Richard Essam has been teaching writing at Johns Hopkins since 2020. Originally trained as an Assyriologist at the University of Toronto and in Germany at the universities of Würzburg, Heidelberg, Leipzig, and Jena, his dissertation research focuses on how writing, literacy, and rhetoric were taught and learned in the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1,900-1,600 BC) in Mesopotamia.
His current teaching and research interests include the role of wordplay and the ludic in first-year composition, the use of classical rhetoric in the modern classroom, and the interplay between writing and “Great Books” approaches to education.
In all his courses, he aims to instill in his students an appreciation for the power of writing and language to express themselves, to connect with others, and to make things happen in the world.
- Reintroduction to Writing: Who Owns the Past?
- Reintroduction to Writing: Playing With Words
- Wordplay and language games in first-year composition
- Classical rhetoric and the modern classroom
- Writing and “Great Books” education
- Ancient Near East