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ADDRESS
608 Antler Drive
Lewisberry, PA 17339
W: (717) 361-1381 downindc@etown.edu
H: (717) 932-1241 DCDown2@aol.com
EDUCATION
B. A. Westmont
College, 1973 Summa
cum laude, Valedictorian
M. A. University of California at Los Angeles, 1975 (English)
Ph.D. University of California at Los Angeles, 1977 (English)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
1974-1977
Teaching Fellow, Freshman Composition, UCLA
1977-1983 Assistant
Professor of English, Westmont College
1983-1989 Associate
Professor of English, Westmont College
1989-1994 Professor of
English, Westmont College
1994-1997 Visiting Asst.
Professor of English, Elizabethtown College
1997-2001 Associate Professor of
English, Elizabethtown College
2001-2003 R. W. Schlosser
Associate Professor of English
2003-
R. W. Schlosser Professor of English
Courses taught:
Writing: First-year
Composition (all levels), Intro to Creative Writing, Newswriting, Technical
Writing, Writing about Film, Writing for Publication, Writing for the
Health Professions, Creative Writing, Writing in the Social Sciences,
Advanced Composition and Editing
Literature: Introduction,
American Literature (all periods), Modern Novel, Modern Poetry, The Short
Story, Arthurian Literature, Classic Russian Fiction, Christian Fantasy
Literature, Introduction to Drama, Introduction to Fiction, Forms of the
Quest, American Symbolists, History of Hollywood
PUBLICATIONS AND
PRESENTATIONS
Book:
A South Divided: Portraits of Dissent in the Confederacy (Nashville: Cumberland,
2007).
Book chapter: "The Figure of Merlin in That Hideous Strength.
In Flights of Fantasy; C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy and the Twentieth
Century. Ed. by Dwight Longenecker (forthcoming).
Essay: "The Science is Fiction but the Faith is Real." In C.
S. Lewis as Spiritual Mentor. Ed. by Mary Anne Phemister. Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 2007. (forthcoming).
Book chapter: "The Anti-Science Fiction of C. S. Lewis." In Lion
and Logos: The Life, Times, and Works of C. S. Lewis. Ed. by Bruce L.
Edwards. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007 (forthcoming).
Book: Into
the Wardrobe: C. S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Book: Into
the Region of Awe: Mysticism in C. S. Lewis. Chicago, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2005.
Book: The
Most Reluctant Convert: C. S. Lewis's Journey to Faith.
Chicago, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2002
Invited speaker: "Consider the Source: Creative Synthesis in the
Narnia Chronicles." Montreal (October
2006), Philadelphia (September 2006), Atlantic City (March 2006), Harrisburg,
PA (November 2005), Chicago
(September 2005), Oxford,
England
(July 2005).
Invited speaker: “The Face
Above All Worlds: C. S. Lewis and Mystical Theology.” The Fourth F.
W. Ewbank Colloquium, Taylor University, Upland,
Indiana, March 12-14, 2004.
Invited speaker: Keynote address, The New York C. S. Lewis Society’s
Annual Symposium, New York, New York, Aug 8, 2003
Invited speaker: “History as Story in the Biographies of C. S.
Lewis,” Time and Eternity Conference, St. Catherine’s College,
Oxford University, July 17, 2002.
Book: The Most Reluctant Convert: C. S. Lewis's Journey to Faith.
Downer's Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2002.
Awarded a Clyde
S. Kilby Research Grant, Marion E. Wade Special Collections
Center, Chicago, Illinois.
- Named one of the Top
Ten Books of the Year in the category of Religion by the American
Library Association
- Featured author at
book-signing party at the Christian Booksellers Association, Indianapolis,
January 31, 2002.
Television interview in Indianapolis; radio interviews with
stations KFUO (Kansas), WWJC (Minnesota), KNEO (Missouri), KIXL
(Texas), KSIV (St. Louis), WWIB (Wisconsin), WPTT (Pittsburgh),
Uninews, (syndicated), WDEO (Detroit), KDOV (Oregon).
- Recommended by the
editors at Amazon.com. Included in Amazon.com’s Top 50
Bestsellers, April 24-26, 2002.
- Scheduled for
translation into Korean and Portuguese
- Available as an
audiobook from Blackstone
Audio.
Article: "The Lion, The
Witch, and the Wastebasket: Discarded Fragments of the Narnia
Chronicles." CSL: The Bulletin of the New York C. S. Lewis Society 33:1
(Jan/Feb 2002), 1-7.
Book chapter: "Science
Fiction," Reading the Classics with C. S. Lewis, ed. by Thomas
L. Martin. Grand Rapids,
MI: Baker Academic, 2000.
Article: "From
Ogre to Buffoon: Robert Capron in The Magician's Nephew." CSL:
The Bulletin of the New York
C. S. Lewis Society 31:12 (Dec 2000), 1-6.
Article: "'The Dungeon of His Soul': Lewis's Unfinished 'Quest of
Bleheris,'" Seven: An Anglo-American Review, Volume 17 (1998).
Article: "The Discarded Mage: Lewis the Scholar-Novelist on
Merlin's Moral Taint." Christian Scholars Review. 27:4 (Summer
1998), 406-415.
Article: "From Pillar to Post-modernism: C. S. Lewis and Current
Critical Discourse," Christianity and Literature Vol 46 (Winter
1997), 169-178. Rpt. Books and Culture, November 1998
Article: "Salem
Revisited: Demons, Deceit, or Disorder?" Books and Culture,
January 1997, pp. 17-20. Broadcast in part on "Breakpoint" (Charles
Colson's radio program), October 31, 1997.
Essays: "The Way We Word." (Column on curious names and
word origins in Elizabethtown
magazine). Rpt. in The Harrisburg
Patriot-News, Lancaster
Intelligencer and the Mifflinburg County Register.
Article: "Subcreation or Smuggled Theology?: Tolkien contra Lewis
on Writing Fantasy," The Canadian C. S. Lewis Journal, Spring
1996, pp. 24-34.
Book: Planets in Peril: A Critical Study of C. S. Lewis's
Ransom Trilogy. The University
of Massachusetts Press,
September 1992.
•Named one of
the Academic Books of the Year, American Library Association
•Selected as 1993
Scholarly Book of the Year Award, The Mythopoeic Society
•Honored by Science
Fiction Studies as "a major contribution to Lewis studies which should
be the standard work on the trilogy for many years."
•Described in Christian
Scholars Review as "the best critical overview of C. S Lewis
published to date."
Book: What You Know Might Not Be So: 220 Misinterpretations
of Bible Texts Explained. Grand
Rapids: Baker Book, 1987. Spanish
translation: Tal Vez No Sea Como
Usted Piensa. Deerfield,
FL: Vida Press,
1990. Portuguese translation: O Que Você Sabe Pode Não Estar
Certo. Deerfield,
FL: Vida Press, 1990.
Book: Picture Yourself a Perfect Speller. Chicago:
National Textbook Company, 1989.
Article: "Waiting for Godoz: Deconstructing The Wizard of
Oz". Christianity and Literature, Winter 1984, pp. 28-30.
Article: "Theology in J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the
Rings." Radix, Nov 1981.
Article: "'Streams of Scripture Comfort': Typology in Mary
Rowlandson's Captivity Narrative." Early American Literature,
15 (1981), 252-59.
Story: "His Father's Business." Eternity,
August 1980, pp. 17-18.
Story: "Good
News Gardens."
La Paz,
February 1980, pp. 10-11; rpt. Buzz (British), August 1980, pp.
30-33; presented as BBC radio play, September 1980; rpt. On Being
(Australian), February 1981, pp. 18-20; rpt. Southwest Lutheran
Quarterly, Summer 1981; rpt. One, April 1982, pp. 12-13.
Story: "Pilgrim's Digress." Eternity, August 1978,
pp. 26-27; rpt. Svenska Journalen (Swedish), May 1979, pp. 34-35, 42.
Story: "Life After Life." Wittenburg Door,
September 1977, pp. 16-17.
Book reviews in Christianity and Literature, Books and Culture,
The Anglo-American Review, and Christianity Today.
PRESENTATIONS
Invited Speaker, "C. S. Lewis's Unpublished Juvenilia,"
Conference on the Fantastic Imagination, Wheaton College,
September 24, 1998
Invited Session Chair, "C. S. Lewis as Science Fiction
Writer," Annual Conference of the Mythopoeic Society, Chicago, July 18,
1998.
Invited Speaker: "On Writing a Book: From Idea to ISBN
Number": Annual Conference of the Mythopoeic Society, Chicago, July 19,
1998.
Paper: "'Otherworlds of the Spirit': Symbolic Landscapes in the
Ransom Trilogy," Annual Conference of the Mythopoeic Society, University of Colorado
at Boulder,
July 22, 1997
Invited Speaker: "C. S. Lewis and Current Critical Discourse,"
Modern Language Association, Chicago,
Dec 30, 1995.
Invited Speaker: "Learning in Wartime," World War II: Crusade
and Legacy, Marshall College, Huntingdon, W. Va.,
May 24, 1995.
Invited Speaker: "Logos and Logres in Arthurian Literature,"
Conference on the Fantastic Imagination, Wheaton College,
September 1994.
Invited Seminar Leader: "Chance or the Dance?" Queens'
College, Cambridge, England, July 9-23, 1994.
Paper: "The 'Poor' Perplex: 13 Ways of Looking at a
Beatitude." Conference on Christianity and Literature, Calvin College, October 15, 1987.
Paper: "Hawthorne's
Unpardonable Sinners," Conference on Christianity and
Literature, Point
Loma College,
April 1983.
HONORS AND AWARDS
See Planets in Peril in PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
Teacher of the Year, Westmont College, 1990
Teacher of the Year, Westmont College, 1980
Chancellor's Fellow, UCLA, 1973-1977 (full 4-year scholarship)
Semi-Finalist, Danforth Fellowship, 1973
Valedictorian, Westmont College, Santa
Barbara, 1973
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE
President, Deer Run Homeowners Association, 1996-
Chair, Faculty Committee for Centennial Celebration, Elizabethtown College,
1998-
Advisor, Fine Print (campus literary magazine), Elizabethtown College,
1996-
Advisor, Elizabethtown College Pre-Law Club, 1995-96
Faculty Mentor, Elizabethtown College Writing Center, 1995-
Chair, Department of English, Westmont College, 1986-1991
Member, Faculty Senate, Westmont College, 1984-88
Advisor, campus film series, Westmont College,1985-1988
Advisor to student newspaper, Westmont College, 1985-1993
Advisor to campus literary magazine, Westmont College, 1979-1985
Director, Britain Study Tour, Fall 1980, Fall 1982
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