Biography
Paul Prior is a Professor in English and the Center for Writing Studies. Working with cultural-historical activity theory, actor-network theory, and dialogic semiotics, he has explored connections among writing, talk, embodied action, learning, and disciplinarity.
Research Interests
Writing Studies, Literate Activity, Dialogic Theory, Semiotic Practice, Applied Linguistics, Genre, CHAT and ANT.
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor Emeritus, English
External Links
Highlighted Publications
Prior, P. A. (1998). Writing/Disciplinarity: A Sociohistoric Account of Literate Activity in the Academy. (Rhetoric, Knowledge, and Society). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203810651
Bazerman, C., & Prior, P. (Eds.) (2003). What writing does and how it does it: An introduction to analyzing texts and textual practices. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410609526
Prior, P. A., & Hengst, J. A. (Eds.) (2010). Exploring Semiotic Remediation as Discourse Practice. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230250628
Recent Publications
Prior, P. A. (2024). Semiotics, semiosis, and becoming. In C. Leung, & J. Lewkowitz (Eds.), The Routledge companion to English studies (2nd ed., pp. 119-129). Routledge.
Prior, P. A., Hengst, J. A., Kovanen, B., Mazuchelli, L., Turnipseed, N., & Ware, R. (2023). Rearticulating theory and methodology for perezhivanie and becoming: Tracing flat CHAT assemblages and embodied intensities. Outlines. Critical Practice Studies, 24, 4-44. https://doi.org/10.7146/ocps.v24i1.135502
Ware, R., Mericle, M. E., Prior, P., Gallagher, J., Popovics, J. S., Elliott, C. M., Cooper, L., & Zilles, J. (2022). Promoting pedagogical change around writing: Observations of discursive turbulence. ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings.
Gallagher, J., Turnipseed, N., Yoritomo, J. Y., Elliott, C. M., Cooper, S. L., Popovics, J. S., Prior, P. A., & Zilles, J. (2020). A collaborative longitudinal design for supporting writing pedagogies of STEM faculty. Technical Communication Quarterly, 29(4), 411-426. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2020.1713405
Kovanen, B., Ware, R., Mericle, M., Turnipseed, N., Patrick Coleman, J., Elliott, C. M., Popovics, J. S., Lance Cooper, S., Gallagher, J. R., Prior, P., & Zilles, J. L. (2020). Implementing writing-as-process in engineering education. ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings, 2020-June, Article 829. https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--34786