Students in the Program

James E Savage

memory and narrative ethics; life writing; multilingual writing, critical language awareness, and critical information literacy

James Savage is a Term Associate Professor of English and has taught at George Mason since 2014. He currently teaches ENGH 100: Composition for Multilingual Writers and ENGH 302: Advanced Composition, and he is developing HNRS 240: Memory and Story, which will run for the first time in spring 2027 and stems from his doctoral research in writing and rhetoric. In spring 2025, he served as Interim Associate Director of Composition while contributing to the redesign of ENGH 100. He holds an MFA in fiction from George Mason and an MA in liberal arts from St. John's College.

Current Research

James is interested in the intersection of memory scholarship and storytelling. During his recent doctoral work, he began developing a methodology for telling a single life in the context of ongoing global conflict and trauma. He is currently writing a book-length work that further develops and enacts this methodology, which combines several sometimes-contradictory frameworks from the field of memory studies. He is also working to bring this methodology to various classroom contexts at George Mason, such as HNRS 240: Memory and Story (spring 2027) and ENGH 488/611: Rhetoric, Memory and Making (fall 2027), where students might learn about these memory frameworks and use them to craft their own memory projects.

Selected Publications

Cohen, R. K., Opatosky, D. K., Savage, J., Stevens, S. O., & Darrah, E. P. (2021). The metacognitive student: How to teach academic, social, and emotional intelligence in every content area. Solution Tree Press.

- Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Gold Medal (Education), 2021
- Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal (Education), 2022

Grants and Fellowships

Collaborator (17%) — Curriculum Grant with an Inclusive Teaching Focus, 2024–25
PI: C. Adams Wooten
"Language Equity and Inclusion in Action: Redesigning Mason's Written Communication Curriculum through the Lens of Linguistic Justice Pedagogy"

Collaborator (17%)— ARIE Faculty Capacity Building, 2023–24
PI: C. Adams Wooten
"Building Anti-Racist Approaches to Language in Composition Courses"

Collaborator (17%) — ARIE Faculty Capacity Building, 2022–23
PI: C. Adams Wooten
"Building Anti-Racist Approaches to Language in Composition Courses"

Courses Taught

ENGH 100: Composition for Multilingual Writers
ENGH 302: Advanced Composition
HNRS 240: Reading the Past: Memory and Story (forthcoming, spring 27)

Education

PhD, Writing & Rhetoric, George Mason, 2026

MA, Liberal Arts, John's College, 2009

MFA, Fiction, George Mason University, 2005

BA, English, University of Michigan, 1996

Recent Presentations

Adams-Wooten, A., Cho, H., Gibson, K., Habib, A., Janisch, J., Lister, L., Paul, E., Savage, J. (2025). Making it mainstream: Honoring students’ language diversity and experiences by cultivating program-wide language equity initiatives. CCCC Annual Convention: Computer Love: Extended Play, B-sides, Remix, Collaboration, and Creativity. Baltimore, MD.

Kirkler, M., Gring-Pemble, L., Savage, J. (2024). Alternative and ungrading roundtable discussion. In-person roundtable discussion as part of the GMU Honors College May meetings. George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

Habib, A., Lister, L., Paul, L. Savage, J., Adams Wooten, C. (2024). Alternative grading overview and approaches. Online workshop for composition faculty seeking to adapt alternative grading. George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

Savage, J. (2024). Integrating linguistic justice into 101. Online workshop and teaching demonstration for 101 faculty incorporating linguistic justice and critical language awareness into ENGH 101. George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.