DR. ROBERT SHENK

Professor
Associate Chair
Coordinator,
Internship in English Program
Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1976

“His reading has done him no harm, for he has fought as well as read.”
-- Jane Austen --

Professor Bob Shenk wrote his dissertation in the Medieval/Renaissance tradition of moral philosophy as it underlies the drama; it was published by Salzburg Studies in English Literature as The Sinners Progress: A Study of Madness in English Renaissance Drama. Dr. Shenk has also published articles on Medieval Romance, Jacobean Drama, and 18th Century Literature. At UNO, he continues his work in earlier English Literature: he regularly teaches Milton, frequently writes reviews for the Ben Jonson Journal, and occasionally teaches Shakespeare.

Dr. Shenk is also an expert in writing. He took special seminars in technical writing, classical rhetoric and modern rhetoric from experts in each field before being hired at UNO in 1985. In 1990 he published the Naval Institute Guide to Naval Writing. This book has been the standard commercial guide to writing in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps since it appeared. Building on this work, Shenk has conducted several professional seminars on naval writing. At UNO, Shenk teaches Technical Writing and Technical Editing, and he supervises UNO’s Internship in English, which offers both undergraduate and graduate credit. His articles on technical writing have appeared in Rhetoric Review, The Journal of Professional and Technical Communication, Business Communication Quarterly, and elsewhere.

Shenk unites his interest in literature and writing by teaching “Rhetoric and the Renaissance.” This graduate course studies the 2000-year tradition of classical rhetoric as understood by such eminent Renaissance figures as Milton, Shakespeare, Erasmus, Bacon and Donne.

Shenk also teaches courses in the classics and the Bible as Literature, having published substantial articles both on the Odyssey and on the Bible. He has frequently been asked to teach the department’s graduate course in “Premodern Sources of English Literature,” and has twice taught a junior-senior course on “The Trojan War in Literature.”

A retired captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve, Shenk spent some eleven years on active naval duty, part of that service on destroyers and river patrol boats in Vietnam, and the rest of it a professor at two service academies. He put together several naval-related literary projects in the 1990s, including a co-authored biography of Admiral Dan Gallery and an edition of World War II naval memoirs called Authors at Sea, which was a selection of the History Book Club.

As contrast, for the past eight years or so Shenk has coordinated and played piano for a contemporary church choir across the lake from UNO in Mandeville, LA.

Phone Number:
(504) 280-6139

E-mail Dr. Shenk@
rshenk@uno.edu

Address: Liberal Arts
Building 191

Office Hours:

TTH 12:30-3:00pm; after 4:15pm by appointment

Courses for Fall 2009:

Engl 2152-003:
Technical Writing
TTH 11:00am-12:15pm

Engl 2377-004:
Bible as Literature
TTH 9:30-10:45am

Engl 4152-001:
Technical Editing and Reporting
TTH 3:00-4:15pm

Engl 4398-01:
Internship in English

Engl 6398-001:
Internship in English