Frank L Cioffi

 

Frank L. Cioffi

 

       EDUCATION:

 

Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana                         M.A., English, 1976 Ph.D., English, 1980

                        Dissertation: Genesis of a Genre: American Science Fiction 1930-1940

                        Director: Scott Russell Sanders

 

            Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

B.A., English, 1973

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE:

 

CUNY, Baruch College (present fulltime position):

Professor of English (hired to tenure; 2007-present)

Teaching:  Writing I: The Medical Narrative. Writing II: Literature and Medicine; Topics in Literature: Science Fiction; Topics in Literature: Fantasy; The Modern British and American Novel; Feit Seminar: Utopias and Dystopias; Naked English: Baring the Secrets of the English Sentence; Horror Fiction; Mainstreams in Contemporary American Writing; Crafting Strong Sentences; Writing I: The Future of Language; Great Works of World Literature I and II; Feit Seminar: Italian American Literature; Teaching Practicum (for CUNY Grad Center students)

 

Administration:  Co-Chair, Baruch College First Year Task Force;  ex officio member, Composition Committee; Executive Committee, English Department; Search Committee for Writing Center Director; Chair, ad hoc committee on Faculty Observations;  Professional Staff Congress Assembly Delegate; Director of Writing Programs, 2007-14.

 

New courses/programs developed at Baruch:

Horror Fiction

Science Fiction

Writing Program Development: Theme-based: 2007-16

 

 

Scripps College, Claremont University Consortium, Assistant Professor to tenured Associate Professor of Writing; Chair of Department of Writing; Director of Writing Program. (2004-07)

 

Teaching: Critical Analysis: The Medical Narrative; Core I: Culture, Knowledge, and Representation; Advanced Writing; “The Little Magazine”; Core II: “Fictions about Writing”; Core II: “Possible Worlds from Antiquity to Modern Science Fiction”

 

Administration:  Chair, Writing Advisory Committee, Scripps College; Scripps College Representative, Hiring Committee, English Department, Pomona College; Scripps Faculty Representative, Writing Festival Committee, Pitzer College; Faculty Representative, Lois Langland Alumna-in-Residence Award Committee, Scripps College; Core Steering Committee; Faculty Executive Committee. Advisor, Literary magazine.

 

Bard College, Faculty Associate, 2003-15

            Teaching: Language and Thinking Program

           

Workshops: Ran workshops for faculty who teach writing at ten colleges. (Lewis and Clark, Principia, Hofstra, BMCC, LaGuardia CC, Concordia, University of Richmond, Westfield, Prairie View A & M, and Bard College)

 

Princeton University, Visiting Professor / Lecturer (2000-2004)

 

Teaching: Princeton Writing Program: “Narratives of Medicine”; “Passing” in American Literature; Responses to the Techno-Future; Upper-level course team-taught with Professor Melissa Williams, in Center for Human Values: Equality.

Administration: Search Committee for Writing Program administrators.

 

Central Washington University, Assistant Professor to tenured Full Professor; Department Chair (1987-2000)

 

Teaching: American Literature Survey; English Teaching Methods; Freshman Composition; Advanced Expository Writing;  Science Fiction; Crime Noir Fiction & Film;  Principles of English Studies; Creative Writing; Creative Nonfiction.  Seminars on Literature of the Holocaust; Zora Neale Hurston; Richard Wright; Don DeLillo; Robert Coover; Sharon Olds & Harry Crews; F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald; Henry Sr., Henry Jr., Williiam, and Alice James; Willa Cather. Continuing education courses: The Sit-Com, The Bestseller, The Little Magazine. 

 

Administration: English Department Hiring Committees; Executive Committee; English education Committee; Supervisor of Student Teachers of English; Faculty Senator;  Department Chair; University Library Advisory Committee; University Academic Affairs Committee; Graduate Study Committee..

 

University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland. Fulbright Senior Lecturer (1984-1987); Professor of American Literature and Culture (1990-1991)

 

Teaching: Survey of American Literature from Beginnings to 1865; Survey of American Literature from 1865-1945; Survey of American Literature from 1945-Present; Seminar on Henry James; Seminar on Science Fiction; Director of eleven M.A. theses; one Ph.D. thesis.

 

Eastern New Mexico University, Assistant Professor (1980-1984)

 

Teaching:  Modern American Novel; Madness and Contemporary American Literature; Literature of the Southwest; The Bestseller; Science Fiction; Creative Writing; Freshman Composition.

 

Administration: Teacher Education Council; Hiring Committee; Coordinator of English education; Supervisor of student teachers of English; Advisor, literary magazine. Acting Chair, Department of English.

 

Indiana University, Associate Instructor, English Department (1976-78); Coordinator and Instructor in Prison Education Development Project (1978-80)

 

Teaching: Instructor, Prison Education Development Project. Courses taught: Science Fiction and Public Policy Issues; Science and the Science Fiction Film; Creative Writing.

 

English Department: Introduction to Literature and Writing; Composition; Science Fiction.

 

Administration: Coordinator, Prison Education Development Project, 1979 – 80. Full responsibility for multi-disciplinary program involving eight academic departments and five Indiana prisons. 

 

 

       PUBLICATIONS IN FIELD OF EXPERTISE:

A.   Books:

 

  Cioffi, Frank (2024). Stellar English: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Grammar and Usage.Princeton University Press.

 

Cioffi, F. L. (2017). The Imaginative Argument: A Practical Manifesto for Writers. (2nd ed., pp. 357). Princeton, NJ; Oxford, England: Princeton University Press. www. press.princeton.edu

 

Cioffi, F. (2015). One Day in the Life of the English Language: A Microcosmic Usage Guide. (pp. 355). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. press.princeton.edu

 

Cioffi, F. (2005). The Imaginative Argument: A Practical Manifesto for Writers.. Princeton University Press.

 

[Translated by Kerstin Winter as Kreatives schreiben fur studenten & professoren: Ein praktisches manifest, Berlin: Autorenhaus Verlag, 2006.]

 

Cioffi, F. (1982). Formula Fiction? An Anatomy of American Science Fiction, 1930-1940.. Westport, CT: Westport Ct and London Greenwood Press.

 

Cioffi, F. (1980). Editor. Unlocking Shackled Minds: Teaching in the Prison College Classroom. Washington, D.C.: National Endowment for the Humanities.

 

B.    Papers in Professional Journals:

(1)   Articles:

 

Cioffi, F. “The Polyhedral Character and Ethical Drift in What Mad Universe and Nineteen Eighty-Four.” Science Fiction Studies 53.1, March 2026, 21-56.

 

Cioffi, F. L. “Exploring the Strangeness: Conceptual Art and Science Fiction.” Vector (292), Fall 2020, 38-47.

 

Cioffi, F. (2015). "La Jetée at Fifty-Two". Raritan, XXXIV(3), 37-56.

 

Cioffi, F. (2009). "Junk Sculptors, Fetishists, Cultural Collectees:  Don DeLillo's Collectors." Beyond Philology, 5.

 

Cioffi, F. (2006). “Egghead Blues: The Life in the Mind in the Land of Things.” Symploke, 14(1-2), 7-29.

 

Cioffi, F. (2005). “Argumentation in a Culture of Discord.” Chronicle of Higher Education Review.

[Reprinted in the following:  

Lettrist.com. by Andrew V. Uroskie. 

Accounting Education News (as “Effective Argumentation In a Culture of Discord.”)

Fall, 2005.]

 

Cioffi, F. (2000). “An Anguish Become Thing: The Disturbing Performance of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.” Narrative, Spring, 2000.

 

Cioffi, F. (2000).: “The (Im) Possible Worlds of Robert Coover’s The Public Burning.”

     Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, Spring, 2000

 

Cioffi, F. (1999). College Literature, Post-Millennial Postmodernism: On the Profession of Literature in the Centrifugal Age.

 

Cioffi, F. (1999). “Postmodernism, Etc.: An Interview with Ihab Hassan” Style, Fall, 1999.

 

Cioffi, F. (1998). “The Phenomenology of the Disturbing Text,” LIT: Literature,

    Interpretation, Theory, Winter 1998.

 

Cioffi, F. (1988). “The Audience Within the Object: The Implied Teacher in Composition Textbook Advertisements.” Written Communication, July, 1988

 

Cioffi, F. (1984). “The Composition Textbook Advertisement and Its Promise of Potency.” Oklahoma Historical Society.

 

Cioffi, F. (1981). “Teaching Humanities Courses in Prison,” Alternative Higher Education.

 

Cioffi, F. (1981). “Gilbert Sorrentino’s Science-fiction World in Mulligan Stew.” Extrapolation, Summer 1981.

 

Cioffi, F. (1980). “Science Fiction on Campus…and in Prison.” Journal of English Teaching Techniques.

 

Cioffi, F. (1980. “Across the Great Divide: Breaking Away,” Politics and Education, Spring, 1980.

 

Cioffi, F., & Carter, J. (1979). “Teaching Behind the Walls,” Indiana Alumni Magazine.

 

C.    Chapters in Books:

 

Cioffi, F. L. (in press). Defamiliarizing the Most Familiar of Poets. In Sean Heuston (Ed.), Approaches to Teaching the Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Modern Language Association.

 

Cioffi, F. L. (2026). “Vonnegut and Styron Visit Poland”; “Memories of the Meeting”; “Forty Years Later.” In B. Williamson & A. Misztal (Eds.), Vonnegut and Styron Visit Poland (pp. 55-58; 75-78; 79-84). Gdansk: Gdansk University Press.

 

Cioffi, F. (2015). "Solipsism and Utopia: Fredric Brown, Charles Yu, Ludwig Wittgenstein." In C. Ellis & C. Jones (Eds.), Individual and Utopia: A Multidisciplinary Study of Humanity and Perfection (pp. 133-148). Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate. www.ashgate.com

 

Cioffi, F. (2011). "Teaching, Interpretation, and the 'Potential'". In D. Stanulewicz (Ed.), Terra Incognita (pp. 27 pages). Gdansk: Gdansk University Press.

 

Cioffi, F. (2010). "Graphic Fictions on Graphic Subjects: Teaching the Illustrated Medical Narrative" in S. Tabachnick (ed), Approaches to Teaching the Graphic Novel (pp. 10 pages). New York, NY: MLA Press.

 

Cioffi, F. (2005). ”Aiken's ‘Silent Snow, Secret Snow,’ Ontological Hesitation, and Biography.”

    In The Postmodern Return: Theory – Travel Writing –Autobiography, edited by Klaus

    Stierstorfer, University of Heidelberg Press, 2005. 

 

Cioffi, F. (2001). “Disturbing Comics: The Disjunction of Word and Image in the Comics of

    Andrzej Mleczko, Ben Katchor, R. Crumb, and Art Spiegelman.”  The Language of Comics:

    Word and Image, edited by Robin Varnum and Christina T. Gibbons. University Press of

    Mississippi, 2001.

 

Cioffi, F. (2001). “Interiority Blurrings in Eraserhead and Pi.” Paradoksy Humanistyki

    [Paradoxes in the Humanities], Edited by David Malcolm and Olga Kubinska. University of

    Gdansk Press.

 

  Cioffi, F. (1987), “Towards a Deep Structure of the Reading Process.”  Zeszyty Naukowe Wydzalu Humanisticznego Uniwersytetu Gdanskiego: Filologia Angielska [Scholarly Publications of the University of Gdansk’s College of Humanities: English Philology].

 

              Cioffi, F. (1984)“The Composition Textbook Advertisement and Its Promise of Potency.” Fourth

                   Annual Meeting of the Southwest and Texas Popular Culture Associations with a Topical

                   Index. Edited, Michael K. Schoeneke. Oklahoma Historical Society.

 

D.   Book Reviews:

 

Cioffi, F. Review of Krystyna Wieszczek, George Orwell and Communist Poland: Émigré,

Official and Clandestine Receptions, The Polish Review 71.2, 2026, pp. 62-64.

 

Cioffi, F. (2015). Review of Readers Writing: Strategy Lessons for Responding to Narrative and Informational Text by Elizabeth Hale]. Teachers College Record, September 2015, p. 2. tcrecord.org

 

Cioffi, F. (1983). Review of Channels of Desire by Elizabeth and Stewart Ewen. Sub-stance. 37/38.

 

       OTHER PUBLICATIONS:

 

Cioffi, F. L. (2017). Instructors' Manual for One Day in the Life of the English Language. (pp. 93). Princeton, NJ; Oxford, England: Princeton University Press. press.princeton.edu

 

Cioffi, F. (2014). "New Jersey Winter: 2014" In Richard K. Rain (Ed.). (pp. 49). Princeton, NJ: U.S. 1. princetoninfo.com [poem]

 

Cioffi, F. (2011). "A Personal Introduction" Thirty Five Years of the Jack Williamson Lectureship In P. Caldwell & S. Haffner (Eds.). (pp. 9-22). Royal Oak, Michigan: Haffner Press.

 

Cioffi, F. (1993). “The Ones Who Walk.” The Cathartic. [poem]

 

Cioffi, F., (1993). “Train-Car Romance,” Mobius. [poem]

 

    Cioffi, F. The Varieties of Religious Experience. Produced in Gdansk, Poland, Czarna Sala of the Teatr

              Wybrzeze, April, 1987.  [original play based on William James’s life and writings]

 

    Cioffi, F. “Intrusion.” The Artful Dodge, Spring, 1981.  [short story]

 

 

       PRESENTED PAPERS, LECTURES, AND EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES:

 

Cioffi, F. (Presenter & Author), J. R. R. Tolkien Conference, Baruch College “Solipsism and Fantasy:

 Alternate Universe Realism.”

(July 2024).

 

Cioffi, F. (Presenter & Author), Society for Utopian Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, ""Solipsism and Utopia"", Conference, International, Refereed, Accepted, fcioffi/present/Toronto paper 2012-1.docx. (October 6, 2012).

 

Cioffi, F. (Plenary Presenter & Author), Who Owns Writing?, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY Conference, Invited, "Twenty First Century Student Writing,". (October 7, 2008).

 

Cioffi, F. (Presenter & Author), GenEd: Making It Work and Making It Matter, City University of New York, New York, NY, Conference, "General Education Writing Courses," (May 2, 2008).

 

Cioffi, F., Princeton University Writing Program, Princeton, NJ, "Don’t Be a Moon-Calf: Ways of Talking about the Argumentative Essay". (April 2003).

 

Cioffi, F., Princeton University Writing Program., Princeton NJ, "To Communicate before Being Understood: The Argumentative Thesis and Students’ Resistance to It". (October 2002).

 

Cioffi, F., "Finding order Amidst Entropy". (February 1994). 20^th Century Literature Conference, Louisville, KY.

 

Cioffi, F., Modern Language Association Meeting, Washington, DC, "Surreal Identity Quests in First, Second, and Third World Literature". (December 1989).

 

Cioffi, F., Midwest Modern Language Association Meeting, St. Louis, "Memory and the Reading Process". (November 1988).

 

Cioffi, F., Northern Pacific Popular Culture Association meeting., "Henry Miller and the Pornographic Aesthetic". (April 1988).

 

Cioffi, F., Pacific Northwest American Studies Association Conference, "Nature, the Environment, and the Emersonian ‘Not-Me’". (April 1988).

 

Cioffi, F., Tampere Conference on American Studies, University of Tampere, Finland., Finland., "The American Social Reform Novel". (April 1987).

 

Cioffi, F., Modern Language Association Meeting, Chicago, "Beginnings: Falling into Texts". (December 1985).

 

Cioffi, F., Warsaw University American Studies Center, Warsaw, Poland, "How Literary Experience Differs from Life Experience". (March 1985).

 

Cioffi, F., Conference on Literature and Linguistics, Wijazyca, Poland, "The Reader’s Encounter with the Literary Text". (October 1984).

 

Cioffi, F., Modern Language Association meeting, New York, "Textual Fictions as Criticism". (December 1983).

 

Cioffi, F., 20th Century Literary Conference, University of Louisville, "Slave Ship’s Revolutionary Quest: Communication." (February 1981).

 

       WORK IN PROGRESS: BOOKS

.     

 Cioffi, Frank, "American Fiction and Solipsism," On-Going, Scholarly.

A book-length study of protagonists of approximately 12 American novels, 1850-present, this work examines how individualism and iconoclasm tail off into solipsism, yet this is presented in a positive light.

     Cioffi, Frank, "Beyond Zombie Pedagogy: Discovering Life in the College Writing Classroom"

      Ongoing, Scholarly. Text for teachers of college composition.

 

Cioffi, Frank, “A Bubble about to Burst: Poland between Martial Law and Freedom.” An account of

      life in Poland during this time period.

 

Cioffi, Frank, and Joseph Powell, “Coronajournal.” A daily diary co-authored with a Washington State

         Poet, recording what life was like, day-by-day, during the first year of the coronavirus

      outbreak.

 

    Cioffi, Frank. “The Human Cry.” Science fiction novel, complete, 93,000 words.

 

Cioffi, Frank. “Farewell My Friends, Farewell My Foes,” World War II novel, complete, 92,000

      words.

 

 

       PROFESSIONAL HONORS, PRIZES, FELLOWSHIPS:

 

Mary W. Johnson Faculty Achievement Award (research), Scripps College, Scholarship/Research, University. (May 2006).

For published articles and book

 

Marie McSpadden Sands Faculty Award for Excellent Teaching, Scripps College, Teaching, University. (May 2005).

For excellent teaching

 

Summer Seminar, National Endowment for the Humanities, Scholarship/Research, National. (June 1988). Summer seminar held at CUNY Graduate Center and led by Professor Morris Dickstein

 

Fulbright Senior Lecturer, Council for International Exchange of Scholars, Teaching, National. (May 1984).

Teaching American literature and culture at the University of Gdansk, Poland, ,1984-87

 

Summer Seminar, National Endowment for the Humanities, Scholarship/Research, National. (June 1982). Seminar held at University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, directed by Ihab Hassan.

 

Graduate Fiction Prize, Indiana University--Bloomington, Scholarship/Research, Department. (May 1979).

For best fiction written by a graduate student

 

Indiana University Writers’ Conference Award for Superior Work-in-Progress, 1978.

 

 

GRANTS-IN-AID:

 

Cioffi, F. (Co-Principal), Grant, "Reaching the Shadow Student", CUNY, State, $39,000.00, Funded. (start: February 2011, end: May 2011).

 

Cioffi, F., Grant, "Indiana University Prison Education Project.” National Endowment for the Humanities Pilot Grant, co-authored with Bruce Psaty. $50,000.00. (start: 1979, end: 1980).

 

       INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE:

A.   Service to the Department

 

Search Committee for Writing Center Director, Committee Member, approximately 15 hours spent for the year, Appointed, Pro Bono, Hiring of Keri Bertino.

To find new director for writing center

 

Executive Committee, Committee Member, approximately 50 hours spent for the year, Elected, Pro Bono, Hiring new faculty every year except for one of the last five. (December 2007 - Present).

officer of English dept.

 

Composition Committee, ex officio, approximately 100 hours spent for the year, Appointed, Pro Bono, major assessment, fall 2011

 

Review of adjunct rankings, spring 2012. (August 2007 – August 2014).

 

Awards Committee, Attendee, Meeting, approximately 15 hours spent for the year, Appointed, Pro Bono. (September 2015 - May 2016).

 

First Year Task Force on Composition, Co-chair, approximately 50 hours spent for the year, Appointed, Pro Bono, Modification and updating of the composition requirement. (September 2007 - May 2009).

 

Reviewed and rewrote composition curriculum at the college, 2007-14.

 

 

D.   Service to the Graduate Center

 

Dissertation committee, Committee Member, approximately 75 hours spent for the year, Pro Bono, for David Letzler, who was awarded the Ph.D. (May 2014 - June 2015).

 

 

       OFFICES HELD IN PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES:

 

Modern Language Association, MLA, International. (1977 - Present).

 

Professional Staff Congress Delegate, CUNY, 2016-2024