William Banks serves as Co-Director of the Tar River Writing Project, Associate Director of the Composition Program, and Director of the First-Year Writing Studio.  He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Rhetoric and Composition, children’s literature, and women’s studies. His current research carries him in two related direction: 1) inclusions/exclusions of LGBT issues in first-year writing curricula across the United States and 2) literacy practices of adolescent gay males, particularly how they perform "self" on their weblogs using both alphabetic and visual codes. He has guest-edited a special issue of Computers and Composition on the theme "Sexualities, Technologies, and the Teaching of Writing," which won the 2005 Ellen Nold Award for distinguished contribution to the field of Computers and Writing. His articles have also appeared in College English, Dialogue: A Journal for Writing Specialists, Illinois English Journal, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College.

Degrees
B.A. Georgia Southern University
M.A. Georgia Southern University
Ph.D. Illinois State University

Primary Areas of Research/Teaching
Theories of Rhetoric and Composition
Teaching of Writing
Histories of Rhetoric
Minority Rhetorics
English Education
Computers and Composition
National Writing Project
Children's and Adolescent Literatures

Courses Taught
8601: Advanced Research Methods in Rhetoric & Composition
7666: Teaching English in the Two-Year College
7601: Research Design in Rhetoric & Composition
6625: Teaching Composition, Theory and Practice
4950: Literature for Children
4540: Special Topics Seminar
3890: Critical Writing
3810: Advanced Composition
2730: Functional Grammar
1200: Composition
1100: Composition


Website Links
Personal Website
Graduate Concentration in Rhetoric & Composition
First-Year Writing Studio