David Farley

David Farley

Assistant Professor
Institute for Writing Studies
St Augustine Library, Room 160
(718) 990-7911
farleyd@stjohns.edu 

Ph.D., University of Tulsa, 2002 (English Literature)
M.A. University of Tulsa, 1995 (English Literature)
B.A. Adelphi University, 1991 (English Literature) 

I hold a PhD in English Literature from the University of Tulsa, where I studied modernist literature and was book review editor for the James Joyce Quarterly. I have published on such figures as William Butler Yeats, E.E. Cummings, Ezra Pound, and Rebecca West. My book, Modernist Travel Writing: Intellectuals Abroad explores the connections between modernist literature and travel writing.

I've been teaching at St John's since the founding of the Institute for Writing Studies in 2006. I came to the Queens campus in 2010, after having taught on the Staten Island campus, where, as part of a Learning Community and Academic Service-Learning project, I helped build a relationship between the Henry Street Settlement, a not for profit community based organization on Manhattan's Lower East Side, and freshman students from my Eng1000C course.

The connections between literature, travel, writing, and teaching continue to be the focus of my professional identity. I am currently working on a book length project that further examines the importance of travel and travel writing to modernity, from the rise of the novel (Daniel Defoe) to more contemporary figures (W.G. Sebald) in order to understand how writers "saw" in certain historical and cultural contexts and how the travel book contributed to these ways of seeing. I've also presented on the pedagogy of travel in First Year Writing at the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

I live with my wife and 6 year old daughter in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.