Miscellaneous E
If you need to contact me, here's my information:
- Office: Dunleavy 350
- Phone: 716-286-8631
- E-Mail: ekarper@niagara.edu
- AIM: ProfKarper
About Me
I got my BA at Loyola College in Maryland, where I majored in Writing and Spanish. Then I spent six years at Purdue University pursuing an MA and a PhD in English with a specialization in rhetoric and composition. I wrote a dissertation about how people learn to create Web pages for the first time.
While at Purdue, I taught introductory composition and technical writing. I also worked for Purdue's Writing Lab as the technical coordinator for Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) and as the technology wrangler for Purdue's Professional Writing Program.
Since 2004, I've been at Niagara University, where I'm an assistant professor in the English department. I do research into the composing processes of Web design.
From Fall 2005 to Spring 2008 , I was the Assistant Director and Assessment Coordinator for the WRT 100 Program, where I hired and mentored instructors, developed workshops and course materials, ordered textbooks, and conducted outcomes assessment.
What I Teach
At Niagara, I teach a variety of writing courses. Every semester, I teach Writing and Thinking (WRT 100), our first-year composition course, and then a variety of courses that make up our writing studies minor, including Grant Writing, Writing for the Web, Special Topics in Web Writing, Visual Rhetoric, and Business Communication. I've also taught Communication for Executives in Niagara's MBA program. You can find a list of all my course Web sites at the courses index.
Other Academic Tasks I do
At Niagara, I'm on the Instructional Technology Committee, where I give training sessions in using Adobe Contribute for Web design and consult with people about doing Web design and Web writing. I also serve on the Niagara Reads committee, where I maintain the Web site. I recently joined the Instructional Technology Faculty Learning Committee facilitiated by the Office of Instructional Support.
I'm the faculty moderator for Niagara's chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the international English honor society. I also maintain the English department Web site and moderate the English department discussion group.
In my field, I serve as the Communications Editor for Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy and as the Technology Maven for The Writing Instructor.
You can find out more about what I do (and what I've done) by reading my curriculum vita.
Site Credits
Images
The images used on the site (except for the header image in the Web training site, which is by Jane M Sawyer and is from MorgueFile) were all taken by me on April 2, 2006, using a Canon A95 PowerShot camera. They were taken in several locations on the shore of Lake Erie in Lackawanna, New York. The images at the top of the pages change through the use of the Random Image Rotator script by Automatic Labs.
Layout
The layout for the index page is based on the three-column static width and centered layout by Eric Costello.
The layout for the secondary pages is based on the Liquid two column layout by MaxDesign.
All pages have been validated by the WC3 Markup Validation Services and contain valid XHTML and CSS. The pages also comply with all of the automatic checkpoints of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and the Section 508 Accessibility Guidelines (and hopefully all of the manual ones as well).
