James A. Berlin was a theorist in the field of composition studies

Composition studies

Composition Studies is the professional field of writing research and instruction, focusing especially on writing at the college level in the United States...

 whose work typically takes historical

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 and rhetoric

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...

al perspectives. A Marxist philosophy also informs his scholarship. He earned his Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 from the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 in Victorian literature

Victorian literature

Victorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Queen Victoria . It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different literature of the 20th century....

 in 1975. He served as a professor of English at Wichita State University

Wichita State University

Wichita State University is a NCAA Division I public university in Wichita, Kansas with selective admissions. WSU is one of six state universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The current president is Dr. Donald Beggs....

, at the University of Cincinnati

University of Cincinnati

The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....

, where he directed first-year English from 1981-85, and at Purdue University

Purdue University

Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...

 from 1987-1994. Between Cincinnati and Purdue, Berlin served as visiting professor at the University of Texas and at Penn State University.

Along with other leading figures in contemporary rhetorical theory, figures including Lisa Ede, Robert Inkster, Charles Kneupper, Linda Flower, Janice Lauer, and Victor Vitanza

Victor Vitanza

Victor J. Vitanza is a Professor of English at Clemson University . He is the Director of the interdisciplinary-transdisciplinary Ph.D...

, Berlin participated in an NEH fellowship-in-residence to work with Richard Young on the topic of rhetorical invention. It was at this stage in his career that Berlin invested heavily in the work of Karl Marx, which it was said was perhaps one of the most joyous periods in his professional life. Later, Berlin would draw upon Göran Therborn

Göran Therborn

Göran Therborn is a professor of sociology at Cambridge University and is amongst the most highly cited contemporary Marxian-influenced sociologists. He has published widely in journals such as the New Left Review, and is notable for his writing on topics that fall within the general political and...

's version of Marxist ideology, particularly because Berlin found in Therborn a comrade who recognized the power and function of rhetorical principles.

Books

Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures: Refiguring College English Studies. Urbana, Illinois: NCTE, 1996.

Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges. 1900-1985. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1987.

Writing Instruction in Nineteenth-Century American Colleges. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1984.

Major Articles and Chapters

"Cultural Studies." Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition. Ed. Theresa Enos. NY: Garland, 1996. 154-56.

"Poststructuralism, Cultural Studies, and the Composition Classroom." Rhetoric Review 11 (Fall 1992): 16-33. Rpt. Professing the New Rhetoric. Ed. Theresa Enos and Stuart C. Brown. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1994. 461-480.

"Revisionary Histories of Rhetoric: Politics, Power, and Plurality." Writing Histories of Rhetoric, ed. Victor J. Vitanza. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1994. 112-127.

"Composition Studies and Cultural Studies: Collapsing Boundaries." Into the Field: Sites of Composition Studies. Ed. Anne Ruggles Gere. NY: MLA,1993. 99-116.

"Composition and Cultural Studies." Composition and Resistance. Eds. Hurlbert, C. Mark and Michael Blitz. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1991.

"Postmodernism, Politics, and Histories of Rhetorics." PRE/TEXT 11.3-4 (1990): 169-187.

"Rhetoric and Ideology in the Writing Class." College English 50 (1988): 477-494.

Berlin, James A., et al. Octalog. "The Politics of Historiography." Rhetoric Review 7 (1988): 5-49.

"Revisionary History: The Dialectical Method." PRE/TEXT 8.1-2 (1987): 47-61.

"Rhetoric and Poetics in the English Department: Our Nineteenth-Century Inheritance." College English 47 (1985): 531-533.

"Contemporary Composition: The Major Pedagogical Theories." College English 44 (1982): 765-777.

Berlin, James A., and Robert P. Inkster. "Current-Traditional Rhetoric: Paradigm and Practice." Freshman English News 8. 3 (Winter 1980): 1-4, 13-14.

"Richard Whately and Current-Traditional Rhetoric." College English 42 (September 1980): 10-17.