Steven Wexler

HOME  TEACHING  CV 

Klee

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

Ph.D., University of Louisville
                  Dissertation: "Rhetorics of Globalism"
                  Director: Marc Bousquet
                                                       
M.A., University of Louisville  
                  
 Creative Thesis
                   Advisor: Paul Griner
                   Henry James Review Fellow 
                  
B.A., Syracuse University                             

PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS

Professor. California State University, Northridge, 2018
Associate Professor with tenure.  California State University, Northridge, 2011-2018
Assistant Professor.  California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA, 2007-2011

PUBLICATIONS

"The Genius." The Satirist. 6 January 2021.

"Ludwig Wittgenstein: Toward a Dialectical Pragmatism." Reading as Democracy in Crisis: Interpretation, Theory, History. London: Lexington/Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. 73-88.

"Review of Human, All Too (Post)Human: The Humanities After Humanism." Science & Society
.82.4 (2018): 597-99.

"Bicycle!" Toys Issue. Invited contribution. SPECS: Journal of Art and Culture 3.1 (2010): 178-90. 

"Rhetoric, Literacy, and Social Change in Post-Mao China." College Composition and Communication 60.4 (2009): 808-26.

"The Science of Academic Freedom." Invited contribution. Academic Freedom and Intellectual Activism in the Post-9/11 University. Special issue of Works and Days 51-54, 26-27 (2009): 389-98.

(I'm)Material Labor in the Digital Age.” Guest editor and contributor. Mental Labor Issue. Special issue of Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor 15 (2008): 1-11. Web.

"Beyond the Knowledge Factory: A Review of David B. Downing’s The Knowledge Contract: Politics and Paradigms in the Academic Workplace." Studies in the Humanities 33.1 (2006): 1-31.
  
"Review of How Class Works: Power and Social Movement by Stanley Aronowitz." Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor 6.2 (2004). Web.

"Terminal Narcissus and the Posthuman: Reflexivity and Augmentation Through the Hypertext Mirror."  Kairos 7.3 (2002). Web.

"Freedom in Frankenstein: What We Can Learn from a Marcusian Monster."  Proceedings of the Image of the Outsider in Literature, Media, and Society: Selected Papers. Ed. Will Wright and Steven Kaplan. Pueblo: Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery and the University of Southern Colorado, 2002.  67-71.

With Sarah Edgington. "Bibliography of Critical Work on James and Film."  Henry James Goes to the Movies.  Ed. Susan M. Griffin.  Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 2001. 359-65.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

Dialectics of Information (bk.)

The Global Contract: Financialization and World Government (bk.)

TEACHING 

Satire and Social Contract (graduate)
Rhetorical Theory and Composition (graduate)
Rhetoric of Science (graduate)
Politics of Information (graduate)
Twentieth-Century Rhetoric (graduate)
Critical Approaches to Literature (graduate)
Rise of the Novel (graduate)
Rethinking Animal Rights
Global Rhetorics
Text and Social Contract (Honors)
Introduction to Creative Writing
Multigenre Literacy in a Global Context
Autobiography
Major Critical Theories
Popular Literary Genres
Studies in Popular Culture
Literature and Film: "Fantastical Histories, Material Realities"
Literature and Film: “The Dystopian Imaginary”
Literature and Film: "Framing the American Dream: Labor, Love, and Citizenry"
Literature and Film: “The James Bond Formation”
Report Writing
Freshman Composition
Stretch Composition

Lecturer.  Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, 2002 - 2007 

Expository Writing: Argument
Expository Writing: Informal Essay 
Composition and Rhetoric: Writing about Comedy
Composition and Rhetoric: Writing about You 
Composition and Rhetoric: Writing about Monsters
Composition and Rhetoric: Sources of Self

Composition Instructor. University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 1998 - 2002

Intermediate College Composition: “Authoring from the Underground” (computer-aided instruction)  
Introduction to College Composition: “I, Intertext” (computer-aided instruction)

Adjunct Faculty.  Spencerian College, Louisville, KY, 1999 - 2000

Business Correspondence 
Anatomy and Physiology I 
Records Management 
English II 
English I

Writing Consultant.  Rutgers University Writing Center, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 1997
 
PRESENTATIONS

"The Alethization Problem and Our Transformative Digital Publics." Media in Transition 10, MIT, 17 May 2019

"Inferentialism or Reason as Performance: Comp Lessons from the Pittsburgh School." CCCC, 14 March 2019

"Fascism in the State-Finance Nexus." Historical Materialism Annual Conference, London, 8 November 2018

"Westworld in a Chinese Room." College English Association, 5 April 2018

"A Genealogy Like No Other? Dialectics, Counterfactuals, and Totality." Historical Materialism Annual Conference, London, 9 November 2017 (accepted)

"Talking Lions Talking Lion: Rhetoric and Animal Rights." Rhetoric Society of America Conference, 26 May 2016 (accepted)

"Reason-Risk-Cohort." CCCC, 19 March 2015

"Girls vs. Game of Thrones: Mapping Fantasy, the New Reality." Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities, 10 January 2015

"The Limits to ‘Cost-Effective’ Comp."  CCCC, 23 March 2012

"Writing and Risk Management." CCCC, 17 March 2010

"'User-Generated' Liberalism and Value." Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery. University of Southern Colorado, 12  March 2009 (accepted)

"Knowledge Economy Rhetorics in the Writing Class," presenter and chair. CCCC, 2 April 2008 

"(I’m)Material Labor in the Digital Age."  MLA, 27 December 2007

"Global ‘Greater China’: Discourse, Power, and the World Factory."  Rhetoric Society of America Conference, 26 May 2006

"Conspicuous Consumption as Campus Culture." CCCC, 22 March 2006

"Literacy and Resistance in Postsocialist China."  CCCC, 16 March 2005

"Writing Center Pragmatism."  5th Biennial Thomas R. Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition, "Writing at the Center."  University of Louisville, 7 October 2004

"Motivation and Melancholy in 'After the Storm.'"  Eleventh Annual Biennial International Ernest Hemingway Society Conference, "Key West Hemingway."  7 June 2004

"Rewriting the Sign of Terror in First-Year Composition."  College English Association, 3 April 2003

"De/Composing Identities in English B."  CCCC, 19 March 2003

"The Invisibility of Negation: Debunking Dialectical Dreams in Invisible Man."  Twenty-Seventh Colloquium on Literature and Film.  West Virginia University, 10 October 2002 (accepted)

"Terminal Narcissus and the Posthuman: Reflexivity and Augmentation Through the Hypertext Mirror."  Computers and Writing.  Illinois State University, 16 May 2002
 
"Freedom in Frankenstein: What We Can Learn from a Marcusian Monster."  Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery.  University of Southern Colorado, 28 February 2002

"The Neurotic Intertext."  Writing as a Human Activity.  University of California at Santa Barbara, 6 October 2001

"This is Allan Benkle."  Twenty-First Annual Twentieth-Century Literature Conference. University of Louisville, 24 February 2000

"Bipolar Affective Illness: Results of Linkage Analysis Using Microsatellite Marker, AJHG, s51, A374."  Straub, R.E., Baron, M., Lehner, T., Loth, J.E., Luo, Y., Shao, W., Wexler, S.N., Sharpe, L., Simon, R., Gibbon, M., Endicott, J., Ott, J., Gilliam, T.C.  Annual Meeting of American Society of Human Genetics, San Francisco, CA, November 1992

"Genetic Linkage Analysis of Bipolar Affective Illness."  Straub, R.E., Baron, M., Lehner, T., Luo, Y., Wexler, S.N., Ott, J., and Gilliam, T.C.  Eighth International Congress of Human Genetics, Washington, D.C., October 1991

"Linkage Analysis of Bipolar Affective Illness Using DNA Markers."  Straub, R.E., Endicott, J., Lehner, T., Loth, J.E., Napiorkowski, P., Wexler, S.N., Luo, Y., Ott, J., Gilliam, T.C., and Baron, M.  Conference of Psychiatric Genetics, London, August 1991

SERVICE 

University and College
Faculty Fellows Committee
Director. Stretch Composition Instructional Video II
Director. Stretch Composition Instructional Video
Member. Academic Council, California State University, Northridge, 2012 - present
Member. University Writing Council 2009 – present
Committee Member. Global Studies Path, California State University, Northridge, 2012 - present
Faculty Senate, California State University, Northridge, 2010 –2012
E.O. 1048 Mandatory Early Start Working Group, 2010
Stretch Orientation Training Workshop, 2010 - 2012
Committee Member. Graduate Program in Literacy. California State University, Northridge, 2009 – 2010
Stretch Program in First-Year Writing. Committee Member.  California State University, Northridge, 2009
Presenter. “The ‘Socially Networked Class’: Using Web 2.0 Technology to Enhance Learning.”  California State University, Northridge, 2009
Assessment Liaison.  California State University, Northridge, 2008 – 2010
Faculty Organizer and Participant.  Living and Learning in Community (students living together and taking courses together).  Created a linked interdisciplinary writing course with a sociology professor and developed activities for the program itself.  Rollins College, 2003 – 2006
Committee Member.  Transformative Education Task Group of the All-College Planning and Priorities Committee.  Rollins College, 2003
Organizing Committee Member.  University of Louisville English Graduate Organization.  Watson Conference.  University of Louisville, 2000
Organizing Committee Member.  University of Louisville English Graduate Organization.  Twentieth Annual Twentieth-Century Literature Conference.  University of Louisville, 1999

Department
Committee Member. Department and Personnel Committee, 2022 - 23
Committee Member. Sabbatical, Promotion, and Retention Committee, 2022 - 23
Committee Member. Department and Personnel Committee, 2020 - 21
Committee Member. Sabbatical, Promotion, and Retention Committee, 2020-21
Chair. Awards and Amenities Committee, Spring 2020
Interim Director. English Program in Business Communications, Department of English, California State University, Northridge, 2018
Presenter. “Frankenstein’s Five Monstrous Freedoms.” Frankenweek: A Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Department of English, California State University, Northridge, 29 October - 1 November 2018
Presenter. Critical Theory Club, "Fantasy in Pop Culture." California State University, Northridge, 2018
Presenter. Critical Theory Club, "Everything Marx." California State University, Northridge, 2015
Personnel Committee, Department of English, California State University, Northridge, 2013-14
Co-director, Stretch Composition, Department of English, California State University, Northridge, 2011-12
Rhetoric and Composition Committee Member.  Department of English, California State University, Northridge, 2007 – present
Master’s Exam Committee Member.  Department of English, California State University, Northridge, 2008 – present
Popular Culture Committee Member.  Department of English, California State University, Northridge, 2007 – present
Moderator. AGSE, “Fantastically Radical” panel.  California State University, Northridge, 2010
Moderator. AGSE, “Popular Culture” panel. California State University, Northridge, 2009
Adjunct Faculty Search Committee Member.  Department of English, California State University, Northridge, 2007
Faculty Organizer and Participant.  Žižek!  Organized department viewing of Slavoj Žižek documentary and subsequent discussion “Teaching the Language of ‘Unfreedom.’”  Rollins College, 2006
Faculty Organizer and Participant.  “Writing with New Media.”  Presentation on incorporating Web technology (Websites, blogs, and hypertext) in the composition class.  Rollins College, 2006
Database designer for instructor Web-projects.  Department of English.  University of Louisville

Student

Professor and Mentor. Sarin Parsakhian. 2022 Robert apRoberts English Prize, "Satire & Marxism: George Orwell's Animal Farm and the Bourgeois Takeover."

Mentor. Eric Kufs. Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Award (2015)

Master's Thesis Director.  Department of English, California State University, Northridge, 2008 - present:

  • Jamie Arrow, "Teacher Performance and Delivery in the Secondary Classroom" (Spring 2010)

Master’s Thesis Committee Member.  Department of English, California State University, Northridge, 2007 – present:

  • Jennifer Baquera, “Untitled” (reader, expected Spring 2009)
  • Angelina Gonzales, “The Transferability of Academic Writing to the Real World” (reader, Spring 2008)
  • Cheryl Hazama, “The Historicity Behind Beowulf” (third reader, Spring 2009)
  • Sean McCallon, “A Rhetorical Genre Study of Heroes and Villains in Professional Wrestling” (reader, Spring 2008)
  • Heather Penrod, “Constructing American Identity Through the Myth of Children's Historical Narratives” (reader, Spring 2009)
  • Lisa Tremain, “A Rhetorical Analysis of Timed Writing Assessments at the California State University” (reader, Spring 2009)
  • Darlene Toscano, “The Globalization of English: Examining Perceptions of English Among California High School and College Students” (reader, Spring 2009)
  • Juliette Diggs, “Domestic Anarchy Among the Suburbanites of Post-War American Literature” (reader, Spring 2010)
  • Andrea Hernandez, “Academic Argument and Disciplinary Transfer: Fostering Genre Awareness in First Year Writing Students” (reader, Spring 2010)
  • Aram Kouyoumdjian, “William Saroyan and the Theater of Diaspora” (reader, Fall 2011)
  • Kathy Torabi, “Zoroastrian Dualism in Paradise Lost” (reader, Spring 2011)
  • Sakina Jangbar, "The Rhetorical Function of Heidegger's Hermeneutics" (reader, Spring 2013)

Master’s Exam Director.  Department of English, California State University, Northridge

  • Elizabeth Vance (Spring 2008)
  • Guillermo Mercado (Fall 2009)
  • Hillary Freeman (Fall 2009)

Other Contributions
Book Manuscript Review. Open Book Publishers, 2022
Book Prospectus Review. Routledge, 2021
Book Manuscript Review. Routledge, 2018
Article Manuscript Review. International Critical Thought, 2014
Book Manuscript Review. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010
Book Manuscript Review. Fordham University Press, 2009
Textbook Review.  Decisions: A Writer's Handbook.  By Leonard J. Rosen.  Longman, 2003
Selected Monograph.  Review of Andy Pickering's Mangle of Practice.  History of Science, Social Studies of Science (HSSS).  KLI Theory Lab <http://www.kli.ac.at/theorylab/Areas/HSSS.html>
 “How to be an Eighteenth-Century English Gentleman.”  Eighteenth-Century Resources -- History.  Ed. Jack Lynch. June 2004 <http://newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/18th/history.html>
 ---.  Early Modern Bibliographies.  Early Modern Resources. Ed. Sharon Howard.  Sep 2003. <http://www.earlymodernweb.org.uk/embiblios.htm>
  Moderator.  “Cowboys and Outlaws.”  Society of Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery.  University of Southern Colorado, 28 February 2002

EDITORIAL WORK

Book Review Editor.  Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, 2009 – 2010
Editorial Board Member. Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, 2007 – present
Editor.  The Fox: Rollins College Journal of First-Year Writing, 2003
Editorial Assistant. Henry James Review, Louisville, KY, 1999 – 2001
Copy Editor (freelance).  Instructor and Scholastic, New York, NY, 1991 – 1993

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE

Research Associate.  Medical Genetics. Columbia University and NY State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, 1990 – 1992

AWARDS

Finalist. "Some Pill." 49th New Millenium Award for Flash Fiction, 2020
Sabbatical (Competitive), California State University, Northridge, Fall 2019
Best in Section. "Westworld in a Chinese Room." 2018 CEA Conference
Semifinalist. Legato. 2017 Finish Line Script Competition
Faculty Fellowship, California State University, Northridge, 2011
Teaching Fellowship, Rollins College, 2002 – 2007
Henry James Review Fellowship, University of Louisville, 1999 – 2001
Graduate Teaching Assistantship, University of Louisville, 1998 – 2002

Updated 13 March 2023