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James Dubinsky

James Dubinsky, Associate Professor and Director of the Professional and Technical Writing Program

James Dubinsky, Associate Professor and Director of the Professional and Technical Writing Program
James Dubinsky, Associate Professor and Director of the Professional and Technical Writing Program

Department of English 
413 Shanks Hall 
181 Turner Street, NW 
Blacksburg, VA 24061
540-231-1939 | dubinsky@vt.edu

James Dubinsky, an associate professor of English, is also the founding director of the Department of English’s Professional Writing Program and was instrumental in helping to shape the first liberal arts PhD at Virginia Tech (in rhetoric and writing). He is the founding director of the Center for Student Engagement and Community Partnerships (now VT-Engage) and the lead faculty member in the Veterans in Society initiative, for which he organized and/or chaired three national conferences on Veterans in Society. Dubinsky is also a steering committee member of a county-wide Dialogue on Race. He also helped organize four Dialogue on Race Summits (2013–2016), which included all local police chiefs, town officials, and county officials.

  • Scholarship of Teaching (Pedagogy)
  • Scholarship of Engagement (Service-Learning)
  • Professional and Technical Communication
  • Veterans in Society
  • PhD, Miami University
  • MA, University of California, Berkeley
  • BA, Wake Forest University
  • Chair, Veterans Caucus
  • Executive Director, Association for Business Communication
  • Member, Council of Communication Associations
  • Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award, Virginia Tech, February 2009 (one of the first two recipients)
  • Diggs Teaching Scholar Award, Virginia Tech, 2006–2007
  • Excellence in Outreach Award, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, 2004-2005

Books

Teaching Technical Writing: Critical Issues for the Classroom.  Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.  Edited, with introductory essay, preface, explanatory notes, and annotated bibliography. 2004. 

Journal Articles

  • “Product Documentation to Integrated Technical Content.”  Technical Communication, 62.2 (2015): 117-134.
  • “The Land-Grant Way–Connected Knowing and the Call of Service.” Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Society 1.1 (2010): http://www.presenttensejournal.org/. [Invited]
  • “When the Global is Local: Building a Local, Global Community through Partnership and Pedagogy” in Designing Globally Networked Learning Environments: Visionary Partnerships, Policies, and Pedagogies.  Eds. Doreen Starke-Meyerring & M. Wilson., Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers. 2008. 170-184.
  • “The Status of Service in Learning” in Innovative Approaches to the Teaching of Technical Communication.  Eds.  Tracy Bridgeford, Karla Kitalong, and Dickie Selfe. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2004. 15-30.
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute Grant, co-PI with Dr. Bruce Pencek, July 2015, $152,000
  • National Endowment for the Arts Big Read Grant (a partner with Radford University), April 2015, $15,000
  • National Council of Teachers of English Research Grant with Nora Bacon, University of Nebraska; Tom Deans, Haverford College; Adrian Wurr, University of North Carolina, Greensboro; Barbara Roswell, Goucher College, 2004–2005, $5000

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