Rhetoric, Class Consciousness, and Community. In his spare time, he likes to cook ethnic food; blog; write poems and short stories; volunteer with area peace groups; and live out his secret, "music geek" identity (he loves Detroit's homegrown rock and roll). In his pre-professor life, he was an Ambassador Bridge toll collector (night shift), YMCA janitor (also the night shift), and studied for the Roman Catholic priesthood.

Duda, Ray
Lecturer IV
3024CB 583-6374
rduda(at)umd.umich.edu

Raymond J. Duda (M.A., A.B.D., Detroit) has been teaching in the Writing Program at UM-D since the late 1970s. He concentrates on teaching the introductory level courses in the Writing Program, and focuses on incorporating computer technology in the writing classroom. He teaches online versions of the basic writing courses and has also taught Honors and Advanced Composition, as well as introductory courses in English Literature and courses in the Medieval period. Currently he also serves as Assistant Director in the Writing Program.

Foy, Thomas
Lecturer I
3021CB 593-5217
tfoy(at)umd.umich.edu

Thom Foy holds BA and MA degrees in English from Wayne State University. He has taught multiple levels of Composition since 1997 at UM-Dearborn, Henry Ford Community College, and Wayne State. He is also a certified secondary education teacher in English and French. Since 2000 he has assisted UM-Dearborn in evaluating English placement exams and scholarship essays. He believes that writing instruction should be unified across disciplines and looks forward to working toward that end.

Handelman, Anita
Lecturer II
3027 CB 583-6375
afh(at)umd.umich.edu

Anita Handelman (Ph.D, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor), has taught English literature, modern science fiction, Great Books, and composition at several universities, which include The University of Tulsa and Madonna University. Composition has always played a large part in her academic career (even though her Ph.D is in Old and Middle English literature). She values composition for the care it teaches us in the use of evidence and for the rigor it demands of us in the art of thinking.

Lynn, Marjorie
Lecturer II
3063CB 593-3282
malynn(at)umd.umich.edu

Marjorie Lynn has been teaching most of her professional life in one form or another: from 7th grade language arts, through years of substitute teaching K – 12, to adult education GED prep classes and development classes for business and industry, to the last 20 years as a “gypsy scholar.” After several years at Washtenaw Community College, Eastern Michigan, and UM-D with a stint or three at other places, she finally settled in at UM-Dearborn. In addition to teaching writing, she has also taught introduction to fiction and Native American literature.  Among her greatest satisfactions is her work with the LEO Union because it has empowered her and the rest of the non-tenure track lecturers.

Makki, Nazih
Lecturer II
3066B 593-5014
nmakki(at)umd.umich.edu

Nazih Makki has been at University of Michigan-Dearborn since 1994, where he teaches composition and creative writing classes. He is interested in diversity, constructing bridges among cultures, and spreading awareness about human abuse of the environment. Definitely, he is interested in and dedicated to helping students succeed.

Meyers, Charlie
Lecturer II
1067CB 593-8394
cmeyers(at)umd.umich.edu

Charlie Meyers (Ph.D. Wayne State) has taught courses in film, storytelling and animation, video production, mass communication, speech, composition, and women's studies at Wayne State University, Henry Ford Community College, CCS, IADT, UM-Flint and here at UM-Dearborn. At UM-Dearborn she is also the Manager of the Communications Audio/Video Labs and TV Studio. From its inception, she has been involved in UM-D's partnership with OACES Schools, providing instruction in filmmaking and digital storytelling to middle-school students from Detroit. She is the faculty advisor for Campus Video (student organization), and is the Director of the Michigan Film and Video Festival, the nation's first and oldest film festival for children K-12.

Rohan, Liz
Assistant Professor of Composition and Rhetoric
3062CB 593-5138
erohan(at)umd.umich.edu

Liz Rohan (Ph.D., Illinois) teaches first year Composition, Advanced Composition, Creative Writing, Reading and Writing Young Adult Fiction and other upper division writing courses. Her research interests are technologies and writing, gender and writing, feminist research methodologies, literacy studies and creative nonfiction/life writing. Almost all of her scholarship is historical and features groups and individuals using writing for work or identity formation in America at the turn of the last century. Two of these articles won national awards. She has just co-edited a book, Beyond the Archives: Research as a Lived Process, with Gesa Kirsch (Southern Illinois University Press).

Spitsberg, Tija
Lecturer IV
3066CB 593-5014
tijaspit(at)umd.umich.edu

Tija Spitsberg (M.A., New York University) teaches courses in dramatic literature, creative writing, creative nonfiction and composition and is the faculty advisor for Lyceum, the UM-Dearborn literary magazine. She has completed work toward her Ph.D. (ABD) at Carnegie-Mellon University in the School of Theater. She was formerly the restaurant critic for Monthly Detroit and most recently published an article on Eleonora Duse (1859 - 1924), the Italian actor. She is presently working on a novel whose protagonist suffers from writer's block.

Stewart, Grace
Lecturer II
3063CB 593-3282
gstew(at)umd.umich.edu

Grace Stewart (Ph.D., Wayne State University) first learned about the power of language while pursuing an advertising career on Madison Avenue. Seeing its effect on consumerism in this country led her to an alternative career in education. After earning three degrees at Wayne State University in English and Women’s Studies and publishing works on women, myth, drama, and novelists, she used her experience to direct the Focus on Women Program at Henry Ford Community College. After retiring in 1998, she returned to her first love, teaching part-time at the UM —Dearborn, where she teaches honors composition courses, organizational communication, and American literature.

Woodland, Randy
Associate Professor of Composition and Rhetoric
3022CB 436-9192
woodland(at)umd.umich.edu

Randal Woodland (Ph.D., North Carolina) has taught at UM-Dearborn since 1993, after teaching at UCLA and UNC-Chapel Hill, where he received his Ph.D in English. His research and teaching interests include writing in online environments. His primary teaching interest is first-year writing courses; he has also taught courses for the Honors Program and MALS. Current research projects include the presentation of gender and sexual identity in Second Life and rhetorical narratives in response to Hurricane Katrina. He is the co-author of Twenty Questions for the Writer and has published articles on Louisiana women writers, on the structure of electronic texts, and on the experiences of LGBT people in online environments. He is interested in cities (especially Detroit and New Orleans), New Orleans jazz, southern literature, and gumbo.

Wright, Drew
Lecturer II
3021CB 593-5217
vawright(at)umd.umich.edu

Andrew Wright has an MFA in creative writing from Bowling Green State University and has been teaching composition at UM-Dearborn since 1998. He is particularly interested in online teaching, new forms of communication, and world cultures.

Willard-Traub, Margaret
Director, Writing Program
Associate Professor of Composition and Rhetoric
3018CB 593-5238
mwillard(at)umd.umich.edu

Margaret Willard-Traub (Ph.D., University of Michigan), Associate Professor of Composition and Rhetoric and Director of the Writing Program, has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in composition, writing theory & pedagogy, feminist autobiography & research, and disciplinary genres. Her articles on scholarly memoir, genre studies, writing assessment and critical pedagogy have appeared in the journals College English, Assessing Writing, Rhetoric Review, Feminist Studies and Pedagogy (forthcoming) as well as in a number of edited collections. A native of Vermont, she earned undergraduate degrees in Biology and Spanish at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also studied in the School of Veterinary Medicine. Writing, teaching and researching writing comprise her most interesting and satisfying experiences to date, excluding only those of being married to an economist, and being step-mother to two grown daughters and mother to a two-year-old son. 

Yerks, Anne-Marie
Lecturer I
3023CB 593-1877
amyerks(at)comcast.net

Anne-Marie Yerks is a lecturer in the writing program and an essay reviewer for the Educational Testing Service. She has also taught writing and new media at Lawrence Technological University, George Mason University and George Washington University. Formerly, she was the editor-in-chief of So to Speak: A Feminist Journal of Language and Art. Her articles and short stories have been published in Bust, The Dead Mule, Third Order, Southern Exposure, and other publications. She has co-authored four books about Web design, including MacMillian's Inside Dreamweaver 4. As a graduate of the George Mason University MFA program in creative writing, she dedicates her spare time to an in-progress novel.