Department of English

Lance Cummings

Associate Professor
Professional Writing & Internship Coordinator
 Lance Cummings - Photo by Rory LavertyMorton Hall 156
910.962.3334
cummingsl@uncw.edu

ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0002-2428-2255

➡️ Find CV Here.

Degrees

Ph.D. Miami University of Ohio
M.A. Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne
B.A. Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne

Academic Interests

Dr. Cummings teaches professional writing courses and is currently coordinating writing internships and the professional writing program. He has been awarded several Applied Learning grants for exploring student collaboration in technologically and linguistically diverse environments, particularly online. His dissertation focused on comparative rhetoric and translingual histories of technical writing instruction, specifically in the early 20th century Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA).

Most recently, Dr. Cummings is exploring how to bring the workplace to the classroom through design thinking and ethnomethodological research in US companies and abroad. He leads a research lab to Krakow, Poland every year. His next research project involves ethics in the creator economy and how we can better prepare students for writing in social environments.

He is also an expert in using AI technologies in the writing process and develops practical approaches for teachers, students, and professionals. 

Undergraduate Courses Taught

  • ENG 101 College Reading and Writing I
  • ENG 190 Robots Writing: Digital Storytelling with Ai
  • ENG 201 College Reading and Writing II 
  • ENG 204 Introduction to Professional Writing
  • ENG 306 Essay Writing in Social Environments
  • ENG 312 Writing Strategies for Business and Innovation
  • ENG 314 Digital Composing
  • ENG 319 Document Design
  • EVS 327 Analyzing & Communicating Environmental Issues
  • ENG 393 Writing for Scientific Audiences
  • ENG 496 Senior Seminar: World Rhetorics and Intercultural Communication
  • ENG 498 Internships in Writing

Graduate Courses Taught

  • ENG 551 Studies in Professional Writing
  • ENG 552 Rhetoric and Culture
  • ENG 557 Theory & Practice of Technical Communication
  • ENG 577 Grant & Proposal Writing
  • ENG 578 Science and Medical Writing for Cross-Cultural and Global Audiences
  • ENG 579 Environmental Writing
  • ENG 590 Career Portfolios

Honors Courses

  • HON 120 Environmental Writing
  • HON 191 Research & Discovery
  • HON 212 Writing in Action
  • HON 212 Design Thinking & the Art of Problem-Solving

Other

  • UNI 101 University Studies, Special Topic: Design Thinking and the Art of Problem-Solving

Major Publications

Cummings, Lance. (2022). Avoiding zoom doom: Creating online workshops with design thinking. In L. Gray-Rosendale and S. Rosendale (Eds.), Going online! (pp. 97-112). Peter Lang.

Cummings, Lance, Rin Jackson, and Moriah Yancey. (2021). Technologies of trust: Creating networks of goodwill for collaboration. In Dana Driscoll, Megan Heise, Mary Stewart, and Matthew Vetter (Eds.), Writing spaces (pp. 69-84). Parlor Press.

Cummings, Lance. (2021). Internationalizing professional writing programs through online study abroad and open networks. Computers and composition, 60. 12640.

Cummings, Lance. (2020). Rhetorical histories of comparison: An archeology of the comparative act. Keith Lloyd (Ed.). The routledge handbook of comparative world rhetorics (pp. 58-66). Routledge.

Cummings, Lance. (2017). Science and the religious rhetorics of the ineffable: A comparison between two 'cosmoses.’” Res rhetorica, 1(2), 15-28.

Cummings, Lance. (2017). Religion and the professional ethos: The YMCA , Dale Carnegie, and the ‘business man.’ Rhetoric, professional communication, and globalization. 9(1), 6-27.

Cummings, Lance, Renea Frey, Ryan Ireland, Caitlin Martin, Heidi McKee, Jason Palmeri, and James E. Porter. Kairotic design: building flexible networks for online composition. (2017). James P. Purdy and Dànielle Nicole DeVoss (Ed.), Making space: Writing instruction, infrastructure, and multiliteracies. Utah State University Press/Computers and Composition Digital Press.

Cummings, Lance. (2016). Flipping the online classroom: The asynchronous workshop. Business and professional communication quarterly, 79(1), 81-101.

Cummings, Lance. (2014). Comparison as a mode of inquiry: Rearticulating the contexts of intercultural communication. Journal of rhetoric, professional communication, and globalization, 4(2), 126-146.