Santa Clara University

Dr. Simone Billings

Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053

Biographical Information

Simone J. Billings, Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, received her B.A. and M.A. in English Literature from San Francisco State University and her Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Culture from Stanford University.

Billings has been teaching full-time at Santa Clara University since 1980, generally teaching non-fiction writing courses: freshman composition, freshman composition for Honors students, argumentation, and creative non-fiction (e.g., profiles, satires, interviews, reviews) in addition to her Senior Seminars.

In Fall 2009, Billings is working as a Fulbright Scholar for the Open Campus of the University of the West Indies, which has its office at the Cave Hill Campus on Barbados.  She will primarily be designing curriculum for on-line and blended (both face-to-face and on-line) delivery of writing classes and running training sessions for faculty and staff of the Open Campus, working with them on the design of writing classes, on their commentary on student papers, and on their re-design of writing programs.

In Fall 2007, Billings received the Dr. David E. Logothetti Teaching Award "in recognition of having established among colleagues and students a well-deserved reputation for an energetic, engaging, and effective teaching style, and having demonstrated the ability to motivate other teachers and learners."

From July 2006 to June 2009, Billings served as Assistant to the President, a half-time administrative position. In AY03-04 she was President of the Faculty Senate; in AY05-06 she was President of the Adobe Lodge Board of Governors, having served for five years prior to that on the Board as the elected representative for the College of Arts and Sciences. Some university committees she sits on are the Athletic Advisory Board, the selection committee for the University Honors Program's Oxford Scholar, and the Student Fellowships Committee.

Within The English Department, she chairs the committee for the Best Freshman Essay Competition and is the moderator of the Santa Clara chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English honors society. She had been the Far West Regent for Sigma Tau Delta during the years 2000 - 2004. More information on this program can be found in the Sigma Tau Delta  link  of the English website.

Courses Taught

• Freshman composition
• Freshman composition for Honors students
• Argumentation
• Creative non-fiction (e.g., profiles, satires, interviews, reviews)
• Senior Seminars

Research Interests

• Instructor commentary on and assessment of student writing
• Various sites and manifestations of literacy

Representative Publications

• The Well-Crafted Argument (Houghton Mifflin, 2002; 2nd edition 2005; 3rd edition 2008--now Cengage, 2008), textbook for argumentation courses, co-authored with Fred White
• She also has a section in Richard Straub’s The Practice of Response: Strategies for Commenting on Student Writing, (Hampton Press, 2000).