Dr. Mark Womack teaches students how to read closely and to write well.
Currently employed at the Harmony School of Ingenuity teaching Dual Credit AP English classes, he has enjoyed a long career as a college English professor. His college teaching experience includes frequent courses in Freshman composition, surveys of British Literature, and Shakespeare classes. He has also taught classes on a range of subjects including: Milton, Renaissance Drama, the Theory and Practice of Close Reading, and J.R.R. Tolkien.
His scholarly writing employs fine-grained linguistic analysis to explore how Renaissance authors like Shakespeare and Milton manipulate style and form to create richly rewarding experiences for their audiences. In 1997, Studies in English Literature awarded his essay “On the Value of Lycidas” the Monroe Kirk Spears Award for best essay of the year. The Shakespeare Association of America invited him to chair a panel on close reading (“The Pleasures of Pattern”) at their annual convention in 2001.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Womack works as a web designer and front-end developer. He implements web site designs for Wasted Space Communications and The eM Group on a freelance basis. He designed, built, and maintains drmarkwomack.com.
Education
- Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin
- M.A., University of California, Irvine
- B.A., Rice University
Employment
- Teacher, English Language Arts, Harmony School of Ingenuity (2017– )
- Preceptor, Department of Language and Literature, Signum University (2017–2018 )
- Lecturer, Department of English, University of Houston (2006–)
- Assistant Professor, Department of Literature and Philosophy, Georgia Southern University (2005–2006)
- Assistant Professor, Department of English, Classics, and Philosophy, University of Texas at San Antonio (1998–2005)
- Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Tulsa (1997–1998)
- Adjunct Faculty Member, Department Of English, St. Edward’s University (1996)
- Instructor, Department of English, University of Texas at Austin (1991–1997)
Publications
- “The Interpretive Fallacy” in Reading What’s There: Essays on Shakespeare in Honor of Stephen Booth, edited by Michael Collins (Newark: U Delaware Press, 2014): 7–15.
- “Balthasar’s Song in Much Ado About Nothing” in Shakespeare Up Close: Reading Early Modern Texts, edited by Russ McDonald, Nicholas D. Nace, and Travis D. Willimas (London: Arden Shakespeare, 2012), 57–63.
- “Shakespearean Prosody Unbound” in Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 45.1 (Spring 2003): 1–19.
- “Undelivered Meanings: The Aesthetics of Shakespearean Wordplay” in Renaissance Literature and its Formal Engagements, edited by Mark Rasmussen (New York: Palgrave, 2002), 139–58.
- Review of The Riverside Milton: The Washington Times Sunday, June 21, 1998.
- “On the Value of Lycidas,” Studies in English Literature, 37.1 (Winter 1997): 119–36. (won Monroe Kirk Spears award for best essay of the year)