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College of Humanities & Social Sciences

Olin Bjork

Photograph of Bjork Olin

Olin Bjork

Assistant Professor Technical Communication

Office: S1064
713-223-7925
bjorko@uhd.edu

Scholarships

​Olin Bjork is an Assistant Professor of English who holds an M.A. and Ph.D in English with a specialization in Computers and English from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in English from the University of California at Los Angeles.  He began teaching at UHD in 2013, after completing a three-year lectureship at Santa Clara University and prior to that a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at Georgia Institute of Technology.  Dr. Bjork teaches courses in professional writing, digital media, and early modern literature.

​Doctorate degree: English (University of Texas at Austin, 2008)

  • ENG 3302 Business and Technical Writing
  • ENG 3327 Visual Rhetoric and Literacy
  • ENG 3330 Desktop Publishing
  • ENG 3335 Publishing for the Web
  • ENG 3347 Early Modern British Literature and Culture
  • ENG 3349 Rhetoric of Technology
  • ENG 6323: Communications and Technology
  • ENG 6328 Hypermedia Theory and Design

 

​Dr. Bjork has a PHD in English, an MA in English, and a Certificate in elements of computing, all from UT-Austin.  His dissertation was on print and digital editing of an early modern poem: John Milton’s Paradise Lost.  He has worked as a developer and technical editor of digital editions of Paradise Lost and Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, which were funded by grants for which he co-wrote the proposals. Dr. Bjork has published articles and chapters on digital media development and teaching with technology. He has graduate coursework in early modern literature, media studies, and theories of technology.  As a postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Tech, he attended a weekly seminar on technical communication led by Professor Rebecca Burnett. Prior to coming to UHD, he taught courses on digital media and professional/technical writing at Georgia Tech and at Santa Clara University.

​Olin Bjork’s research investigates and evaluates interface designs and multimedia supplements for electronic editions of literary works and textbooks.  While completing his dissertation, he worked as technical editor for electronic “audiotext” editions of John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.  His scholarly work also explores the history of information technology, the writings of John Milton, and the present and potential intersections between the fields of digital humanities, technical communication, and rhetoric and composition, both in theory and in pedagogy.

PUBLICATIONS

​"Digital Humanities and the First-Year Writing Course." Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Practices, Principles and Politics. Ed. Brett Hirsch. USA and UK: Open Book Publishers, 2012. 97-119. Print and Web .

[with John Pedro Schwartz] "Writing in the Wild: A Paradigm for Mobile Composition." Going Wireless: A Critical Exploration of Wireless and Mobile Technologies for Composition Teachers and Researchers. Ed. Amy C. Kimme Hea. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2009. 223-237. Print.

[with John Rumrich, Shea Suski, et al.] Paradise Lost Audiotexts. UT-Austin: Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services, 2005-2009. Web <http://www.laits.utexas.edu/miltonpl>.

[with Coleman Hutchison et al.] Leaves of Grass Audiotext. UT-Austin: Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services, 2008. Web <http://www.laits.utexas.edu/leavesofgrass>.


Recognitions

Honorarium, Texas Institute for Literary and Textual Studies: The Digital and the Human(ities). UT-Austin, March 10-12, 2011. 

[with John Rumrich and Shea Suski] Silver Award for Resource Development, Innovative Instructional Technology Awards Program, Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment, UT-Austin, 2006.

Certificate in Elements of Computing, Department of Computer Sciences, UT-Austin, 2004.

Last updated 6/27/2019 9:56 AM