People
Center Graduate Students: Michael Burns
Michael Burns is a PhD candidate 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. In December 2012 Michael defended his dissertation entitled “The Rhetorics of Community Space: Critical Events in Champaign- Urbana’s Black Freedom Movement”.
Awards
- Fall 2012 Undergraduate Rhetoric Program Award for Excellence in Writing Instruction
- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Fellowship, 2012
- Hodgins Foundation Fellowship, 2012
- Included on List of Instructors ranked Excellent by Their Students, 2009-2010, 2011-2012
- CCCC Scholars for the Dream Award, 2011
- Barksdale Fellowship, University of Illinois, 2009, 2010, 2012
- Graduate College Summer Fellowship, University of Illinois, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
- Graduate College Fellowship, University of Illinois, 2007
- Marilyn Sternglass Writing Award, The City College of New York, 2007
- Corps Member, Teach for America, 1996-1999
Research Interests
AAVE, spatiality, the rhetorics of local publics, the Black Freedom Movement
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.
“A History of the Douglass Center.” The Public i. [Urbana, IL] Feb. 2010: 2. Print.
Book Review (Solicited)
Review of Fanatical Schemes: Proslavery Rhetoric and the Tragedy of Consensus. Quarterly Journal of Speech 96.4 (2010): 485-90. Print.
Encyclopedia Entries
“Brachyology.” Encyclopedia of Identity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2010.
“Ethnolinguistic Identity.” Encyclopedia of Identity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2010.
“Intertextuality.” Encyclopedia of Identity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2010.
“Invariant be.” Encyclopedia of Identity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2010.
“Language Development.” Encyclopedia of Identity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2010.
Teaching
The Odyssey Project, Critical Thinking and Writing (Fall 2008-present)
The Summer Bridge Institute for pre-Freshmen (Summer 2009)
Rhetoric 104: Principles of Comosition II (Spring 2010)
Rhetoric 103: Principles of Composition (Fall 2009)
Rhetoric 105: Principles of Composition (Fall 2012)
Professional Experience
Graduate Assistant Coordinator, The Odyssey Project (through the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Fall 2009-Spring 2012)
Recruitment Coordinator, The Odyssey Project (Summer 2012)
Coordinator, Odyssey Project/Urbana Adult Education Computer Literacy Course (Funded by a Grant from the Community Informatics Initiative, Summer 2010)
Producer/video editor, “EUI In Short.” http://www.eui.illinois.edu/about_in_short.html
Video editor, Writing @ The University of Illinois (e-text) (Spring-Summer 2009)
Reviewer, Buildings and Landscapes (September 2010-present)
Reviewer, Research in the Teaching of English (September 2008-present)
Research Assistant, The Center for Writing Studies, Department of English, University of Illinois (Fall 2007-present)
Graduate Assistant, Ethnography of the University Initiative, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois (Fall 2007-Fall 2008)