Robert Watkins
Associate Professor of English
Office: LA 155
EDUCATION
PhD, Rhetoric & Professional Communication (2014), Iowa State University
MA, English - Literature & Writing (2008), Utah State University
BA, English - Professional & Technical Writing (2005), Utah State University
Robert Watkins studied rhetoric, composition, and technical communication at Iowa State and Utah State. He teaches those very subjects to undergraduate and graduate students at Idaho State. His teaching approaches stem from his research, where he focuses on the pedagogical intersections of multimodal composition, visual rhetoric, technical communication, and comics production. The vesica piscis of these topics appear in all his classes: teaching rhetorical genre and comics production to model all types of professional and academic writing. Rob loves working with students to help them find their professional and academic voice. Feel free to contact him if you’d like to discuss any of these topics.
Publications
Peer Reviewed
"Technical and Sequential: Teaching Comics Production in the Technical Communication Classroom.” Programmatic Perspectives, vol. 11, no. 1, 2020, pp. 40–67.
"Sequential Mapping: Using Sequential Rhetoric and Comics Production to Understand UX Design.” Technical Communication Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 3, 2020, pp. 304–318. (with Tom Lindsley)
“iPads or Computer Labs: A Technical Communication Classroom Study.” E-Learning and Digital Media, Sage Publishing. Vol. 16 , Issue 5, September 2019. (with Diantha Smith Mark McBeth).
“Comic Con(nection): Envisaging Comics as a Multimodal Ensemble that Teaches Core Visual Writing." Journal of Teaching Writing, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2018.
“Sequential Rhetoric: Using Freire and Quintilian to Teach Students to Read and Create Comics.” Digital Humanities Quarterly. Spring 2016. Winner of Best Online Comics Scholarship 2016 (with Tom Lindsley).
"Sexy Art, Speculative Commerce, and the X-Men #1 Launch Extravaganza." The Ages of X-Men. ed. Joseph Darowski. McFarland: Jefferson, 2013. (with Tim Elliot).
"Words Are The Ultimate Abstraction: Towards Using Scott McCloud for Teaching Visual Rhetoric." Kairos. Kairos and Creative Commons, online, Summer 2008.
Reviews, Fiction, & Pop Culture
“The Little Girl and the Universe Tool.” Baltimore Review. Winter 2019.
“Chasing the Light: The Cloud Cult Story.” Popular Music and Society, vol. 40, no. 1, January 2017.
“Stewart/Colbert Effect: Colbert Trumps Fallon in Trump Interview.” Pop Matters. March 2016.
"The Blueprint/Product Disparity: Learning from Lofty Plans and Humble Products." InVisible Culture vol. 23, 2015.
Courses Taught
English 7731: Practicum in Teaching Composition
English 6631: Seminar in Teaching Writing
English 4499/5599: Advanced Academic Writing
English 4493: Senior Seminar Professional Writing
English 4431/5531: Teaching and Writing Projects Special Topics
English 4410: Writing Internship
English 4407: Topics in Professional Writing
English 4401/5501: Advanced Composition
English 3308: Business Communication
English 3307: Technical Communication
English 1102: Writing and Rhetoric II
English 1101: Writing and Rhetoric I