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Paul A Prior

Professor Emeritus

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

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

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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

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