Marlen Harrison
Education
1995 Appalachian State University, B.S.
1997 The George Washington University, M.A.
2010 Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D.Courses Taught
Writing & Inquiry (FYW)
Writing & Inquiry ESL (FYW)Career Specialties
Marlen Elliot Harrison has been teaching composition, communication, language, literature and social science research writing/methods at international universities in Asia, Europe and North America since 1997. As such he is primarily an ESL/EFL writing instructor who is as much at home in the worlds of pedagogy and graduate writing practices as in social linguistic, narrative and qualitative research methods.Professional and Community Activities:
Harrison's current focus is in first-year and research writing with multilingual learners. Previous courses involved English-language (ESL) research writing at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels as well as ESL pedagogy for faculty as part of the Teaching Academic Content through English (TACE) program at University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Prior to Europe, he taught writing and literature in the English department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), where he also completed his doctorate in composition and TESOL, and spent four years teaching English at Japanese universities and the Osaka International School. While in Japan, Harrison served as the co-coordinator for JALT’s Learner Development sig and treasurer for the Osaka JALT chapter. With a background in mental health counseling and public health (Psychiatric Institute of Washington, DC; North Baltimore Center; Johns Hopkins Hospital) and a master's in education and human development/counseling from The George Washington University, he takes a student-centered, counseling approach to classroom interactions and mentorship believing that a supportive environment, open discussion and regular reflection all strongly support the learning process.
Honors and Awards
With more than 50 international academic presentations – including TESOL, EuroCALL, JALT, AAAL, ASA, AAA and CCCC – and more than 25 international academic publications including Writing on the Edge (USA), Reflections on English Language Teaching (Singapore), CALL-EJ (Australia), and The Language Teacher (Japan) – Harrison is passionate about researching the crossroads of technology, language, learning and identity. The recipient of numerous research and educational grants/fellowships including a Best of JALT (2006) award and international teaching/research grants from schools in USA (IUP, 2009), Finland (2011/2012), Japan (2004, 2012), Denmark (2012), and Belgium (Erasmus, 2012), Harrison also regularly chairs a session on queer rhetoric and composition at American University’s (DC) Lavender Languages and Linguistics Conference.