Christopher Thaiss
Brief Bio |
Courses |
Research |
University Writing Program |
International Network of Writing-across-the-Curriculum Programs (INWAC) |
CHRIS
THAISS is Clark Kerr Presidential Chair, Professor, and Director of the
University Writing Program at the University of California at Davis. He
is a member of the Language, Literacy, and Culture Graduate Group and
serves as Principal Investigator of the Area 3 Writing Project, a site
of the National Writing Project. Active in the development of
cross-curricular writing in colleges and universities since 1978,
Thaiss coordinates the International Network of WAC Programs (INWAC)
and works with teachers in the elementary, middle, and high schools
through sites of the National Writing Project. He frequently consults
on writing
and conducts workshops on teaching and program development for schools
and colleges.
Until 2006, he was Professor of English at George Mason University, where he directed the composition and writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) programs and served as chair of the English Department. In 2005, he received the University's David King Award for career contributions to teaching excellence.
Books he has written or edited include Engaged
Writers and Dynamic Disciplines: Research on the Academic Writing Life (with
Terry Myers Zawacki; Heinemann, 2006)); The Harcourt Brace Guide to Writing Across
the Curriculum; WAC for the New Millennium: Strategies for Continuing
Writing-across-the-Curriculum Programs (with Susan McLeod, Eric Miraglia,
and Margot Soven); Writing to Learn: Essays and Reflections; Speaking
and Writing, K-12 (with Charles Suhor); Language Across the Curriculum
in the Elementary Grades; two textbooks for English composition classes,
Write to the Limit and A Sense of Value (with Ann Jeffries
Thaiss); and three writing texts (Allyn and Bacon, publishers) for specific
disciplines: Writing about Theatre (with Rick Davis), Writing
for Law Enforcement (with John Hess); and Writing for Psychology
(with James Sanford). He has contributed chapters to many anthologies, most
recently to a forthcoming Routledge anthology on international research on writing.
His current ongoing research is the International WAC/WID Mapping
Project, which involves surveys and interviews of writing program
developers in the U.S. and Canada and in countries around the world.
In
addition, he serves on the editorial boards of Across
the Disciplines, Inventio, the WAC Clearinghouse, Writing Spaces, and Writing on the
Edge.