English Department

David Martins
Composition
Phone: 898-4449
Office: Taylor 214
dmartins@csuchico.edu

When I am not running to catch up to my two-year-old, I teach courses in rhetoric, literacy, composition, technical writing, and contemporary theory.

While completing my undergraduate degree in English and Asian studies at St. Olaf College (BA, 1992) I found myself working as a peer tutor in the college's " Writing Place." Although my coursework in English did not focus on rhetoric or literacy my advisors could sense my passion for the issues addressed in those fields: attention to language, concern for social justice, combining theory and practice. They suggested I pursue "Rhetoric and Composition," and so I found my way from southern Minnesota to the high desert of Northern Arizona. Up at 7,000 feet, my study of language introduced me to the fields of applied linguistics, rhetoric, creative writing, literature, critical theory, and cultural studies. After receiving my MA (1995), I moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

During my doctoral work at Michigan Technological University (PhD, 2001), I wrote a dissertation in which I identify diabetes education as a critical site for understanding how health care professionals use scientific knowledge as they educate people with a chronic illness, and, in turn, how people put that knowledge to use as they struggle to live healthily with the disease. I have also published on the following topics: classroom-based writing assistance ( On Location ), communication, biotechnology and the body ( Communication Theory, 2005) and medical rhetoric ( Rhetoric of Healthcare, 2006 ). I am currently working on an essay about the rhetoric of illness narratives, particularly as it appears in memoirs of people with diabetes.

Now in Chico, I find my interests have expanded to include: Bidwell Park, bread making, wine, and never missing a Spearhead concert.

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