Keith Hjortshoj

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Keith Hjortshoj is the John S. Knight Director of Writing in the Majors. He joined the staff of the Writing Workshop shortly after completing his Ph. D. in anthropology and Asian studies at Cornell, in 1977, with research interests in Indo-Islamic culture in northern India. As a member of the Knight Institute and Writing Workshop staffs he has taught writing courses for students at all levels, including seminars for freshmen, a course he initiated for graduate students, an advanced writing course on social research, and teaching seminars for graduate students and faculty at Cornell and at other institutions. With Harry Shaw, then director of the Knight Writing Program, Hjortshoj developed Writing in the Majors in 1987 and became the director of this program in 1992. He has also served as the co-director of the Lilly Endowment Teaching Fellows Program at Cornell. Hjortshoj has received the Clark Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Merrill Presidential Scholar Award for Outstanding Educator.

Keith Hjortshoj has published work in Asian and Islamic studies and in rhetoric and composition. His most recent publications in composition include "The Marginality of the Left-Hand Castes (A Parable for Writing Teachers)" (CCC 46, 1995), "Theory, Confusion, Inclusion" in Critical Theory: Curriculum , Pedagogy, Politics, edited by James Slevin and Art Young (NCTE: 1996), The Transition to College Writing (Bedford: 2001), and Understanding Writing Blocks (Oxford U. Press, 2001).