"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."   

Wm Shakespeare

As You Like It, II, vii

Robert L. Rosser, PhD

Collegiate Professor ~ UMUC Navy Campus ~ Rota, Spain

Term IV, 2008

 

 

Introduction to Public Speaking

SPCH101

 

Interpersonal Communication

SPCH125 - DE

Business Communication

COMM394

u Theatre Links ◄

See photos from our 2004 production of

Grease!

and a story in UMUC's online magazine FYI

See photos of our 2005  production of

Guys & Dolls

and a great Poster (PDF file)

Long ago and far away . . .

A pic from my "Little House on the Prairie" Days. This is the entire student body, Graham School, 1949. I'm the tall kid in the front, between Denzil and Betty Sue. Our teacher, Miss Velda Faye Brackenridge (still going strong in her eighties) is my model and heroine!

Graham School, District No. 4

Eldorado Springs, Missouri

Contact Me:

Robert Rosser

Info on Rota Naval Station:

USN ROTA

Life in Rota, Spain:

ROTA

 

 

 

This website (like my life) is under perennial construction.

Biography

First the pedigree:

u BA in Philosophy, Immaculate Conception Seminary in Missouri (now CSC)

u MA in Religion and STB in Theology, Catholic University of America (CUA)

u MA in English, Florida State University (FSU)

u PhD in Rhetoric, Linguistics, and Literature, University of Southern California (USC)

Now the more interesting stuff:

http://faculty.ad.umuc.edu/brosser/BobRosser07-28-06.jpgu I began my career as a college professor in 1967 when I faced my first Freshman Composition class in late August of that year. In the decades since, I have taught courses in English Composition, American and British Literature, Drama, Speech, Theatre, Homiletics, Philosophy, and Religion. Over the years I have also built and taught such courses as The Novel into Film; Myth, Ritual and Archetype; and Joseph Campbell and the Pursuit of Bliss. I have conducted innumerable workshops on Proclaiming the Word: Formation in the Ministry of Reader, based on my book of the same title published by Liturgy Training Publications, Chicago. I have written several books on oral interpretation in the liturgical context, and wrote and narrated the script for a training video for liturgical readers, all published by LTP. I have written several short plays, many poems, and am currently working on my first novel. I play the piano, though only well enough to enliven my own spirit and the invigorating ambience of rowdy piano bars.

u Before joining the ranks at UMUC Asia, I taught at Conception Seminary College in Missouri, Florida State University in Tallahassee, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Harris-Stowe College in St. Louis, Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and (if workshops, seminars, and retreats count) all across the United States and beyond.

u My theatre teaching experience includes Acting, Oral Interpretation, Readers Theatre, and Theatre Practicum. I have directed college and community theatre productions for many years, most recently as Artistic Director for The Yokota Players at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo (see theatre links at left). As an actor and member of AFTRA/AEA, represented by TalentPlus in St. Louis, I have appeared in community and professional theatre in that part of the USA we call The Midwest. I had a bit part as a golfer in King of the Hill--not the lovable redneck TV cartoon, but the 1993 film by Steven Soderbergh, based on A.E. Hotchner's autobiography. I remember especially the charming gentleness of young Adrien Brody (The Pianist), who played caddy to me and confidant to the star of the film, the very young Jesse Bradford. As a voice talent, I have read for Recorded Books in New York City and done voice-over for radio and TV commercials, training films and travelogues.

u My academic life has been both enriched and complicated by several administrative positions, which seem to settle upon me despite concerted attempts to shrug them off. These have included Dean of Students, Director of Student Personnel Services, Director of Student Activities, Chair of English and Speech, Chair of Drama, Director of Publications, Director of Public Relations, and President of the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy Foundation (New York and Rome). This last position bore a smidgeon of cachet, insofar as it involved establishing a center in New York City and traveling the length and breadth of the North American Continent--with frequent jaunts to London and Rome as well. But, in truth, I was a simple fundraiser, trying to scrounge money for students from more than fifty countries who were pursuing advanced degrees in Liturgical Theology at the Pontificio Istituto Liturgico (Ateneo Sant'Anselmo) in Rome.

u To everyone's amazement, in Y2K the world did not end, so I bought a ticket to it by becoming certified as a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). I have taught EFL and ESL in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and, perforce, with UMUC. I began teaching with UMUC Asia as a Collegiate Professor in August 2003. After a year of total bliss in Daegu, South Korea, I moved to UMUC Asia headquarters at Yokota Air Base, Tokyo, where I served as Academic Director for English, Communication, and Humanities for two years.

u After transferring to UMUC's European Division and returning once again to full-time teaching in 2006, I am completing two wonderful years in Rota, Spain. During that time, I spent seven months downrange in Kuwait (Camps Virginia and Buehring, June-December, 2007). In August 2008, I’m headed for Vicenza, Italy—which is the fulfillment of a long-held hope. I’m looking forward to discovering the charms of “L’Italia bella!”

u My convictions about being an educator are few but unassailable: (1) you can teach even when you don't like it (but not very well and not very long), (2) you can't make anybody do anything (despite appearances to the contrary), and (3) the door to learning opens only from within (the teacher's job is to knock, respectfully and persuasively).

There’s hope for America!

http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

 

Site updated: 05/19/08