Dr. Steven Shoemaker

Biography

Steve Shoemaker has taught writing and literature for over thirty years at various colleges and universities, including Harvard University, Yale University, and the University of Virginia. He served for several years as the Director of the College Writing Roth Writing Center at Connecticut College. A dedicated writing instructor, Shoemaker is committed to helping students engage with writing as a genuine act of thinking, a powerful means to pursue questions and find compelling insights. In recent years, he has focused on developing innovative approaches to the teaching of writing and cultivating fresh methods for reading literature, with a special emphasis on the intersections of cognitive science and neuroscience. Shoemaker has presented at the Modern Language Association and other venues, drawing on neuroscientific research to address how to support student writers in their growth and creativity. His literary scholarship extensively incorporates work in cognitive science and neuroscience, particularly examining the ways that issues related to the embodied mind are reflected in literary texts. His recent studies on Hemingway, for instance, investigate the author's exploration of embodiment and the complex themes of gender identity present in his works. Shoemaker is the editor of the collection 'Thinking Poetics: Essays on George Oppen' (2009) and is currently working on a book project titled 'Poetics of the Embodied Mind.'

Research Interests