Diana Epelbaum
Title
Director, Academic Writing ProgramAssociate Professor of Academic Writing
Department
Writing, Literature, and LanguagePhone
646-393-4112About
Diana Epelbaum, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Academic Writing and Director of the Writing Program at Marymount Manhattan College. Her scholarship is interdisciplinary, bridging Writing and Rhetoric Studies, Early American Literature, and History of Science. Her primary book project, entitled Empire and Ecology: Gender and Place in Women’s Natural Histories of the Americas, 1688-1808, closely reads for agency in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century natural history text and art by women scientists, explorers, colonists, and early Republicans writing the Americas. A second book project, Empowering Students to Learn: Teaching with Metacognition Across the Disciplines, offers lesson plans and classroom integration methodologies for faculty training in the use of classroom metacognition, a pedagogy supported by the science of learning. She has given numerous talks within her research interests, and has published in the fields of Writing Studies, Pedagogy, History of Science, and American Literature.
Dr. Epelbaum is a reading specialist and educator trained in a balanced literacy approach, and has spent twenty years in deep engagement—both in and out of the classroom—with best practices in writing, reading, and thinking pedagogies. As part of her current role, she trains faculty in writing and metacognition-based teaching. In 2009, she was nominated by a student scholar and awarded The New York Times “Teachers Who Make a Difference Award,” for teaching excellence.
Degree(s)
Ph.D., English, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY)
M.S., Literacy Education, Pace University
B.A., English and American Literature, New York University
Recent Work
“Design, Pedagogy, and Pandemic Teaching Tools in an Interdisciplinary History of Science Course.” Teaching the Eighteenth Century, Eds. Miriam Wallace and Kate Parker (Bucknell U.P., forthcoming).
“‘Little Atlas’: Global Travel and Local Preservation in Maria Sybilla Merian’s The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam.” Transatlantic Eighteenth-Century Women Travelers, Ed. Misty Krueger (Bucknell U.P., March 2021).
“Knowing Emotion: College Initiation and Self-Confrontation in the ‘Meta’ Writing Classroom.” Preserving Emotion in Student Writing, Ed. Craig Wynne (Peter Lang, Dec. 2020).
“Pioneering Kate Chopin’s Feminism: Elizabeth Stoddard’s The Morgesons as Patchwork Precursor to The Awakening,” Kate Chopin in Context: New Approaches, Ed. Heather Ostman and Kate O’Donoghue. Palgrave MacMillan, 2015.
“Multiple Intelligence Assessments Give Insight Into Reading Comprehension Difficulties and Potential,” The International Journal of Learning 14.5 (2007): 243-252.
Research
Diana Epelbaum’s research interests include pedagogy, writing and rhetoric studies, early American literature and cultural history, women’s studies, cultures of Enlightenment science, and the history of science.
Teaching
- Spring 2025:
- Writ 101: Writing about Writing
- Writ 011: Writing Lab
- Fall 2024:
- AIP 324: Race and Place in Natural Histories of the Americas (CHP)
- Spring 2024:
- Writ 011: Writing Lab
- Fall 2023:
- AIP 324: Race and Place in Natural Histories of the Americas (CHP)
- Writ 310: Professional Writing Across Disciplines (Bedford Hills Correctional Facility)
- Spring 2023:
- EWL 390: Women Writing Early America & the Caribbean (CHP)
- Writ 310: Professional Writing Across Disciplines
- Fall 2022
-
Writ 009: Effective Thinking Lab
-
AIP 324: Race and Place in Natural Histories of the Americas (CHP)
- Writ 201: Advanced Writing Seminar
- Spring 2022
- Writ 101: Writing about Writing
-
Fall 2021:
-
Writ 009: Effective Thinking Lab
-
AIP 324: Race and Place in Natural Histories of the Americas (CHP)
-
Spring 2021:
-
Writ 101: Writing about Writing
-
Writ 011: Writing Lab
-
Writ 310: Professional Writing Across Disciplines
-
Fall 2020:
-
Writ 101: Writing about Writing (linked with NYC Seminar)
-
AIP 324: Race and Place in Natural Histories of the Americas (CHP)
-
Fall 2019:
-
Writ 101: Writing about Writing (QUEST)
-
AIP 324: Race and Place in Natural Histories of the Americas
-
Spring 2019:
-
Writ 102: Writing about Writing
-
Fall 2018:
Writ 201: Writing About Writing
-
Spring 2018:
Writ 101: Critical Intersections: Identity in America
Writ 011: Writing Lab
-
Fall 2017:
Writ 010: Effective Thinking
-
Spring 2017:
Writ 102: Genres of Discovery
Writ 010: Effective Thinking
-
Fall 2016:
Writ 101: American Rhetorics, from Early Nationhood to Today
Writ 011: Writing Lab
Professional Experience
CCCCs Writing about Writing Standing Group, Faculty Consultant, Conference Organizer, Secretary
XChanges: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Technical Communication, Rhetoric, and Writing Across the Curriculum, Review Board
Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments, Review Board