Daniel Max Gerling, Ph.D.
Daniel Max Gerling, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English; Director of the Nancy Dickinson Writing Center
English & Journalism Department, College of Arts & Sciences
Education
Ph.D. in American Studies, 2012, University of Texas at Austin
Biography
Dr. Daniel Gerling is an associate professor of English, director of the Nancy Dickinson Writing Center and chair of the English & Journalism Department. He has a B.A. in philosophy and an M.A. in English from Eastern Illinois University and a Ph.D. in American studies from the University of Texas at Austin (2012). His dissertation and subsequent research was on the social and cultural history of excrement in the U.S. from 1860 to 1920, leading to courses on global sanitation and the role of excrement in contemporary society, as well as U.S. foreign relations. For more than a decade, his research has also been on linguistic justice in composition and rhetoric, and he is a practitioner of Critical Language Awareness. He teaches courses on English language usage debates, English as a new language, grammar and literature —specifically contemporary American literature. He is currently working on a freshman writing handbook called "Close to the Ground" that combines process writing with Critical Language Awareness and contextualizes current writing conventions in place and time.
Gerling has co-taught several study abroad courses to Cuba, one to Barcelona and will be teaching a January Interim (J-Term) course in Granada, Spain, on the topic of Federico Lorca, flamenco and the cultural geography of Granada in 2029 with Dr. Cabrera Fonte. He was awarded the ASA Faculty Recognition Award in 2019 and Vernon and Mildred Niebuhr Faculty Excellence Award in 2022.
Outside of work, Gerling loves bicycling, Scrabble, soccer and traveling with his family.