K. Octavia Davis
Assistant
Professor
Institute for
Core Studies
St. Augustine
Hall, #162
daviso@stjohns.edu
(718)
990-6915
Education
Ph.D., University of California, San Diego (1998), Comparative
Literature
MA, University of California, San Diego (1987), English and
American Literature
BBA, New Mexico State University (1984), Finance
Profile
Octavia Davis is Assistant Professor
at St. John’s University in Queens, where she has taught first-year
writing since 2007. Prior to moving to New York, she taught writing
and literature at the University of San Diego, where she was
Associate Professor of English and Coordinator of the Liberal
Studies major. In addition to her academic work, Professor Davis
writes and edits for IndyKids, a nationally
distributed newspaper for young people, and edits for Factory School, a small
press and production collective. Her creative writing has appeared
in a variety of venues.
Professor Davis earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from
the University of California, San Diego, specializing in
nineteenth-century literature and geographic writing. Her most
recent literary study, “Morbid Mothers: Gothic Heredity in Florence
Marryat’s The Blood of the Vampire,” appeared in 2007. Since
joining the faculty at STJ, Davis has focused her research on
composition. Her article “Networking, Storytelling and Knowledge
Production in First-Year Writing,” co-authored with Bill Marsh, was
recently accepted for publication by Computers and
Composition. Another article, “Talking Back to the Regents:
First-Year Writing Students Reflect on New York State’s
Comprehensive Examination in English,” is under consideration.
Currently, she is writing about social justice and alternative
journalism in the composition classroom.
Having earned an undergraduate degree in business and worked in
industry, she brings wide-ranging professional experience to her
teaching. Professor Davis is committed to making learning relevant
and rewarding for all students, no matter their interests or
facility with writing. With the NoDiff website, which she helped
create, she hopes to provide an attractive, noncommercial
networking space where students and professors can work for their
mutual benefit.