Robert Alexander

English Language & Literature

Associate Professor
PhD McMaster

Areas of Specialization

Robert Alexander’s areas of specialization include Rhetoric and Composition; the History of Linguistic Thought; and Journalism Studies. His current research explores how journalistic subjectivity, typically repressed in conventional news writing, expresses itself in literary journalism. A former reporter, he has been an active member of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies and is currently the Association’s Program Committee Chair. His work has appeared in Literary Journalism Studies, Language and Communication, Semiotic Inquiry, and Criticism. His fiction has appeared in Event and Prairie Fire.

Selected recent publications

"Staying News: Subjects, Types, and the Literariness of Literary Journalism," Global Literary Journalism: Exploring the Literary Imagination, eds. Richard Keeble and John Tulloch. New York: Peter Lang: in press.

"‘The Right Kind of Eyes’: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as a Novel of Journalistic Development," Literary Journalism Studies 4.1 (2012): 19-36.

http://www.ialjs.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/019-036_RightKindAlexander.pdf

"Foreword." Factual Fictions: Narrative Truth and the Contemporary American Novel. By Leonora Flis. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011. vii-ix.

Review of Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer. Literary Journalism Studies 2.2 (2010): 102-105.

http://www.ialjs.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/097-119_BookReviews.pdf

"‘My story is always escaping into other people’: Subjectivity, Objectivity, and the Double in American Literary Journalism," Literary Journalism Studies 1.1 (2009): 57-66.

"‘The Language of the Naked Facts’: Joseph Priestley and the Apocalypse of Language," Language and Communication 28.1 (2008): 21-35.

"January 28, 1986," (Fiction) (Winner in the Alberta Anthology Writing Competition) Wild Rose Country . CBC, Alberta. 25 Jan. 2002; Daybreak Alberta. CBC, Alberta. 27 Jan. 2002.

"Arkady." (Fiction) Prairie Fire (Winter2001-02) (Nominated: The Journey Prize, 2002; Nominated, National Magazine Award, 2002; Nominated, Western Magazine Award, 2002.)

Links

http://www.ialjs.org/

http://www.cssr-scer.ca/