Intellectual property in the history of publishing.
Media studies, with expertise in Internet studies.
Rhetorical theory, especially the multimodal persuasive description of technical issues.
Technical communication, with a special interest in computer supported collaborative work and emerging publishing technologies.
Usability, accessibility, user-centered design, user experience design and interaction design.
Digital humanities, including both digitized and born-digital materials.
Performance studies, particularly of literary, film, or new media works.
Critical theory and cultural studies.

Works in Development

Sauer, Geoffrey. Usable Genres. Currently a book proposal, with sample chapters.

Publications Currently in Review

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Teaching Technical Communication to the Underclared.” Article under consideration at a peer-reviewed scholarly journal in technical communication.

Sauer, Geoffrey and Samantha Cosgrove. “Writing Interfaces.” Article under consideration at a peer-reviewed scholarly journal in technical communication.

Publications In Print

Sauer, David and Geoffrey Sauer. “Chapter 18: Drama.” In American Literary Scholarship: 2020. David Nordloh, ed. Duke University Press, 2022.

Sauer, David and Geoffrey Sauer. “Chapter 19: Drama.” In American Literary Scholarship: 2019. David Nordloh, ed. Duke University Press, 2021.

*Sauer, David and Geoffrey Sauer. “Chapter 19: Drama.” In American Literary Scholarship: 2018. David Nordloh, ed. Duke University Press, 2020.

*Sauer, Geoffrey. “Burying Our Heads in the Cloud.” Proceedings of the 2019 Annual Computers and Writing Conference. 10pp.

Sauer, David and Geoffrey Sauer. “Chapter 19: Drama.” In American Literary Scholarship: 2017. Gary Scharnhorst, ed. Duke University Press, 2019.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Applying Usability and User Experience: Why Progress Remains Slow.” Technical Communication Quarterly 27:3. November 2018.

Sauer, David and Geoffrey Sauer. “Chapter 18: Drama.” In American Literary Scholarship: 2016. David Nordloh, ed. Duke University Press, 2018. pp. 339-358.

Sauer, David and Geoffrey Sauer. “Chapter 19: Drama.” In American Literary Scholarship: 2015. Gary Scharnhorst, ed. Duke University Press, 2017. pp. 371-392.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Multimedia Labs as Content Incubators.” Intercom. September/October 2011.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Teaching Partnerships Explored: Designing Globally Networked Learning Environments.” A review of Designing Globally Networked Learning Environments by Doreen Starke-Meyerring and Melanie Wilson (eds.) Programmatic Perspectives. April 2010, 4pp.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Assessing Distance Programs in Technical Communication” in Proceedings of the 2004 CPTSC Annual Conference.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Theorizing the Borders of Academic Technical Communication” in Proceedings of the 2003 CPTSC Annual Conference.

Haselkorn, Mark P., Geoffrey Sauer, Jennifer Turns, Deborah L. Illman, Michio Tsutsui, Carolyn Plumb and Tom Williams. “Expanding the Scope of Technical Communication: Examples from the Department of Technical Communication at the University of Washington.” In Technical Communication, May 2003.

Haselkorn, Mark P., Geoffrey Sauer and Jennifer Turns. “The Face in the Mirror: Research Examining the Field.” In 2002 Proceedings of the International Professional Communication Conference, pp. 145-157.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “The Need for Architect/Construction Worker Dichotomies in Information Architecture as a Profession.” In Proceedings of the 2002 CPTSC Annual Conference, 8 pp.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “A Commentary on Edmond H. Weiss’s ‘Egoless Writing: Improving Quality by Replacing Artistic Impulse with Engineering Discipline.‘” In ACM Journal of Computer Documentation. Vol. 26, No. 1: February 2002. pp. 17-22.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “コミュニティ、コースウェア、知的財産権.” In オンライン・コミュニティ: ｅコマース、教育オンライン、非営利オンライン活動の最先端レポート (Online Communities: A Cutting-Edge Report on E-Commerce, Education Online, and Non-Profit Online Activities). Chris Werry and Miranda Mowbray, eds. Ken’ich Ikeda, Ed. Supervisor. Midori Shimoda, Kiichi Obata, Ko Ito and Yumiko Koiwa, translators. Tokyo: Pearson Education Japan, 2002. pp. 187-205.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Strategies for Integrating Quantitative Analysis and Reader-Response Criticism in Iterative Design Education,” In 2001 Proceedings of the CPTSC.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Community, Courseware and Intellectual Property Law.” In Online Communities: Commerce, Community Action, and the Virtual University. Chris Werry and Miranda Mowbray, eds. New York: Prentice Hall, 2001. 23 pp.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Web Strategies for Technical Communication Programs,” in Proceedings of the 2000 Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Wireless Eavesdropper.” In Bad Subjects. March: Volume 7, Number 48. pp. 31-38, 2000.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Hackers, Order and Control,” in Bad Subjects: Political Education for Everyday Life. Ed. Michael Berube. New York: New York University Press, 1998.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Hackers, Order and Control.” In Bad Subjects. February: Volume 4, Number 24. pp. 19-25, 1996.

Sauer, Geoffrey and Lisa Z. Sigel. “A Critique of Rimm Article on Online Pornography.” In The Cyberporn Debate. Vanderbilt, 1995.

Sauer, Geoffrey. “Foucault’s Pendulum and Postmodern Focus.” In Humanitas. Volume 12, Number 3, 1989.

Interviews

Johnson, Alex. “Experts Weigh In On Current Job Market Trends.” Zippia.com. 2020.

Charis-Carlson, Jeff. “Going Digital: It’s Not Your Grandma’s Humanities Any More.” The Des Moines Register and the Iowa City Press-Citizen. 2015.

Johnson, Tom H. and Geoffrey Sauer. “EServer TC Library: The Most Popular Technical Communication Website in the World.” I’d Rather Be Writing. 2008.

Kudesia, Saurabh and Geoffrey Sauer. “Rendezvous with KnowGenesis.” International Journal of Technical Communication. Volume 2, number 2: June 2007. pp. 5-11.

Johnson, Tom H. and Geoffrey Sauer. “Geoff Sauer on tc.eserver.org, the Largest Tech Comm Index Online.” I’d Rather Be Writing. 2007.

Dissertation

Negotiating the Reform of Internet Culture, a study of organizations’ use of Internet and its integration into institutional practices. Defended in September 1998. Committee: David S. Kaufer and Camilla Griggers (co-chairs), Paul Hopper (reader).

Selected Online Publications

EServer.org. Director, 1990-2017.
A digital humanties cooperative, with more than 227 editors from around the world, collaborating to publish over fifty collections in the arts and humanities.
over 2 million visitors (13 million hits) per month; 20.5 million visitors (142 million hits) in 2015

AgArts. Web Developer, 2011-2015.
AgArts is a website which supports a community exploring the intersection between arts culture and agriculture in the Upper Midwest.
11,000 visitors (55,000 hits) per month

Antislavery Literature Project. Webmaster, 2005-2017.
Designed and created the content management system which runs a project which publishes a body of literature crucial to understanding the African American experience.
40,000 visitors (336,000 hits) per month

Bad Subjects. Member, Production Team, 1993-2017.
Served as the web designer and member of the editorial board of a cultural studies journal published on the web since 1993.
222,000 visitors (1.5 million hits) per month. Two new issues published in 2015.

Books. Webmaster, 1994-2017.
Built and published high-quality online editions of literary fiction and nonfiction book-length monographs free to all readers.
61,500 visitors (836,000 hits) per month

Cultronix. Webmaster, 1996-2000
Designed and served on the editorial board of this journal of cultural studies of art and design.
13,500 visitors (41,000 hits) per month

The David Mamet Review. Web Advisor, 2003-2017
The journal of the academic David Mamet Society, a group dedicated to studying contemporary drama from a literary perspective. Designed their content management system and advise the journal’s two webmasters.
20,500 visitors (124,000 hits) per month

Drama. Webmaster, 1994-2017
Developed and created high-quality online editions of plays, theatre criticism, and dramatic criticism.
76,000 visitors (1.3 million hits) per month

Eighteenth-Century Studies. Webmaster, 1995-2017
Developed and designed this online collection of resources in eighteenth-century literary studies.
8,000 visitors (14,000 hits) per month

EServer Technical Communication Library. Director, 2001-2017
Built and supervised an online resource for technical, scientific, and professional communicators.
500,000 visitors (4 million hits) per month

Feminism and Women’s Studies. Webmaster, 1994-2017
Worked with colleagues at the Carnegie Mellon University Women’s Center to develop a collection of online resources in feminism and women’s studies.
68,000 visitors (815,000 hits) per month

Fiction. Webmaster, 1994-2017
100,000 visitors (1.6 million hits) per month

Film and Television. Webmaster, 1995-2017.
4,000 visitors (10,000 hits) per month

ISU English Department. Webmaster, 2004-2011

ISU Studio for New Media. Director, 2004-
19,000 visitors (130,000 hits) per month

ISUComm Courses. Director, ISUComm Technology, 2005-2011
Built and managed an online educational resource which has served over 25,000 Iowa State University students and currently serves course websites for 250 courses per semester.

Lectures on Demand. Director, 1996-2017
Created and posted content to a site which publishes streaming audio and video lectures in the arts and humanities.
16,000 visitors (133,000 hits) per month

Literary Events. Webmaster, 1998-2017
3,000 visitors (8,500 hits) per month

Looking Backward. Editor, 1996
Developed a scholarly online edition of Edward Bellamy’s 1881 utopian science fiction novel.
7,500 visitors (18,000 hits) per month

Orange Journal. Webmaster, 2002-2017.
Built, designed, edited and published a student journal in technical communication.
21,500 visitors (111,500 hits) per month. Three new issues in 2015.

Oroonoko; or, the Royal Slave. Editor, 1996
Developed a scholarly online edition of Aphra Behn’s 1688 three-act play, the first by a professional English woman dramatist.
2,000 visitors (9,000 hits) per month

Poetry. Webmaster, 1994-2017
119,500 visitors (514,500 hits) per month

Project Yao (覞工程). Member, Editorial Board, 2008-2017
Designed and collaborated in the development of an open-access searchable bibliography of American literature translated into and published in Chinese.
34,500 visitors (133,000 hits) per month

Reconstruction. Web Designer, 2008-2017
58,000 visitors (177,000 hits) per month. Two new issues published in 2016.

Rhetoric and Composition. Director, 1998-2017.
29,000 visitors (225,000 hits) per month

Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Webmaster, 1995-2017.
80,000 visitors (254,000 hits) per month

Tent City Stories. Webmaster, 2006-2013.
2,000 visitors (9,500 hits) per month

The Thoreau Reader. Web Advisor, 2001-2017.
79,000 visitors (231,500 hits) per month

Write.EServer. Web Developer, 20013-2018.
Relaunched as Sauer Studio Write, 2021-
875 visitors (19,500 hits) per month

STC Central Iowa Community. Web Advisor, 2004-2013.
Developed the CMS-based community website for a local chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. Advised the subsequent webmasters for the site.

Funded Research

The EServer.
Director, 1990 to 2017 (multiple funding sources, $359,000)
Managed a humanities Internet publishing site (eserver.org), serving two million readers per month; chaired the administrative committee; managed new text acquisitions and copy editors; administered the budget; supervised graduate research assistants.

Liberal Arts and Sciences Computer Advisory Committee.
Co-principal investigator with Bret Larwick, 2020 ($6671)
‘Ross 316.’
Upgraded the Studio audio and video systems to accommodate high-quality audio, 4K and 5K video editing, and media playing and remixing.

Liberal Arts and Sciences Computer Advisory Committee.
Co-principal investigator with Bret Larwick, 2018 ($2077)
‘Facilitating 4K Multimedia Production.’
Upgraded the Studio projection and audio system to accommodate 4K and 5K video editing and multimedia production.

Liberal Arts and Sciences Computer Advisory Committee.
Principal investigator, 2009-present ($7,280)
‘Enabling Student High-Definition Multimedia Production.’
Proposed upgrades to the ISU Studio for New Media which enable collaborative high-definition video production, for coursework and student extracurricular learning projects.

Iowa Department of Transportation, Specifications Section.
Principal Investigator, 2004-05 ($45,000)
Studied the development of a content management system for DOT engineering specifications documents.

NUE: Introduction to Nanomaterials Science and Engineering.
Member, Tech Comm Group, 2003 to present ($100,000)
Participated in the development of an online interface to an NSF-funded (award #0407261) annotated bibliography of public reports about nanoscience and nanotechnology issues.

Analysis of Web-Based WSDOT Traveler Information: Testing Users’ Information Retrieval Strategies.
Principal Investigator, 2001-02 ($75,000)
Studied the usability of WSDOT traveler information websites.

Content Management and Electronic Dissemination Strategies for Multiple Types of Traveler Information.
Co-Principal Investigator, 2001-02 ($165,000)
A study of new content management integration into internal database procedures and public outreach efforts.

Traveler Information Management.
Co-Principal Investigator, 2001-02 ($80,000)
Looked at the integration of online new media into research and development for the Washington Department of Transportation.

UIF Documentation Subcontract.
Principal Investigator, 2001 ($27,250)
Awarded to redesign and update documentation for an AHNS Otobase relational database engine for medical research.

CMU English Department Content Management System.
Principal Investigator, 1997-2000 ($58,000)
Created and supervised development of a department CMS which hosts over five hundred and fifty users and offers such online facilities as course websites and collaboration tools for faculty and students.

Gary Shaffer Curriculum Development Grant.
Principal Investigator, 1994-95 ($16,500)
Awarded to design/build a synchronous conference system to assist composition pedagogy, the “Language Advisory Service.”

Multimedia Facilities Grant.
Principal Investigator, 1994 ($32,000)
Awarded a budget to design and build a multimedia center for the CMU English Department and to teach graduate students and faculty to use audio-, image- and video-editing software as well as hypertext, presentation and desktop publishing for research.

William Arms Project Development Grant.
Principal Investigator, 1994 ($7,500)
Awarded to facilitate expansion and growth of the English Server, enabling the system to grow from serving 30,000 readers per week to serving more than 200,000 readers per week.

Culture and Advertising Project, Alliance Française of Pittsburgh.
Investigator, 1992-1993 ($68,000)
Produced an interactive multimedia exhibit that studied cultural differences between French and American advertising and theorized some implications of these differences.

Professional Practice

Founding Director, EServer.org
Directed, published and edited the most popular humanities website in the world, and supervised 227 volunteers who maintained the site’s fifty-one websites. 1990-2017.

Founding Director, EServer Technical Communication Library
Directed, designed and added works to the most popular online bibliography in professional and technical communication. Supervised the advisory and editorial boards. 2001-2017.

Founding Director, ISU Studio for New Media
Created, designed, and led a 65-person community dedicated to the production and assessment of new media products. 2004-

Consultant, SHAZAM. (Des Moines, Iowa)
Worked with the head of the Corporate Communications department and his staff to advise on their content management system/corporate intranet. Summers, 2006-2014

Consultant, Davies and Lemmis Law Corporation. (Calabasas, California)
Worked with the senior partners and staff at the firm to build and organize their information architecture. Summers, 2005-2013

Other Research

Co-Principal Investigator. “A Sense of Community: Telling the Story
Proposals of Fayette County,” with 3 University of Memphis co-PIs. $18,000
(not funded) requested. Strengthening Communities Initiative, 2008.

Co-Principal Investigator. “Antislavery Comics Series: A Proposal.” With Henry Louis Gates (Harvard) and Joe Lockard (Arizona State University). $179,000 requested. NEH, 2007. (revising and resubmitting)

Co-Principal Investigator. “Redesigning Engineering Curricula for the 21st Century,” with 7 ISU co-PIs. $2 million requested. NSF, 2006.

Co-Principal Investigator. “Antislavery Literature Project: Voices of Slavery,” with 3 Arizona State University co-PIs. $23,000 requested. Arizona Humanities Council, 2005.

Presentations

Upcoming Presentations

“Learning to Teach Web Writing Inclusively.” Geoffrey Sauer. Forthcoming at the RSA 2024 Annual Convention, May 2024.

“‘You Should Make It an App'”: The Decline and Fall of Web Design in ENGL Courses.” Geoffrey Sauer. Computers and Writing 2024 annual conference, June 2024.

Invited Presentations

Completing the Circle of Composition: Using Emerging Online Tools to Integrate Writing Centers into Vibrant Content Creation.” Geoffrey Sauer and Amanda Arp. Presented to the ISU Writing and Media Center Spring 2020 Online Research Summit. April 2020.

“Accompanying Usability and UX Through Its Adolescence to Maturity.” Keynote address to World Usability Day 2019 Held at SVSU University, November 2019.

“Building Digital Humanities Projects To Last: Advice from Someone Who’s Run DH projects for 27 Years .” Digital Innovation and Scholarship in the Social Sciences and Humanities Symposium 2017, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC. March 2017.

“Interface Exhaustion.” Central Iowa Experiencing UX (User Experience), Workiva, Ames, IA. November 2016.

“XML Technologies and Their Implications.” STC Central Iowa, Des Moines, IA. February 2010.

“The EServer TC Library: A Case Study of Content Management Systems Development.” STC Central Iowa, November 2007.

“Using Moodle To Teach: A Case Study of the English Department Course Management System.” ISU Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, October 2007.

“Technical Communication via Online Collaboration.” STC Eastern Iowa, June 2006.

“Using Open-Source Course Management Technologies in Writing Instruction.” ISU Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, April 2007.

“STC Central Iowa Community Website Redesign” Invited presentation at the Society for Technical Communicaiton Central Iowa Community, November 2004.

“Negotiating Content Management: How the Recent History of Publishing Has Encouraged Both Technical Communication and Online Collaboration,” May 2002, San Diego State University: Information Architecture Now And In The Future, San Diego. Invited keynote address.

“Log Analysis for Both Static and Database-Driven Information Architectures.” February 2001, The Design Media Group of the University of Washington School of Architecture.

“Publication: Past, Present and Future in the Humanities,” April 1999. Center for Humanities Computing, West Virginia University at Morgantown.

Selected Peer-Reviewed Presentations

“Teaching Serverless Web Development in TComm: Malicious Compliance in Complex, Changing, and Limiting University Environments.” ATTW (Association of Teachers of Technical Writing) Annual Conference. June 2023.

“Completing the Circle of Composition.” Geoffrey Sauer and Amanda Arp. The Midwest Writing Center Association. February 2021. Live presentation was cancelled, due to COVID-19, but was presented in live video format, with live question-and-answer after the paper.

“Design for Too Many Stakeholders: Redesigning an Academic Library Site.” ACM Special Interest Group for the Design of Communication Annual Conference. October 2020. Presented via recorded video, due to COVID-19.

“Completing the Circle of Composition: Using Emerging Online Tools to Integrate Writing Centers into Vibrant Content Creation.” Geoffrey Sauer and Amanda Arp. Accepted to Present to the Midwest Writing Center Association. March 2020. Cancelled, due to COVID-19.

“Teaching Oral Communication Assignments in the Intro Technical Communication Course using Nonlinear Video Editing Software.” Great Plains Alliance for Computers and Writing, Mankato, MN. October, 2019.

“Burying One’s Head in the Cloud.” Computers and Writing Annual Conference, East Lansing, MN. June, 2019.

“Accountability to our Majors (and Prospective Majors).” ATTW Annual Conference, Pittsburgh. March 2019.

“Endowing Multimodal Rhetorics with Power: The Need for a Contemporary Inventio for Genres.” Rhetoric Society of America Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN. May 2018.

“A Domain of One’s Own: A Need for Diverse Narratives About Web Composition.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Kansas City, MO. March 2018.

“Writing Interfaces.” GPACW Annual Conference, St. Paul, MN. October 2017.

“Interface Exhaustion after Twenty Years Teaching Web Design: Some Implications for Technical Writing Classrooms.” ATTW Annual Conference, March 2017.

“The Importance of Learning Web Development as Part of Contemporary Graduate Education.” Great Plains Alliance for Computers and Writing, October 2015.

“A Risky Effort: Building a Studio for New Media to Support Multimodal Composition Research” CCCC Annual Conference, March 2015. In the “Pedagogy, Multimodality, and Digital Technology” panel.

“Program Chairs’ Round Table” ATTW Annual Conference, March 2015.

“Open Source Implementation for Multimodal Writing Programs” CCCC Annual Conference, March 2014. In the “Multi-Modal, Remix, and Hybrid Tactics and Engagement” panel.

“Administrators Round Table” CPTSC Annual Conference, October 2013.

“Re-imagining Writing Programs’ Audiences: Insights from the Open Source Movement about Collaboration Within and Between University Writing Programs?” CCCC Annual Conference, March 2013. In the “Re-imagining Writing Programs” panel.

“Billions and Billions Served Isn’t Enough: Why Quantitative Data Analysis Can (and Should) Supplement Heuristic and Qualitative Assessment of Online Content” ATTW Annual Conference, March 2013. In the “Technical Communication and Big Data” panel.

“Developing Web Services to Support Writing Pedagogy” GPACW Biannual Conference, October 2012. In “The Online Present—and Future—of Writing Program Administration” panel.

“Ownership and Control of the Means of Production?” CCCC Annual Conference, March 2012. In the “New Gateways for Research: Digital Humanities and Writing Studies” panel.

“Technical Communication’s Role in Language Learning: What Intensive English Courses Taught Us” ATTW Annual Conference, March 2012. In the “Technical Communication in the Networked Environment” panel.

“Databases and Textbooks, Whether ‘Natural Enemies’ Or Not, Can Become Allies.” CCCC Annual Conference, April 2011.

“The EServer TC Library: An Inductive Approach to Defining Our Body of Knowledge.” Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, April 2010.

“Developing Open-Source Web Application API Services: A Case Study from The EServer TC Library.” Computers & Writing, May 2008.

“The Implications of Emerging Collaborative Media for Document Distribution.” CCCC, April 2008.

Burnett, Rebecca E. and Geoffrey Sauer. ATTW, March 2007. “Feature Analysis in Agency Content Management Systems”

Burnett, Rebecca E., Geoffrey Sauer and Quinn Warnick. “Using the English Department Course Websites (Moodle)”. Panel presentation. (http://lectures.eserver.org/1045)

Burnett, Rebecca E., Geoffrey Sauer and Lee Honeycutt. “Feature Analysis in Agency Content Management Systems.” reporting on preliminary results from the Iowa DOT. ATTW, March 2006.

“Mapping our Field for Worldwide Audiences.” December 2005, Association for Business Communication panel at the Modern Language Association, Washington D.C.

“As Simple As Possible…And No Simpler.” March 2005, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, San Francisco, California.

“STC Central Iowa Community Website Redesign.” Society for Technical Communicaiton Central Iowa Community, November 2004.

“Assessing Distance Programs in Technical Communication”. October 2004, Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication, West Lafayette, Indiana.

“Theorizing the Borders of Academic Technical Communication.” October 2003, Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication, .

“The Need for Architect/Construction Worker Dichotomies in Information Architecture as a Profession.”October 2002, Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication, Logan, Utah.

Haselkorn, Mark, Geoffrey Sauer and Jennifer Turns. “Aligning Inner and Outer Visions of Technical Communication: Reflections Beyond Traditional Technical Writing.” September, 2002, International Professional Communication Conference, Portland, Oregon.

Cargile Cook, Kelli, Geoffrey Sauer, Jeff Jablonski, Mark Zachry, Bill Hart-Davidson, Sean Williams, Michael Salvo and Dave Clark. “Taking Tech Comm to the Streets: Creating Entrepreneurial Research/Consulting Programs to Strengthen the Industry-Academy Connection,” March 2002, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, Chicago.

“Quantitative Analysis with Reader-Response Criticism.” March 2002, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing annual conference, Chicago.

“Academic Writing After 1979: How Internet Fits into a Larger Publishing Context,” November 2001, Association of Internet Researchers, Minneapolis.

“New Media as the Exigence for Cross-Departmental Ventures in Electronic Publishing.” March 2001, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing conference, Denver.

“Log Analysis for Both Static and Database-Driven Information Architectures.” February 2001, The Design Media Group of the University of Washington School of Architecture. Invited presentation.

“Web Development for the TC Service Course.” December 2000, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing panel of the annual Modern Language Association conference, Washington, DC. Sauer, Geoffrey. “Web Strategies for Technical Communication Programs,” October 2000, Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication, Stout, Wisconsin.

“Web Design Concerns for Information Science Experts.” October 2000, presented at Microsoft, Redmond, Washington.

“The Futures of Humanities Publishing,” December 1999, Society for Critical Exchange panel at the Modern Language Association, San Francisco.

Kaufer, David S. and Geoffrey Sauer. “Promotion and Tenure Issues in Reviewing Multimedia Projects: Why the MLA, ADE and CCC Should Revise Their Guidelines,” December 1999, Association of Departments of English panel at the Modern Language Association, San Francisco.

“Technologies of Order,” November 1997, Society for Literature and Science, Pittsburgh.

“Languages of Order and Control in ‘Hacker’ Discourse,” December 1995, Modern Language Association, Chicago.

Werry, Chris and Geoffrey Sauer. “Times of the Electronic Sign,” March 1995, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Washington DC.

“Taxonomy, or Order in the Enlightenment,” April 1994, Milton Plesur Conference on History and Historiography, Buffalo, New York.

Courses Taught

Iowa State University Department of English

English 611: The History of Publishing, 1688 to the Present
A Ph.D. seminar course in the history of publishing from the Glorious Revolution through contemporary content management systems.

English 549: Multimedia Design for Professional Communication
This graduate seminar focuses on the fundamentals of developing digital multimedia using a range of software and hardware.

English 542: Production Processes for Technical Documents
This graduate course studies the principles of desktop publishing as practiced in the field of technical communication.

English 529: Multimedia Content Management
This graduate seminarfocuses on the principles of database design, interface development, usability testing, and collaborative content management within technical communication settings.

English 507: Writing and Analyzing Professional Documents
This graduate course studies and teaches students to assess documents prepared in business, science, industry and government.

English 506: Theory and Research in Professional Communication
This graduate course studies theoretical issues that inform workplace professional communication.

English 504: Teaching Business and Technical Communication
Theory and practice of teaching college courses in business and technical communication; emphasis on composition theory, curriculum planning, assignment design, and materials development.

English 477: Seminar in Tech Comm: Organizational Communication
Intensive study of a selected topic that bridges theory and practice in technical communication.

English 411: Technology, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication
This course offers students a critical view of the technologies shaping workplace communication and our society as a whole.

English 350: Rhetorical Traditions
This course introduces the history and theory of rhetoric, from ancient Greece to the present.

English 335: Film
A film lecture course which explores the literary, humanistic, and critical impact of film. Students learn to read, watch, think, and write about classic, avant-garde, and contemporary film.

English 314 and 314H: Technical Communication
Explores various forms and media by which working professionals convey technical information to expert and novice audiences.

English 313: Rhetorical Web Design
A course about writing and designing for online publication. Covers how to analyze specific audiences and rhetorical situations.

English 302: Business Communication
Reviews the theory, principles and processes of effective written communication typically encountered in business and the professions.

University of Washington Department of Technical Communication

Publishing and Its Impacts on Society
A course about the history of publishing post-WWI and its significance for technical communicators. This course reviews the changes to publishing, considering the implications for writers.

Theoretical Dimensions of Technical Communication
Taught the graduate course in rhetorical theory for technical communicators.

Print Production
Taught an undergraduate elective on the techniques and technologies of offset lithography, digital typography, prepress and finishing.

Issues in Redesign
Taught a graduate elective to problematize the theories of communication which have emerged with the rise of SGML-based Internet protocols (SGML, TEI, HTML, XHTML, XML, XSL). Students read a variety of theorists and discuss both the benefits and dangers to technical communicators of the implications of protocols which reify a form/content dichotomy within their practice.

Information Design
Taught a graduate course in new media systems architectures (including hypertext, integration of visual and verbal information, fundamentals of interface design, information architectures and knowledge management structures).

Advanced Interactive Multimedia
Taught an undergraduate elective on the techniques and technologies needed when developing interactive new media, including kinetic typography, database-driven animation, dynamic document systems and DVD video production.

The Computer in Technical Communication
Taught an undergraduate survey in technical communication software and systems.

Individual Instruction
Worked with sixteen students in independent studies and research projects into rhetorical theory and new media.

Carnegie Mellon University English Department

Introduction to Technical Communication
Taught a projects course for non-majors which surveyed technical and professional writing theory, skills and techniques.

Planning and Testing Documents
Team-taught a graduate course in collaborative document production for large (20-30 person) writing projects.

Introduction to Web Design: Design as Technical, Interpretive and Critical Practice
Taught a graduate and upper-division course in web design which involved using contemporary critical and cultural theory to “read” recent trends in online design.

Web Design
Team-taught a continuing education course in web design for office staff and prospective graduate students at Carnegie Mellon.

Interpretation and Argument
Taught a core freshman writing course in a networked computer classroom.

Studies in Representation
Taught a summer elective course that examined representations of race, class, education and industry in the popular media.

Careers in Applied Science and Technology
Taught a course in document-writing and oral presention, part of an NSF-funded summer institute for advanced students in science and technology.

Analyzing Internet Culture
Taught an upper-division English course on new media technologies (particularly those surrounding the web) in their insitutional contexts.

Argument and Interpretation
Taught a core freshman writing course.

Reading Texts
Taught a core world literature course.

Graduate Student Supervision

At Iowa State, I have served on 69 graduate committees:

I have chaired or co-chaired for six (6) Ph.D. students.
I served on twenty-three (23) additional Ph.D. students’ committees.
I served on three (3) M.S. or M.F.A. students’ committees.
I have chaired for thirteen (13) M.A. students.
I have served on twenty-four (24) M.A. students’ committees.

Editorial Work

Member, Editorial Board, Technical Communication Quarterly. Journal in technical communication, Taylor and Francis, 2015–present
Member, Editorial Board, Communication Design Quarterly. Journal in technical communication, ACM, 2018–present
Member, Editorial Board, Bad Subjects. Journal in cultural studies, Berkeley, 1993–2017.
Member, Editorial Board, Programmatic Perspectives. Journal in technical communication, CPTSC, 2009-2014.
Member, Editorial Board, Cultronix.
Journal in technology and cultural theory, Pittsburgh, 1994–2000
Co-editor, Bad Subjects: Political Education for Everyday Life.
Anthology from New York University Press, December 1998
Reviewer, PLOS One
Reviewer of manuscripts in new media and Internet studies, 2017–present
Reviewer, Technical Communication
Reviewer of articles in technical communication, 2002-present
Reader, Lawrence Erlbaum
Reviewer of book proposals in technical communication, 2001-present
Reviewer, New Media and Society, 2011-2014.
Reviewer, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 2005-
Reviewer, Thomson/Heinle, 2002-2015
Reviewer, University of Minnesota Press
Reviewer of manuscripts in new media and Internet studies, 1994–1999

Languages

Russian: competent speaking, reading and writing ability
French: competent reading ability
Latin: limited reading ability

Service

to the Profession

Reviewer, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2009-2014.
Member, Membership Committee, ATTW, 2002-2013.
Member, Nominating Committee, CPTSC, 2002-2005.
Judge, Puget Sound STC Annual Competition, 2000-03.
Scholarship Committee, Puget Sound Branch of the STC, 2001.

to the University

Chair, ISU Library Advisory Committee, 2018-
Member, ISU Library Dean Search Committee, 2020-21.
Member, ISU Computational Advisory Committee, 2007-08
Member, UW Phi Beta Kappa Executive Committee, 2001-03
Faculty Advisor, Carnegie Mellon Macintosh Users’ Group, 1998-99
Member, CMU Graduate Student Organization, 1992-93
Faculty Co-Advisor, ISU Sigma Tau Delta Honor Society, 2004-08
Faculty Advisor, ISU STC Student Chapter, 2004-10
Faculty Advisor, UW STC Student Chapter, 2000-03
Member, UW Senate Executive Committee, 2002-03
Chair, UW Faculty Council on University Libraries, 2002-03
Member, UW Faculty Council on University Libraries, 2001-02
Dean’s Advisory Committee on Core Curriculum, 1989-90
Notre Dame Literary Festival Board of Directors, 1988

to the College

LAS Representative, ISU Library Advisory Committee, 2004-2018
Member, LASCASTLE Committee (successor to LASCAC), 2019-21
Member LAS Computational Advisory Committee, 2006-07, 2014-
Founding Director, ISU Studio for New Media, 2004-

to the Department

Director, Undergraduate Studies Committee, 2017-2018, 2019-2022
Member, Awards Committee, 2018-19
Head, Rhetoric and Professional Communication Area Group, 2013-2015
Faculty Advisor, STC Student Chapter, 2015-
Member, RPC Exams Committee, 2007-11, 2016-21
Member, Graduate Studies Committee, 2013-2015
Member, ISUComm Committee, 2008-17
Member, ISUComm IT Committee, 2008-19
Chair, ISU English Technology/New Media Committee, 2009-11
Member, ISU English Computer Resources Committee, 2003-08
Chair, UW TC Computer Resources Committee, 2000-03
Member, English Review Committee, 2011-13
Chair, RPC Exams Committee, 2011-16
Member, RPC Exams Committee, 2007-11, 2016-
Member, UW TC Undergraduate Admissions Committee, 2000-03
CMU English Department Technology Committee, 1995-present
LCT Admissions Committee, 1995
LCT Task Force on Curriculum Reform, 1994-96
Member, CMU English Graduate Organization, 1993-97

Memberships

ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
ACM Special Interest Group in the Design of Communication
Alliance Française
Association of Teachers of Technical Writing
Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication
Institute for Cultural Studies
Modern Language Association
National Council of Teachers of English
Society for Technical Communication
Iowa State University Sigma Tau Delta
Iowa State University STC Student Chapter

Awards

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