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ALEX HUNT

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<td align=left>Department of English</td>

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<td align=left>West Texas A & M University</td>

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<td align=left>Canyon, Texas</td>

<td align=right>AHunt@mail.wtamu.edu </td></tr>

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EDUCATION

University of Oregon

Ph.D. in English (Summer 2001)

Colorado State University

M.A. in English (May 1996)

B.A. in English (May 1994)

with Colorado Secondary Teaching Certification</blockquote>

FIELDS

Primary

Twentieth century American Fiction and Nonfiction

Secondary

Ecocriticism

Western American Literature

Native American and Chicano Literature</blockquote>

CURRENT RESEARCH

"Narrating American Space: Literary Cartography and the Contemporary Southwest"

My book research considers narrative texts as maps in order to reveal the production of and tension between mythic, idealized, and "real" spaces of the West. I argue that many contemporary writers of the Southwest are engaged in a re-mapping of manifest destiny and wilderness idealism in order to promote a historically conscious and environmentally sound relation to the land. Yet the battle of geography in Western American literature is in part characterized by rivaling Native American, Chicano, and European-American claims to the land and to "indigenous" status. The political and environmental implications of these claims are vital to the idea of America either as a nationalistic colonial empire or a nation respecting cultural pluralism as expressed through land rights and questions of social and environmental justice. It also revitalizes traditional American literary studies that sought to define American literature through its relation to the land, but it does so in a manner cautious of nationalistic essentialism and more conscious of ecological values and multicultural identities. Authors under consideration include Leslie Marmon Silko, Cormac McCarthy, Rudolpho Anaya, Terry Tempest Williams, and Edward Abbey.

Co-Chairs: Forest Pyle and Louise Westling

Reading Committee: William Rossi and Jeffrey Ostler</blockquote>

PUBLICATIONS

"Right and False Suns: Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing and the Advent of the Atomic Age."

Southwestern American Literature. 23.2 (1998): 31-38.

"McCarthy's The Crossing." The Explicator. 56.3 (1998): 158-60.

"'Strange Equality': A Reading of McCarthy's Blood Meridian." The Image of the American

West in Literature, Media, and Society. Ed. Will Wright and Steven Kaplan. Proceedings from

the Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery. Pueblo: USC Press, 1996: 237-40.

with William R. Hunt, "Wrong Road" in Alaska at War, 1941-45: The Forgotten War Remembered:

Papers from the Alaska at War Symposium, Anchorage, Alaska, November 1993. Ed. Fern Chandonnet.

Alaska Humanities Forum, 1995: 173-78.

"'Macbeth,' Bull Riding Have a lot in Common" [their title]. Prorodeo Sports News 14 June

1995: 10.</blockquote>

CONFERENCES AND PRESENTATIONS

"XXXXX," Western Literature Association, Tucson, AZ, October 2002.

"Aztlan," Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Conference, Flagstaff, AZ, June 2001.

"The Radical Geography of Silko's Almanac of the Dead," Western Literature Association,

Norman, OK, October 2000.

Organized and chaired panel, "Beyond Ceremony: Conceptual and Physical Space in Silko's Recent Fiction," Western Literature Association, Norman, OK, October 2000.

"What is Literary Cartography?: Abbey and McCarthy in the Tularosa Valley," North American Interdisciplinary Conference on Environment and Community, Reno, NV, February 2000.

"Ed Abbey's Maps: Wilderness Idealism, Militarism, and the West," Western American Literature Conference, Sacramento, CA, October 1999.

"Space and Displacement," Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, Kalamazoo,

MI, June 1999.

"The Nuclear West of Terry Tempest Williams and Rebecca Solnit," Western American Literature Conference, Banff, Alberta, October 1998.

"McCarthy's The Crossing as Ecocritical Novel," Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Conference, Missoula, MT, August 1997.

"'Strange Equality': A Reading of McCarthy's Blood Meridian," Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery Conference, Colorado Springs, CO, March 1995.

"Blood Stone Flower: Cormac McCarthy's Emerging Land Ethic," Western Literature Association, Vancouver, B.C., October 1995.

"Updike's Farm: Conflict and Symbol," Southwest Symposium, Albuquerque, NM, March 1995.</blockquote>

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Southwestern Literature, 2003

A graduate-level seminar on the topic of literature of the American Southwest.

--West Texas A & M University, ENG XXX, Assistant Professor, enrollment of 10.

American Transcendentalism, 2003

A senior-level seminar including authors like Melville, Hemingway and Silko.

--West Texas A & M University, ENG XXX, Assistant Professor, enrollment of 20.

Western World Literature, 2002-2003

An introduction to literature course, designed for incoming freshmen, reviewing literature from Homer's The Odyssey to Dante's Inferno.

--West Texas A & M University, ENG XXX, Assistant Professor, enrollment of 50.

Composition, 2002-2003

A course designed to enhance the critical reading, writing and thinking skills of all incoming students.

--West Texas A & M University, ENG XXX, Assistant Professor, enrollment of 25.

Native American Literature, 2001-2002

Perhaps the primary concern of Native American literature has been the recovery of tribal identity. Because this identity is closely linked to land and place, my approach in teaching this course is to consider texts by, among others, Momaday, Silko, Vizenor, Erdrich and Alexie in terms of their relationship to place and geography. I also emphasize not only how oral tradition serves as a basis for contemporary fiction and poetry but also how Native American authors continue to

appropriate and subvert these European forms.

--University of Oregon, ENG 240, Postdoctoral and Graduate Teaching Fellow, enrollment of 40

Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Fall 1999 & Summer 2000

Focusing primarily on American fiction with detours for notables like Woolf and Joyce, I design this course to emphasize critical terms and close reading while also discussing the historical shifts in novel and short story conventions from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. I typically teach only three novels because using shorter fiction increases the possibilities for a diverse range of authors and ideas within the quarter system; among the novels I have selected

are Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Silko's Ceremony, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians.

--University of Oregon, ENG 104, Graduate Teaching Fellow, enrollment of 40

Introduction to the English Major, 1998-1999

I participated as a co-planner, instructor to a discussion section, and grader in the year-long Introduction to the English major survey course: Fall 1997: Beginnings to 17th Century, British; Winter 1998: 17th to 19th Centuries, British and American; Spring 1999: 19th Century to Present, British and American. As instructor I elucidated and led discussion of the texts and the professor's

lecture. In weekly meetings between the lecturer and section leaders I participated in conversations regarding teaching strategies, student writing, and exam construction.

--University of Oregon, ENG 220, 221, 222, Graduate Teaching Fellow

College Composition I and II, 1996-2003

I have taught numerous sections of Freshman Composition, Writing 121 and Writing 122 over the last six years. Guided by John Gage's The Shape of Reason, I have developed an approach to teaching composition that emphasizes the principles of effective argumentative writing by immersing students in complicated scholarly debates. Students begin by engaging with difficult classics of rhetoric before moving on to more contemporary issues. In the process, my students begin to consider themselves as products of an intellectual history and to think of themselves as scholars.

--University of Oreogn, WR 121, 122, Postdoctoral and Graduate Teaching Fellow

College Composition, 1994-1996

I taught CO 150 each of my four semesters as a M.A. candidate. The course required that students practice different skills and modes of persuasive writing, beginning with a summary and culminating in an argumentative essay. The composition directors encouraged creative pedagogical strategies and emphasized the teaching of critical thinking skills such as developing criteria to evaluate solutions to problems and synthesizing several arguments before forming an informed opinion.

--Colorado State University, CO 150, Graduate Teaching Fellow

Tutor, 1995-96

In the second year of the M.A. program, I worked as a tutor for both scheduled students doing prerequisite work for CO 150 and the general university population. This gave me the opportunity to work with a diverse range of writers, including ESL students and students struggling with reading and writing learning difficulties.

--Colorado State University, University Writing Center

American Studies, 1994

I was fully involved in this innovative sophomore-level course which ran two hours per day, held 45 students per section, and was team-taught by one English and one history teacher. In addition to my work as a lecturer and grader, I met with other teachers to design the curriculum and plan assignments. One contribution I made to the program was to write a unit on literature of the Vietnam conflict.

--Student Teaching, Fort Collins High School, Poudre School District, Fort Collins, Colorado

Advanced Composition

I taught two sections of this class for college-bound juniors and seniors. The course covered editing and revision skills as well as expository and argumentative writing.

--Student Teaching, Fort Collins High School, Poudre School District, Fort Collins, Colorado

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RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS

Literature and the Environment, Geography, Ecocriticism

Early American Literature and Mapping

Nineteenth Century American Literature and Manifest Destiny

Survey of American Literary Scholarship

Multicultural American Literature

Literature of the Vietnam Conflict

Western History as Rhetoric

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AWARDS, GRANTS, POSITIONS, AND SERVICE

Mesa Verde, 1996-present

I have been active in this interdisciplinary student and faculty group which is dedicated to

the study of culture and the environment. I worked to schedule colloquia and institute a structured

emphasis within the Ph.D. program.

Department Counsel, Graduate Student Representative, 1997-1998

I served on this committee, the department head's privy counsel, as an elected representative of the

English Graduate Organization.

University of Oregon Composition Program

I have been active in the Annual Fall Composition Conference, presenting talks each year between

1997 and 2000 on topics including "Teaching Composition Creatively," "Teaching Environmental

Issues," "Reflective Essays and Portfolios," and "The Rhetoric of Space." I have also served the

composition program as mentor to an apprentice teacher working toward a GTF position.

Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Research Grant, Brigham Young University, 1995

I received this award to research rodeo in the West. One result of this research was a publication

in the Prorodeo Sports News.

Fiction Writing Scholarships, Creative and Performing Arts Award, Colorado State University,

1993, 1994.

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REFERENCES

<tr><td>SueEllen Campbell English Department Colorado State University (970) 491-5382

<a href="mailto:sueellen.campbell@colostate.edu">sueellen.campbell@colostate.edu</a>

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<td>Michael Cohen English Department University of Nevada (775) 784-6689 ext. 247

<a href="mailto:mpcohen@earthlink.net">mpcohen@earthlink.net</a>

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<tr><td>Sidner Larson American Indian Studies Program Iowa State University (515) 294-9386

<a href="mailto:sidner@iastate.edu">sidner@iastate.edu</a>

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<td>Forest Pyle English Department University of Oregon (541) 346-3928

<a href="mailto:trespyle@oregon.uoregon.edu">trespyle@oregon.uoregon.edu</a>

</td></tr>

<tr><td>William Rossi English Department University of Oregon (541) 346-3955

<a href="mailto:rossiw@oregon.uoregon.edu">rossiw@oregon.uoregon.edu</a>

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<td>Gordon Sayre English Department University of Oregon (541) 346-1313

<a href="mailto:gsayre@oregon.uoregon.edu">gsayre@oregon.uoregon.edu</a>

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<tr><td>Louise Westling English Department University of Oregon (541) 346-3938

<a href="mailto:lhwest@oregon.uoregon.edu">lhwest@oregon.uoregon.edu</a>

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Unless already required, my dossier is available upon request from Gayla Wardell, Career Center:

Placement File Service

220 Hendricks Hall

P.O. Box 3257

University of Oregon

Eugene, OR 97403-0257

(541) 346-6014

<a href="mailto:recfile@career.uoregon.edu">recfile@career.uoregon.edu</a>

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