About Geoffrey B. Elliott
As noted on the "Welcome" page, my name is Geoffrey B. Elliott. I am a native of Louisiana, although I grew up in central Texas and identify that part of the world as being "where I am from." I did my undergraduate work there, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Texas at San Antonio; I worked primarily under Prof. Ben OlguĂn and the late Prof. Jan Tillery, although I went into neither Latina/o literatures nor linguistics.
From there, I returned to Louisiana for graduate school, earning a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. I completed my doctoral coursework and dissertation, The Establishment of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as the Standard Text of English-Language Arthurian Legend, through that same program, earning there a PhD in English. Throughout, I benefited greatly from the guidance of Profs. Chris Healy, Jennifer Vaught, Elizabeth Bobo, Yung-Hsing Wu, and the late James E. Anderson, as well as my long-time association with Michael Berntsen.
I have taught college English at nearly all undergraduate levels, from remedial through junior-level composition, technical writing, and a number of literature surveys, as well as classes in public speaking. In addition, I do a fair bit of disciplinary service, working to promote research in new locations and about new ideas. I also continue to be active in research, presenting papers at academic conferences such as the South Central Modern Language Association Conference and the International Congress on Medieval Studies. I try to publish, as well, although that proceeds more slowly. I view my research as necessary to support my teaching. I can hardly get better at doing the work of teaching if I do not expand my own mind, and doing my research helps me to do that. It also helps me to authoritatively and authentically discuss writing processes with my students (as it keeps me embedded in them) and to keep abreast of current developments both in my research fields and in teaching methods.
In addition to my more formal writings (including freelance work and blogging for the Tales after Tolkien Society), I do a fair bit of commenting on various issues, ideas, and texts. I have found that my teaching takes up quite a bit of that writing, and so it occurs to me that a venue specifically for that writing ought to be in place. That venue can be found here, although it has tended to update less frequently than it perhaps ought. And I do try to do what is commonly called creative writing (as though crafting ideas and finding support for them is not).
More information regarding my credentials can be found on my selected curriculum vita.
