MR. KENNETH RAYES

Instructor,
Director of the Greater New Orleans Writing Project
MA, UNO

I am a New Orleans native and a graduate of UNO myself. 

One of the reasons I enjoy teaching in the English Department at UNO is to bring together my diverse experiences, expertise and interests to connect with our students.  Besides teaching here, I have also worked in the local radio station and media industry, and in the local consulting engineering industry.  Through the diverse and challenging curriculum of the English Department, I enjoy bringing these perspectives into the classroom to inform students and to help make the process of higher learning a life-long experience. I do this through the following venues:

• Film as Literary Art Courses:

As a student and then teacher of film as literary texts, I have written on the director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat), and contributed reviews to Tribe magazine. Teaching ENGL 2311 & 2312 is an experience that uses the most rewarding features of literary analysis in a context that most students can identify with.  In these courses, students analyze film as texts whose forms, conventions and structures they understand and enjoy.

• Technical Communication Courses

Besides teaching, I have had many years of experience in the local engineering industry as a mechanical designer.  In this capacity I was responsible for “hands-on” writing and communicating in the so-called “real world” of business and industry. In teaching ENGL 2152 and other writing courses, I attempt to bring that “real-world” experience into the classroom, and to connect the art and craft of good writing to a student’s life-long chosen profession.

• Composition Courses

My master’s degree and primary academic interest is in the teaching of writing.  I have written and presented on Composition issues at the LACC, the CCCC, and the CEA.  My primary interest in composition studies is in the use of popular culture in the composition classroom.  I have written on the media and popular music for Tribe magazine, the Village Voice, and have presented at The American Popular Culture Conference and the Popular Culture Conference, among others.  Additionally I have contributed a chapter to the book Living on a Thin Line: the Aesthetics of the Kinks (which will explain the cryptic quote that is posted under my name at my office door @ LA181).

I am also especially honored to be the Director of The Greater New Orleans Writing Project (GNOWP), housed in the UNO English department.  Since 1978, GNOWP has been an organization of teachers who are dedicated to the effective teaching of writing through the development of their own writing and in teaching other teachers through their own best writing methods.

I welcome you to the UNO English Department, and hope to see you in one of our classes.

Selected Publications

2006 Popular Music poll in The Village Voice

Top CD’s of 2006 in the 2006 Village Voice poll

Popular Music and Katrina in The Village Voice 2006

2005 Popular Music poll in The Village Voice

Living On A Thin Line: The Aesthetics of the Kinks

Book Review, Living On A Thin Line: The Aesthetics of the Kinks

“Jazz Funeral for Katrina”

GNOWP after Katrina

Phone Number:
(504) 280-7323

Email Mr. Rayes@
krayes@uno.edu

Address: Liberal Arts
Building 181

Office Hours:

T 12:30-2:00pm
W 11:00am-12:00pm
TH 12:30-2:00pm

Courses for Fall 2007:

Engl 2311-601:
American Film as Literary Art
TTH 5:00-6:15pm
T 6:30-7:45pm

Engl 1158-037:
Freshman Composition II
TTH 11:00am-12:15pm