Welcome to my homepage; take a look around if you like. My name is Tom Nelson, and I am a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Texas at Austin. I am working on a dissertation about the archival tradition of the American Modernist long poem, focusing on Louis Zukofsky's "A". I teach English and Rhetoric classes in the CWRL (Computer Writing and Research Lab), of which I am currently an Assistant Director. To read a profile of my scholarship, teaching, and service, download my CV (pdf).

Courses

Click on the name of the course go to the course site.

RHE 312: Computers and Writing (Spring 2007)

RHE 312: Computers and Writing (Fall 2006)

RHE 309K: Writing About Comics (Spring 2006)

RHE 309/STS 311: Computers and Writing (Fall 2004)

RHE 306: Rhetoric and Composition (Spring 2004)

RHE 306: Rhetoric and Composition (Fall 2003)

E 314L: Poesis (Spring 2003)

E 314L: Poesis (Fall 2002)

RHE 309S: Critical Reading and Persuasive Writing (Summer 2002)

RHE 309K: Writing About Comics (2001-2002)

RHE 306: Rhetoric and Composition (2000-2001)

 

On Teaching

Teaching writing and literature isn't about lectures and tests. It is less a matter of information to memorize than of strategies to practice and skills to hone. My job as a teacher, as I see it, is to design learning environments (problems to solve, for one example) and provide the means of maneuvering through these environments. My ultimate goal is to help improve critical thinking and clear expression. For more information, see my teaching philosophy. To see how I approach a specific text, read my strategies for teaching The Waste Land.

My Research

I'm working on a neglected Modernist, the great poet Louis Zukofsky. He's a notoriously difficult poet to understand, but one of the sources of his difficulty is his use of archival methodology. My research is based on the sizeable Zukofsky archive at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. My argument is that the Zukofsky archive informs his life work not simply as background but as a shared structure. Read my complete dissertation abstract.

About this page

My new homepage, which you are looking at now, reflects my recent attempts of learning to use style sheets (CSS). The best guide I have found is Eric Meyer, whose "Pure CSS Popups" template provides the structure for this page. See Meyer for technical details, but don't blame him for my failed experiments!