Vice Provost
Director, Institute for Writing
Studies
Professor
English Department
St. John's Liberal Arts and Sciences
Newman Hall 2nd Floor
Queens Campus
(718) 990-2043
owensd@stjohns.edu
https://stjohns.digication.com/derekowens/Home//
Degrees
University at Albany, 1990, D.A., English (composition)
University at Albany, 1988, M.A., English (poetry)
SUNY Geneseo, 1985, B.A., English and Art (double major), summa
cum laude
Profile
Derek Owens started teaching at St. John's University in
1994; before that taught in the Expository Writing Program at
Harvard, the Experimental College at Tufts, and worked as an
academic counselor in the Higher Education Opportunity Program at
Siena College. In 2006 he created the Institute for Writing
Studies, a multifaceted program containing the University's two
Writing Centers, the First-Year Writing Program, and the Writing
Across the Curriculum Program. His teaching and research interests
include composition pedagogy; Writing Program administration;
ecocomposition and sustainability; nonfiction prose; place-based
pedagogy; future studies; and experimental and hybrid forms of
writing. In 2010 he became Vice Provost for the University, where
he continues to direct the Institute for Writing Studies.