People
Center Graduate Students: Michael Burns
Michael Burns is a graduate student in the Center for Writing Studies in the English Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Biographical Statement
A Fort Smith, AR native and Hendrix College dropout, Michael earned his bachelor's degree in 1995 from Temple University in Philadelphia. In 1996, he moved to New York City as a corps member of Teach for America where he taught 7th and 8th grade math and science at IS 90 in Washington Heights. After three years as an junior high teacher, he left the field of education altogether and followed his dream of working as a bicycle messenger in Manhattan. That lasted six months. Since 1999, Michael has worked as an instructor in various adult education programs. The mind-expanding experiences he gained through working with non-traditional students prompted him to return to academia. In 2007 he earned his master's in Language and Literacy from The City College of New York.
Awards
- 2007 Marilyn Sternglass Writing Award, The City College of New York
- 2007 Graduate College Fellow, University of Illinois Champaign Urbana
Publications
"Laugh to Keep from Cryin': Black English and Humor as a Means of Critiquing Mainstream Culture." Promethean. The Literary Magazine of The City College 34.2 (2007): 31-37.
"Whose Right?: A Crisis of Medical Resources in the Wake of a Natural Disaster." In Simulations and Role Plays for Inspiring Writing, ed. Lynn Quitman Troyka. Forthcoming.
Research Interests
Relationships between standard English and AAVE, sociolinguistics, identity, hegemony, student/teacher discourse, orality and literacy, modern American literatures.