Laurie Hovell McMillin

  • Professor of Writing and Communication
  • Director of Writing Program

Areas of Study

Education

  • BA, Lawrence University, 1984
  • MA, Syracuse University, 1989
  • PhD, Syracuse University, 1993

Biography

Laurie Hovell McMillin is professor of writing and communication and director of the Writing Program. Because her own writing and research cuts across genres and disciplines, Professor McMillin enjoys helping students to negotiate the demands of a liberal arts curriculum.

Her teaching interests include travel writing and writing pedagogy. Her research interests include travel writing, non-fiction prose, South Asian culture and religion, and Tibetan studies.

She also edits the online journal, AWAY: Experiments in Travel and Telling.

  • “To Claim Some Ground,” Journal for International Studies of Literature and the Environment, 2023. 
  • Spaces and Places in Western India: Formations and Delineations. Edited with Bina Sengar. Routledge, India, 2020.
  • “Karle/Ekvira: Many Places Over Time, and at Once,” Spaces and Places in Western India: Formations and Delineations. Ed. Sengar and McMillin. Routledge, India, 2020. 
  • "The Guide," The Lonely Planet Anthology of Travel Writing, 2016.
  • “Words, Time, and Worlds: Nine Days on the Grand Canyon.”  Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment. October 2013.
  • “Terror.” In Travel Writing: Theory and Practice, edited by Charles Forsdick, Corinne Fowler, and Ludmilla Kostova. London: Routledge, August 2013.
  • Buried Indians: Digging up the Past in a Midwestern Town. Madison: University of Wisconsin, 2006.
  • "New Age Namtar: Tibetan Autobiographies in English." In Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 2002.
  • English in Tibet, Tibet in English: Self-Presentation in Tibet and the Diaspora. New York: Palgrave, 2001

Fall 2024

Writing for College and Beyond — WRCM 102
Teaching and Tutoring Writing Across the Disciplines — ENGL 399
Teaching and Tutoring Writing Across the Disciplines — WRCM 401

Notes

Laurie McMillin's Co-Edited Volume Published

September 23, 2019

Laurie McMillin's co-edited volume Spaces and Places in Western India: Formations and Delineations was published by Routledge. The volume examines how spaces are intrinsically connected to people's lived experiences. It explores how spaces in Western India have been constructed over time and how these are reflected in both historical and contemporary settings—in the art, architecture, political movements, and in identity formation. McMillin's chapter explores the history of and conflict at a site in Maharashtra, where an ancient Buddhist rock-cut temple and an active Hindu goddess temple sit side by side.

Laurie McMillin Participates in Panel

April 4, 2019

Professor of Writing and Communication Laurie McMillin was part of the panel "Decolonize This: The New Global Travel Writing Canon" at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference in Portland, Oregon, in March 2019.

Laurie McMillin Edits Nominated Essay

May 11, 2017

Professor of Writing and Communication Laurie Hovell McMillin serves as the editor-in-chief for Away Journal. An essay in the publication, penned by Adriana Páramo, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Laurie McMillin Publishes in Travel Anthology

November 21, 2016

Laurie McMillin, professor and chair of rhetoric and composition, wrote a piece called The Guide that was published in The Lonely Planet Travel Anthology: True Stories from the World's Best Writers, edited by Don George, out this month from Lonely Planet publications, London. The volume also includes tales by T.C. Boyle, Lily King, Pico Iyer, Jan Morris, Francine Prose, and more.

News

Beyond the Writing Center: Abbie Patchen ’24

November 7, 2024

Abbie Patchen ’24 is a Juris Doctor (JD) candidate at the University of North Carolina School of Law. While at Oberlin, Abbie pursued a minor in Writing & Communication, and was involved with the Writing Associates program, where students assist their peers through writing advice and tutoring. Recently, her work was published within the scholarly publishing collaborative WAC Clearinghouse — work that began as an assignment for Teaching and Tutoring Writing Across the Disciplines, taught by Professor of Writing and Communication Laurie Hovell McMillin. Here, she reflects on how her Oberlin courses and professors shaped her approach to learning and writing.

Survivor Mentality

May 16, 2023

Emma Hart traverses the globe to stem the tide of gender-based violence.

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