Curriculum Vitae

 

David R. Williams

PO Box 12

Lincoln, Va 20160                                                                    (540) 338-2503 -h                           

Email: drwillia@gmu.edu                                                            (703) 993-1197 -w

Webpage:  http://mason.gmu.edu/~drwillia

                  http://www.sinboldly.com

 

 

Education:

 

 

       Ph.D. American Civilization, 1982, Brown University

       Thesis: "The Fiery Hunt: New England in the Jaws of an Angry God"

          Advisor: Barton Levi St. Armand

 

       M.T.S. (Masters of Theological Studies) 1975,

         Harvard Divinity School

            -Baccalaureate Speaker-

 

       B.A. (cl) American History, 1972, Harvard College    

 

 

Teaching Experience:

      Currently Visiting Assistant Professor of English, George Mason.

     

       George Mason University, Visiting Assistant Professor of  English and American  Studies                                                                                                                   

       and Lecturer,  Teaching Graduate and Undergraduate courses; and Adjunct Professor of

       American Literature and Composition  Northern Virginia Community College,

      1985-2001.

    

     Fulbright Lecturer, American History and Literature,

      Philosophical Faculty, Comenius University, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, 1991/1992

          - a one year Fulbright Fellowship

 

    Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Mass, Visiting Professor  1983/84

 

    Brown University, Post-graduate Lecturer, History, Education, and English, 1982/83.

 

 

AWARDS:

 

George Mason University’s “Excellence in Teaching”     1999/2000

Fulbright Fellowship, Comenius University, Slovakia,  1991/1992

Publications:

 Books:

 

  Wilderness Lost: The Religious Origins of the American Mind 

   Associated University Presses, 1987. 2d printing 1990.

 

 

  Revolutionary War Sermons, Scholars Facsimiles, 1984. One of the series: "The                                                                                            

  Sermon in America." Facsimiles of sermons with substantial introduction and notes. 

 

 

  Sin Boldly! : Dr. Dave's Guide to Writing the College Paper,

                       Perseus Press,  Cambridge, Mass: 2000    

  

  In Anarchy and Dissent: American Literature in the ‘60s,  chapter titled “Madness and Death – two     

    ways out of the cage: Ken Kesey’s Liberation American style” Universidad de Salamanca,  

   Salamanca,    Spain, 2000.

 

In From Virgin Land to Disney World: Nature and its Discontents in the American of Yesterday and      

    Today,chapter titled “’Back to the Garden:’ The Liberation of the Id in the Antinomian Sixties’” ,

     Editions Rodpi: Amsterdam and Atlanta, Forthcoming

 

[Currently in process ]. : "Jason Sham Too": The Real Meaning of the  American Sixties

 

 

 

   Published  Articles and Reviews     (Chronological order)

  

    “Night and Chaos in the Howling Wilderness of Cape Cod: Thoreau’s Final Surrender to the Text,”

        Selected  publications from the 1999 ASLE Conference,  Univ of Texas Press, Upcoming

 

    “Snobs and Slobs” and  “Cliches”,  The Vocabula Review Robert Fiske, Editor, an on-line magazine       

                of language: http: www.vocabula.com.  March, May 2001

 

   “Cotton Mather's Analysis of Witchcraft: A foreshadowing of the Invisible World of                                                           

             Psychoanalysis,"  Clio’s Psyche  (Forthcoming)

 

   Mr. Delay had it right: Absolutism and Relativism were at the heart of the Clinton Matter,”

      Outlook Section, Washington Post, Sunday, March 7, 1999

 

     Book reviews & Interviews for LOUDOUN ART

 

                    Richard Moore, Formalism and Madness in Poetry, an interview

                   The Height of our Mountains Michael branch (on eco-regionalism);

                    Bingo Night at the Fire Hall Barbara Holland (on development and cultural loss);           

                    O Appalachia! Ramona & Millard Lampell (on Appalachian folk art).

                    Willa Cather’s Loudoun County

               

 

   “Clinton as all-American con-man  Clio’s Psyche  v. 5, no. 3, December 1998

 

   “Bob Dylan and Emily Dickinson: Typological Poets of the Broken Heart.” CRAWDADDY!

      and On The Tracks     April, 1998.

 

   “Adjunct Faculty:” in Opinion Section    Washington Post, Sunday Edition, C8, September 14, 1997   

 

   "Critics in the Wilderness: Literary Theory and the Historical Roots of the American      

      wilderness tradition."   Weber Studies  (Wilderness Issue), September 1994.

 

   "Emerson, Orwell, and the Corruption of Language," Journal of

    Slovak Anglicists, Comenius University, Bratislava, CS (1993)

 

   "The Demise of Hard Cider as America's Favorite Working Class  Drink" on The Cider     

    Page  Posted 1995  http://www.teleport.com/%7Eincider/demiseCider.Html

 

    Contributing Editor: American National Biography, "Mary Moody Emerson,"  "Sarah  Alden                

    Bradford Ripley"  Oxford University Press, Forthcoming

 

  Contributing author: Dictionary of Christianity in America,  "R.W. Emerson," "Alexis de          

  Tocquiville," "Lew Wallace,"  "The Pilgrims,"  1990 

 

  "Edwards' Humiliation and Huck Finn's Damnation: Experience  and appearance in                        

   America's Moral Wilderness" in the CRESSET: A Review of Literature, the Arts, and

   Public Affairs  LII,4, February, 1989.

 

    "The Wilderness Rapture of Mary Moody Emerson," Studies in the American        

   Renaissance, Joel Myerson, ed., 1986.

    

    "New Directions in Puritan Studies," essay review of Caldwell  The  Puritan Conversion Narrative

   and Gura A Glimpse of Sion's Glory in American Quarterly,  Spring, 1985.

 

    "Andreus Bernardus Smolnikar: American Catholic Apostate and Millennial Prophet," American

  Benedictine Review, March,  1984. (Written with Br. Jon Alexander, O.P.)

 

 "'This Consciousness that is aware': Emily Dickinson in the wilderness of mind," Soundings; An   

   Interdisciplinary Journal,  Fall, 1983.

 

     "Horses, Pigeons, and the Therapy of Conversion: A Behaviorist Reading of Jonathan      Edwards'

   psychology,"  Harvard Theological Review, October, 1981.

 

 "Home Cru," The Washington Post Magazine, 1986, column on home wine-making.

 

 "View from the Ridge" bi-weekly social commentary in The Blue Ridge Leader

 

 

 

 

 

Papers Currently at Journals for Consideration:

 

         "John Winthrop's Arbella Sermon and the Origins of   American Multiculturalism,"                                                                                                                                           

             American Studies  

 

 

Professional Papers Presented:

 

“The Dangers of Romanticism for the Environmental Movement in America”.  ASLE Conference, Flagstaff, Arizona   June 2001

 

“Destroying the Ego for Divine Vision” ASLE Conference, Flagstaff, Arizona,  June 2001

 

Moderator: Panel on  The Sixties, and presenter of

“’Sympathy for the Devil’: The Post-Modern meaning of Charlie Manson”, Popular Culture Association National Convention, New Orleans,  2000.

 

“Melville’s ‘Watery Wilderness’: A Nineteenth-century Post-modern Exodus from the Egyptian Text”

Melville and the Sea Conference; Williams College Maritime Studies Program,  Mystic Ct .June 1999

 

 Moderator: Panel on Thoreau and presenter of--

  “’Night And Kaos’ in the howling wilderness of  Cape Cod: Thoreau’s confrontation with Negative Theo-ry/ology”   Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE),  Kalamazoo, MI  June 1999.

 

 Convener,  Moderator, and presenter for a material culture panel on Hard Cider in                               

   America, “The Cultural Mystery of Hard Cider’s Demise in 19th Century America”;

    Popular Culture Association’s annual convention, Baltimore,  October 1997

 

 "The Need to Listen to Other Epistemologies: Old Testament Typology and the Signifying of

   Otherness"  Conference of Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, ASLE,  July,     

   1997, Missoula, Montana                

 

     "Thelma and Louise in the Wilderness: or Butch Cassidy and  Jonathan Edwards in Drag." Panel on "Popular Presentation of Religion," New England Popular Culture Association  Conference (NEPCA),  Worcester, Mass.   October 7, 1995

 

   "John Winthrop's Arbella Sermon and American  Multiculturalism: A Plea Against Balkanization,"  Conference on "History, Ideology, and Remarkable Exclusions," Fairfax, Va., June, 1993.

 

 "Reconstructing Amerika: The Sixties as a Great Awakening,”  Sixties Generation, An Interdisciplinary  Conference, Fairfax, VA., March, 1993.

 

 "Structure and anti-Structure: Patterns of Reform and Religion in American History," Oberreifenberg Seminar 1992, Amerika Haus Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.

 

 "The Origins of Wilderness Iconography from  Aaron to Abbey," The Institute of German Philology, University of  Trieste, Trieste, Italy, February, 1992.

 

"Rethinking Cotton Mather's definition of Witchcraft,"

 Conference on Literature and Culture in Colonial America, Gutenberg Universitat,                    

             Mainz, Germany, December, 1991.

 

 Keynote Speaker, Association of Lutheran Faculties Conference, October, 1988. 

   "Edwards' Humiliation,  Franklin's Inclination, Huck Finn's Damnation: Experience        

     and Appearance in America's Moral Wilderness."

 

  Respondent, Panel on Colonial New England Sub-cultures, New England Historical 

 Association, October, 1983.

 

 Coordinator and MC, Panel Discussion on "The Future of  American  Civilization,"    

 Faculty Symposium, Brown 1980       

 

 

 

Academic Community Activities:

 

        Chair: “Excellence in Teaching” Selection Committee 2000/01

        Adjunct Representative: Chair’s Advisory Committee

        Ex-officio Member Faculty Senate Committee on Adjuncts

        G.M.U. Freshman Orientation Summer Advisor, 1995

        M.A.I.S. (Master of Arts in Independent Studies) advisor

        Advisor, G.M.U.  Cambodian Students Club; Young Democrats;  Zymurgy Club;

        Advisor, G.M.U. Program Board   (Instrumental in bringing Nat Hentoff to campus)

        Contributor and advisor to GMU student paper The Broadside

        Active Cybercitizen, IEAHC-Net, H-Amstdy, Amlit-l, ASLE-l,

 

 

 

 

Local Community Activities:

       

 

         Ass’t Editor, Contributor: Loudoun Arts Journal

         Ass't Editor and Bi-Weekly columnist: Blue Ridge Leader

                   Discussion Leader, Fairfax Library “Center for the Book”

              For Grapes of Wrath and Inherit the Wind

         Officer: Loudoun Education Alliance of Parents (LEAP)

            -Curriculum Committee Chair

         Vice-president: Lincoln Community League

         Secretary: Loudoun County Democratic Committee

         Local Coordinator: Keep Loudoun Beautiful

         Secretary: Loudoun County Electoral Board

         Campaign Manager: Eleanor Towe for Supervisor, 1991, 1995

         Editor "COURAGE" - Occasional county Democratic newspaper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recommendations on file:

 

 

         Chris Thaiss, Chair, GMU English Department,      (cthaiss@gmu.edu)

                George mason University, Fairfax, VA. 22030 703-993-1160

 

         David Kuebrich, Former Chair, American Studies Department,

         George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030   703-993-1160 (dkuebric@gmu.edu)

 

         Coilin Owens, English Department,    (cowens@gmu.edu)

         George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030  703-993-1160

 

Beverly Blois, Chair, Humanities Division, No. Virginia Community College                                                                                                                   Sterling, Va. 20164  703-450-2505  (bblois@nova.cc.va.us)

 

        Warren Belasco, American Studies, University of Maryland – Baltimore County,

                Baltimore, MD  21250        410-455-1000     (belasco@umbc.edu)

 

        Michael Zimmerman, Professor of Philosophy,

              Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.

 

         Veronica Makarova, Professor, Philosophical Faculty,

              Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

 

         Barton St. Armand, English Department, Brown

              University, Providence, R.I. 02912

 

         Theodore Sizer (Former Dean Harvard School of Education)

              Education Department, Brown University,

 

            William Hutchison, Harvard Divinity School,

              Cambridge, Massachusetts 22038

 

         Gordon Wood, History Department, Brown University,

              Providence, R.I.  02912

 

         Brian Hansen, Northern Virginia Community College,

              Sterling, Virginia 20164      703-450-2505   

               

 

                COURSES TAUGHT:

 

George Mason University:

 

 

           English Department:

           "Colonial American Literature" Senior and Graduate levels,

             “Edwards and PostModernism”    (independent study)

           "Early and nineteenth-century American Literature,"

            "Literature and Social Change,"

           "The Meaning of the Sixties,"

           "Melville and Twain,"   "Faulkner,"

           "The American Renaissance,"

           "Nature, Culture, & Literature"

           "Composition”  (including advanced composition for nursing, business,  history, social science)

 

 

            American Studies:

              "Popular Culture in America"

            "Introduction to American Studies,"

           "The Entrepreneur In America",

           "The Sixties"

           "The American Dream"      

 

 

Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

 

       "American Popular Culture in the 1960s"

        "United States History"

        "Modern American Politics"

        "Surveys of American Literature"

 

 

Northern Virginia Community College

 

          "Composition",  developmental and regular

          "Introduction to Literature"

         

Survey of Early and of Modern American Literature

      

 

 Brown University, Post Graduate lectureship

 

        Courses: "The American Revolution,"

                        "Western Civilization 101"   

                        "Religion and American Culture"