Torch

Issue date: 10/25/06Section: Features

Media Credit: Torch Photo/ Joshua Massel

Dr. Derek Owens is popular and respected around theQueens campus of St. John's, and once someone meets him, no one has to wonder why. The director of the new Institute for Writing Studies is a friendly, likeable man who created the Writing Center and helped it become the great institute that it is today.

Owens earned a master's degree in English and a Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Albany. He taught in the Expository Writing Program at Harvard College before joining the English department at St. John's in 1994.

Owens has also written two books, Resisting Writings (and the Boundaries of Composition) published in 1994 and Composition and Sustainability: Teaching for a Threatened Generation in 2001. He has written many articles and given presentations on such topics as environmental literacy, writing center theory, first-year composition, service-learning, curriculum reform, and experimental writing.

St. John's has awarded Owens' work multiple times. He received St. John's University's Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award in 2006, the Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship Award for Graduate Teaching in 2004, and an Innovative Teaching Award in 1996. He also served as Acting Chair of the English Department in 2004.

One of Owens' biggest achievements at the University is the creation of the Writing Center, where students can receive guidance and critiques on their writing or simply find a quiet spot on campus to work on a paper.

Owens created the Writing Center in 1996. It started out very small in a cubicle in the basement of St. John's Hall. It quickly grew into a noteworthy project and continued evolving over the next 10 years. The Writing Center operated out of St. John Hall until this year when it moved to the first floor of St. Augustine Hall.

This year, the Writing Center has expanded into something much bigger. Owens is now the director of the University's Institute for Writing Studies, which includes a number of programs including a First-Year Writing Program, writing centers on both the Queens and Staten Island campuses, and a Writing Across the Curriculum Program.

The center is designed for all students and anyone who wants to learn about writing, regardless of experience or ability. Their goal is to simply help all students who wish to become better writers. Its new space in St. Augustine Hall is a welcoming environment with conference tables, workstations, a comfortable lounge, a seminar room, and offices for faculty teaching first-year writing.

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