ORMOND H. LOOMIS, Assistant in English, holds a Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric from Florida State and a Ph. D. in folklore from the Folklore Institute at Indiana University. He directs the department's Reading/Writing Center, and its Computer Writing Center and he teaches courses in writing, composition pedagogy, and folklore. His research interests include approaches to publishing students' writing, the rhetoric of attribution, Florida "Cracker" culture, and northern Nova Scotia folklife.

Before joining the faculty in 2001, he worked primarily as a public folklorist: consulting with such organizations as the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Park Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Center for the Study of Minnesota Folklife, the Florida Humanities Council, the Illinois Arts Council, the Oregon Arts Council, and the Seminole Tribe of Florida. He taught folklore at Indiana University and historic preservation and museum methods at Western Kentucky University, and from 1981-1995, he served as the Florida State Folklorist and Chief of the Bureau of Florida Folklife.

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

• "Learning from Curly: A Sketch," in Reading into Writing: A Guide to Composing, ed. Wendy Bishop, 2002.
• "An Open Letter to Jason Smith," in The Subject Is Reading, ed. Wendy Bishop, 2000.
• Artisan Under Glass: Practical and Ethical Considerations for the Museum," in American Material Culture and Folklife: A Prologue and Dialog, ed. Simon J. Bronner, Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1985.
• Cultural Conservation: The Protection of Cultural Heritage in the United States, Publications of the American Folklife Center, No. 10 Washington: Library of Congress, 1983.
• "'The Douglas Tragedy' Retold," Southern Folklore Quarterly, 43, 1979.