Welcome to the home page of Zachary Dobbins.

In August 2008 I received my Ph.D. in English (concentration in Rhetoric and Composition) at the University of Texas at Austin. My dissertation, Rhetoric's Empathy: Deliberation, Narrative Imagination, and the Democratic Hope of Inquiry, explores the role of empathy (or perspective shifting) in democratic deliberation and advances a method of rhetorical analysis I call empathic reasoning.

Research - My research interests include rhetoric and composition theory and pedagogy, particularly pluralist- and agonist-oriented conceptions of deliberation, argumentation, and inquiry; theories of narrative ethics; theories of liberal education; pragmatist philosophy and intellectual history; political theories of deliberative democracy; and 20th century American literature.

Teaching - Over the past six years as an Assistant Instructor in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing (DRW) at UT-Austin, I have had the opportunity to refine my pedagogy while teaching various sections of freshman- and sophomore-level rhetoric and writing courses, including Introduction to Rhetoric and Writing, Critical Reading and Persuasive Writing, The Rhetoric of Satire, and the Rhetoric of Crime and Punishment. From the list of courses taught, please find a link to the full course website of my Spring 2008 section of Critical Reading and Persuasive Writing -- a site that includes a course description, full syllabus, policy statement, and links to all assignments.

Administration - Currently appointed as a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at UT-Austin, I develop curriculum for and manage a program called Students Partnering for Undergraduate Rhetoric Success (SPURS). A University outreach initiative, SPURS pairs 11th grade AP English students from underrepresented high schools in Texas with undergraduates enrolled in lower-division writing classes at UT. This year I will direct nine such partnerships, providing administrative support and pedagogical instruction to nine UT instructors, nine high school teachers, approximately two hundred UT students and two hundred fifty high school students.