About

shyamMy name is Shyam Sharma (pronounced like “Sam”). I teach writing and rhetoric at Stony Brook University (part of State University of New York). Before I started specializing in Writing Studies, I used to be a lecturer of literature, critical theory, and linguistics at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. As I shuttle among multiple languages, societies/cultures, and disciplines, I am enthused by the growing interest in academia to draw on the rhetorical traditions/practices of societies and cultures around the world, and to create multilateral discourses about what it means to read, write, and create new knowledge, within and across borders.

Some of my academic achievements (in the US) include the “K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award 2012” (a national award), Jon Binford Memorial Award (PhD, University of Louisville), and Alice B. Eaves Outstanding Student Award (MA, University of Louisville), and (in Nepal) the Mahendra Bidya Bhusan gold medal.

As a teacher and scholar of writing, I am generally interested in promoting more critical views about language and writing in/across the academic disciplines, thereby helping promote the use of writing as an integral part of academic and professional development of undergraduate and graduate students. I am currently working on a book project that seeks to document how universities, departments, and faculty members in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math) across the United States are addressing the challenges faced by students with writing and communication skills. Considering the high proportion of nonnative English speaking students especially at the graduate levels in the STEM fields, the book is meant to be a useful resource for writing instructors and program administrators, STEM departments and faculty members, and university administrators and policy makers across the US and beyond.

I am also interested how to meaningfully integrate new media in teaching, research, academic service and administration, and networking for professional development. Instead of valuing any “cool new technology” for its own sake, however, I take a critical approach to assessing, adapting, and implementing new media–both in my teaching and in my research and scholarship. Based on this interest, I am currently working with a group of teachers/educators from around the world to develop a global network of educators, called Educators Across Contexts. Besides writing on my personal blog here, I write for EdContexts, NeltaChoutari (a Nepal-focused network of English language teachers), and other social/professional venues/networks.

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