Educational Background:

M.A., English, University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, Texas, May 1994.

B.A., Journalism, Humboldt State University, Arcata, California, June 1983.

Publications:

“Plagued by Enthusiasm: Swift’s Fear of Infectious Dissent and His Argument against Abolishing Christian Quarantine,” in Orthodoxy and Heresy in Eighteenth-Century Society: Essays from the DeBartolo Conference. Edited by Regina Hewitt and Pat Rogers. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2002.

“Deciphering the Decipherers: Essential Resources for the Reasonable and Realistic Study of Ancient Maya Script.” Review of The Decipherment of Ancient Maya Writing, edited by Stephen Houston, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos and David Stuart. Crosstimbers. Spring 2002: 3.

“Unwilling Competitors or Voluntary Antagonists?” Review of Contrary Neighbors: Southern Plains and Removed Indians in Indian Territory, by David LaVere. Crosstimbers. Fall 2001: 2.

“Milton’s Mephitic Muse: Plague, Religion and the Infection Metaphor of Paradise Lost.” Journal of Evolutionary Psychology. 18.3-4 (1997): 238-48.

“Oral Fantasies in Irving’s The Alhambra.” Journal of Evolutionary Psychology. 14.1-2  (1993): 135-42.

Conference Presentations:

“Conformist Nonconformity: Thomas Edwards and His Paradoxical Polemic against Infectious Sectarianism,” presented at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Scottsdale, Arizona, 12 October 2002.

“The London Gin Epidemic and The Beggar’s Opera: Gay’s Invisible Spirit,” presented at the South Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, South Padre Island, Texas, 22 February 2002.

“Defoe’s Denunciation of Dissent: Ironic Anti-Puritan Invective or Orthodox Presbyterian Preaching?” presented at the South Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1 March 2001.

“Plagued by Enthusiasm: St. Paul’s Appeal for Christian Quarantine and Swift’s Fear of Infectious Dissent,” 12th Annual DeBartolo Conference on Eighteenth-Century Studies: Eighteenth-Century Heresies, University of South Florida, February 19-21, 1998.

“The Writing Center at a Hispanic Institution,” presented by a five-member panel from University of Texas?Pan American at the 1st National Writing Centers Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 13-16, 1994.

“The Plague in Oedipus Tyrannus: More Than Just a Prologue,” Mississippi Philological Association, Delta State University, Cleveland, Mississippi, January 28-29, 1994.

“Pestilence in Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year and Camus’s La Peste: God’s Wrathful Punishment or a Natural Perplexity?” Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature, West Texas A&M University, Canyon, Texas, September 30-October 2, 1993.
 

Courses Taught at USAO:

I. BACKGROUND:

Up until only very recently, all papers submitted by students in Dr. Bruce’s courses were painstakingly graded by making use of that which was, at the time, the most technologically advanced assessment tool, the

Rampant criticism, however, much of it justified, propelled Dr. Bruce (the .04165 Million Dollar Man) and some of his esteemed colleagues (among them most notably the legendary Dr. Baxter Granite—jai alai champion, jazz harpist and master of 11 modern and 3 ancient languages), to frantically develop an evaluation device which would, in time, render the GRADE-O-TRON 2000 obsolete. Dividing their time between research facilities on two continents, the team members designed the prototype of what would become the virtually flawless academic measurement machine, the

Combining lightning quickness and the ability to reproduce marks and comments in Dr. Bruce’s aesthetically pleasing script in a fetching shade of crimson (and with a 14.2 percent drop in sarcasm quotient), the ASSESS-O-MATIC 5000-X has freed Dr. Bruce and other faculty members from the tedious and sometimes unrewarding drudgery of writing by hand what is frequently never read by human eyes. Happily, the same grading standards apply today, just as they did at the onset of Dr. Bruce’s remarkable academic career.

II. GENERAL MATTERS OF CONSIDERABLE SIGNIFICANCE:

• The grade of “INCOMPLETE” will be assigned only in cases of extremely compelling circumstances. Lateness due to schedule conflicts or time management deficiencies does not constitute such a circumstance.

(Revised 22 October 2006)