Jonathan Benda
Teaching Professor in English
My teaching and research grow out of my experiences in Taiwan, where I worked for 16 years before coming to Northeastern. I write about US-Taiwan intercultural relations and the rhetorical representations of self and other in intercultural contexts. My research investigates writing and the teaching of writing in the complex contexts created by globalization.
Since coming to Northeastern in 2011, I have been teaching first-year writing and advanced writing in the disciplines in the Writing Program, as well as travel writing in the Department of English. Working mostly with international and multilingual students, I’m interested in finding ways to empower them to see their multiple languages and cultures as resources to draw on in their writing and in their interactions with others in the university.
- Recipient, Northeastern University Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Fellowship, Fall 2023
- Recipient, 2015 Summer Scholarly Exchange/Travel Grant, Chiu Scholarly Exchange Program for Taiwan Studies, Oregon State University
- Benda, Jonathan, Cherice Escobar Jones, Mya Poe, and Alison Y.L. Stephens. “Confronting Super-Diversity Again: A Multidimensional Approach to Teaching and Researching Writing at a Global University.” In Writing Across Difference: Theory and Intervention, ed. James Rushing Daniel, Katie Malcolm, and Candice Rai. Utah State University Press, 2022. 218-237. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv296mnrf.15
- Benda, Jonathan, Michael Dedek, Chris Gallagher, Kristi Girdharry, Neal Lerner, and Matt Noonan. “Confronting Superdiversity in U.S. Writing Programs.” In The Internationalization of US Writing Programs, ed. Shirley K. Rose and Irwin Weiser. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2018. 79-96. https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/2102664
- Benda, Jonathan. “Google Translate in the EFL Classroom: Taboo or Teaching Tool?” Writing & Pedagogy 5.2 (2013): 317-332. https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.v5i2.317
- Benda, Jonathan. “‘Ye Are Witnesses’: Tunghai University and Taiwan through the Archives of the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association, 1955-1979.” 臺灣教會史料論集 [Taiwan Churches: Collected Essays on Historical Sources]. Ed. 王成勉 (Chen-Main Wang). Taipei: National Central UP/Yuan-Liu, 2013. 113-146.
- Benda, Jonathan. “Difficult Writing: Representation and Responsibility in Narratives of Cross-Cultural Encounters.” Intercultural Communication Studies 19.3 (2010): 135-148.
- Benda, Jonathan. “Empathy and Its Others: The Voice of Asia, A Pail of Oysters, and the Empathetic Writing of Formosa.” Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies 33.2 (2007): 35-60.
Recipient, 2015 Summer Scholarly Exchange/Travel Grant, Chiu Scholarly Exchange Program for Taiwan Studies, Oregon State University, for “U.S. Wartime Military Intelligence and Postwar Discourse about Taiwan: A Survey of the George H. Kerr Papers at the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum”
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Education
PhD in Composition and Cultural Rhetoric, 2011, Syracuse University
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Contact
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Address
417 Lake Hall
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115 -
Office Hours
Fall, 2023: on leave
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Associations
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Designed for students whose first or strongest language is not English. Students study and practice writing in a workshop setting; read a range of texts in order to describe and evaluate the choices writers make and apply that knowledge to their own writing; explore how writing functions in a variety of academic, professional, and public contexts; and write for various purposes and audiences in multiple genres and media. Offers students an opportunity to learn how to conduct research using primary and secondary sources and to give and receive feedback, to revise their work, and to reflect on their growth as writers.
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Interdisciplinary Advanced Writing
ENGW 3315
Offers writing instruction for students interested in interdisciplinary study or who wish to explore multiple disciplines. Students practice and reflect on writing in professional, public, and academic genres relevant to their individual experiences and goals. In a workshop setting, offers students an opportunity to evaluate a wide variety of sources and to develop expertise in audience analysis, critical research, peer review, and revision.
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Travel Writing
ENGL 2695
Focuses on travel writing and place-based writing. Examines the history, global cultural contexts, conventions of, and theories about the genres through reading exemplary texts and studying photographs and films. Offers students an opportunity to produce examples of travel writing and place-based writing as well as short videos and photo-collages.
First-Year Writing
ENGW 1111
Designed for students to study and practice writing in a workshop setting. Students read a range of texts in order to describe and evaluate the choices writers make and apply that knowledge to their own writing and explore how writing functions in a range of academic, professional, and public contexts. Offers students an opportunity to learn how to conduct research using primary and secondary sources; how to write for various purposes and audiences in multiple genres and media; and how to give and receive feedback, to revise their work, and to reflect on their growth as writers.
