The Office of the Vice President for Research offers the Faculty Writing Fellows Program to address the needs of SLU faculty in journal, article, book and grant writing.
The faculty writing fellows will offer one-on-one consultations, workshops, and help assist with the formation and coordination of writing groups, among other activities. Please see below for information on the fellows, the services they offer, and how to contact them for consultations.
Faculty Writing Fellows
Mark Ruff, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of History
ruff@slu.edu
Mark Edward Ruff is an Associate Professor of European History with a particular area of interest expertise in German religious, political and intellectual history. He is the author of more than two dozen articles, the co-editor of two edited volumes and one monograph; he is nearing completion of a second monograph and a third edited volume. Prior to entering graduate school, and following formal training in high school and college, he worked as a journalist for weekly newspapers in Buffalo, New York.
He has expertise in grant-writing. Since the start of graduate school, he has been the recipient of fifteen major international and national grants, including, most recently, year-long research grants from the ACLS, NEH and the Alexander-von-Humboldt Stiftung. He has also put together many successful grant applications for Saint Louis University on the subject of religious mission. He has also helped lead grant-writing workshops for graduate students and junior faculty members in the Department of History. He is particularly interested in helping colleagues negotiate the ever-growing number of administrative and bureaucratic hurdles facing grant applicants at a time of reduced funding.
Dr. Ruff can help faculty with:
- Helping faculty prepare grant applications
- Helping faculty prepare book prospectuses
- Helping put together and assisting in coordinating interdisciplinary writing groups for those preparing monographs for publications
Dannielle Joy Davis, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Leadership and Higher Education
didavis@slu.edu
Dannielle Joy Davis, Ph.D., holds nine years of experience directing successful faculty writing groups and has coached numerous members of the professoriate towards writing and research productivity. With over 35 sole authored and collaborative referred publications, as well as two co-edited books, she has served as Associate Editor of Learning for Democracy and on the Editorial Boards of other journals. A former board member for the Text and Academic Authors' Association (TAA), Dr. Davis serves as Chair of SLU's College of Education and Public Service's TAA Chapter.
Dr. Davis can help faculty with:
- Journal articles
- Book proposals
- Writing structure
- Strategies for boosting writing output
- Eliminating writing barriers (i.e. procrastination and time challenges)
- Forming a Semester Plan
- Identifying journals and tailoring journal submissions
- Creating productive, prolific writing groups
- Forming Collaboration Agreements
Fields: Social Sciences and Humanities
Ruth Groff, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
rgroff@slu.edu
Ruth Porter Groff is an Associate Professor in Political Theory. Dr. Groff has published two books, with a third under contract; three edited volumes and one co-edited; and various single-authored articles, chapters, and reviews. She also has journal editorial experience. Importantly, she used to be a tortured writer, and now she's not, and she paid very close attention to what made that change.
Dr. Groff can help faculty with:
- Single-authored books
- Edited volumes
- Articles or chapters
- Book proposals
- Reviews
- Overcoming writing-related misery generally.
Dr. Groff is available to consult with faculty one-on-one and/or to do workshops. As with individual consultations, workshops can be designed to meet participants' identified needs, and might be focused on:
- Particular genres (e.g., books, articles, proposals, etc.)
- Particular skills (e.g., initial framing/planning; editing/revising; navigating existing literatures, etc.)
- Particular challenges (overcoming blocks; writing like you mean it; not feeling like a fraud)