Diane Chiriani Russo, Ph.D.
Co-Director of Writing Across the Curriculum
English Department
College of Arts and Sciences
Education
Ph.D. in English, University of South Carolina
Major Field: Twentieth-Century American Literature
Minor Field: Southern Literature
Dissertation: A Gathering of Voices: Dialogic Interplay in the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines
M.A. in English, Indiana State University
B.A. in English, Manhattan College
About Diane
I believe that true learning derives from inquiry, which, in my discipline, focuses on the craft of human expression-- whether it be a literary text, the image in a graphic novel, a business report, a blog, or an academic essay. I teach students not necessarily to find definitive answers but to pose informed questions that yield insights into the texts shaping our lives. In my own work, I pursue inquiries that focus on interplay: the ways in which forms of expression from various contexts, media, traditions, and communities engage with one another and operate within a text. This inquiry into expressive interplay shapes my teaching and study of American literature, the work I have done on writing for digital environments such as ePortfolio, and my teaching of writing courses at diverse levels and across disciplines (first-year composition and professional writing). By encouraging students to inquire about the dynamics of interplay, I strive to make students more adept at crafting their own expression to get results, engage in the textual conversations of their workplaces and communities, and inspire.
Publications
Whitemouth’: A Bakhtinian Reading of Narrative Voice in Ernest J. Gaines’s Transitional Novel Of Love and Dust.” New Criticisms on the Works of Ernest J. Gaines: Man of Letters, special issue of Studies in the Literary Imagination, vol. 49, no. 1, 2016, pp.93-111.
Selected Conferences
"Defining Old Horizons and Drawing New Ones: Teaching the Graphic Novel Course," College English Association Conference 45th Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD, March 27, 2014.
"The Nature of the Nurturer: Representations of Mothering in Modernist Writing," College
English Association Conference, Savannah, Georgia, April 2, 2013
"Sustaining and Assessing Shared Learning through ePortfolios," co-authored with Drs.
Jerry Allen and Ronald Nowaczyk. Presented at the16th Annual National Learning Communities
Conference, Chicago, IL, November 4, 2011
"From Fortunate Sisterhood to Unfortunate Rivalry: the Transformation of Female Relationships
in American Women's Writing and Historical Documents" presented with Dr. Pamela K.
Asmus, College English Association Conference, St. Petersburg, FL, April 1, 2011
"‘Woman’s Work’: Frances E. W. Harper’s Models of Female Sanctioned Authorship," South
Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference," Atlanta, GA, November 6, 1999
"Voices of a Southern Community: The Language of the Quarters in Ernest Gaines’s Fiction,"
Southern Writers, Southern Writing: Graduate Conference, Oxford, MS, July 24, 1999
"Giving Voice to the Visions of the Past: The Composition of A Gathering of Old Men," Southern Humanities Council Annual Conference, Charleston, SC, April 18, 1998
"Rewriting and Righting the Past: Narrative Representations of Justice in A Gathering of Old Men," Southern Humanities Council Annual Conference, Huntingdon College, March 21, 1998
"The Blend of Objectivity and Subjectivity in a Realist Novel: William Dean Howells’s
A Hazard of New Fortunes," National Social Sciences Association Midwest Conference, St. Louis, MO, March 15,
1991
Selected Panels
"Power of Gender" Panel at Reawaken: Sigma Tau Delta International Convention, Moderator
and Discussion Facilitator, New Orleans, LA, March 1, 2012
Jump Start Your Semester Faculty Panel for Academic Probation Students, University
of ÐÔ°®ÊÓƵ, January 18, 2012.
Fireside Chat on Freshman Common Read, Making the Impossible Possible, University of ÐÔ°®ÊÓƵ,September 2011.
"Breaking Silences," University of ÐÔ°®ÊÓƵ’s Common Read Discussion Panel on The Kite Runner, University of ÐÔ°®ÊÓƵ, October 8, 2008
Service Highlights
Founding Faculty Co-Sponsor of Alpha Sigma Theta, the University of ÐÔ°®ÊÓƵ chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, English
Honor Society
Administrative Role
Coordinator of ePortfolios for the College of Arts and Sciences, 2009-2011
Committees
- Chair of English Department's Assessment Committee, 2013-present
- Member, Freshman Writing Program Review Committee, 2011-2012
- Member, ePortfolio Task Force for College of Arts and Sciences, 2009-2011
- Member, College of Arts and Sciences Learning Community Steering Committee, 2008-2009
- Member, Ad Hoc Core Committee, 2007-2009
Courses Taught
- ENGL 1105 Composition
- ENGL 1110 Composition & Literature
- ENGL 2214 Modern American Writers
- ENGL 2220 Writing for Business & Industry
- ENGL 4477 American Literature between the World Wars
- ENGL 4481 Special Topics: Graphic Novel
- ENGL 4478 Contemporary American Literature