Peter Kearly Kim

Peter Kearly Kim, Ph. D.
Phone: (313) 317-6682
E-mail: pkearly@hfcc.edu
Office: A-208
Building: Learning Technology Center
Fax: (313) 317-6690.

ENG 131: Honors College Writing (Space and Place)

For the Fall 2008 semester, I will be teaching Honors English 131.  Students must be accepted into the Honors Program to enroll in the course.

Coinciding with Pamela Sayre’s Honors Colloquium on the “The Silk Roads,” I will be teaching an Honors English 131 Freshman Composition course exploring what Yi Fu Tuan’s foundational work calls “Space and Place.”   Tracing poetry, history, theology, economics, architecture, urban planning, and psychology, Tuan’s work shows how civilizations have been shaped by the fundamental relationship between space and place, and, with relation to the Colloquium topic, how Chinese mythologies of space and place informed respective dynastic civilizations.  In addition, students will be challenged to connect the ancient human landscape on which the Silk Roads were built and the respective notions of space and place that informed them with contemporary ideas about trade and migration expressed in Gilbert H. Muller’s anthology, The New World Reader: Thinking and Writing about the Global Community.  The anthology will also provide models of the following rhetorical modes required in all English 131 courses: including summary analysis, persuasion, comparison/contrast, and division/classification.  In-class midterm and final essay exams will insure students have practice composing in the classroom environment.  The course will also have an online discussion component that will provide a place for the students to “speak” outside the physical space of the classroom.

BACKGROUND

Learn more about me by reading my personal essay, titled "I'm Iwish," published in the anthology: After the Morning Calm.

EDUCATION

I have received my doctoral degree in English at Wayne State University where I've also received my Bachelor's degree in Honors English and my Master of Arts degree.  I served for two years as student editor of Wayne State University's scholarly journal, Criticism, for which I contributed book reviews.  I also have written film reviews for The Michigan Citizen and The South End.  Among my scholarly publications are an essay on Toni Morrison's novel, Paradise, which appeared in The Journal of American Culture and an essay on the theatrics of racial humor in the Journal of American Humor Studies.

In addition to pursuing studies on race, gender, multiculturalism, and immigration, I have lectured on diversity at local and national venues.

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

I will challenge you to think beyond the status quo, to broaden your horizons, so to speak, and to reflect on your own ways of thinking in the context of the topics and themes explored in the courses that I teach.  While everyone is “entitled to her or his own opinion,” keep in mind that some opinions are more valid than others when tested against competing information and logic.  In other words, rational and ethical thought will be expected to support claims and views in both your writing and classroom discussion.

Online Courses:
English 132 (Fall 2008)
English 246 (Fall 2008)

Sample Syllabi from past courses I've taught:

English 088: Basic Writing: Sentences to Paragraphs

English 093: Basic Writing: Paragraphs to Essays

English 131: College Writing

English 132: College Writing and Research

English 135: Technical Writing

English 246: Children's Literature

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY

In addition to being the Chair of the English and World Languages Division Technology Committee, I am the Webmaster for the English and World Languages Division website.  I also serve as managing editor of the following online publication: Peer Review: HFCC's Online Journal of Student Writing

Other College Activities:

-Writing Lab Liaison

-Honors Directed Study Advisor

-Chair, Publications Board for The Mirror Student Newspaper

-Legislative Committee, Local 1650 AFT

-NCA Self Study

-Senate Representative, English Division, Faculty College Organization, 2003-2007
(See my English Senate Blog)

-Faculty Lectureship Award, Winter 2005