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Biography
Christyne Berzsenyi, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of English and the program coordinator for the Penn State Wilkes-Barre Multidisciplinary Studies program. Dr. Berzsenyi has taught Techno-Rhetoric and Professional Writing as well as genre-based literature and cultural studies (e.g., Science Fiction, Crime and Detection, American Gothic short stories, and Food and Writing) at Penn State Wilkes-Barre since 1998. As an early adopter of teaching with technology, Dr. Berzsenyi teaches not only in-person courses but also hybrid and fully web-based courses.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Berzsenyi is committed to serving the campus in many ways. Currently she is the coordinator for transfer students in the Liberal Arts, particularly for those who are in University’s 2+2 program. She has also served in various roles for the campus and University faculty senates, including on the campus Promotion and Tenure Review Committee. Dr. Berzsenyi has mentored faculty on their documentation for promotion and has written peer evaluations and teaching observation reports. A top priority for her is acknowledging high-performing faculty, staff, and students via award nominations.
Research Interests
Dr. Berzsenyi’s research utilizes rhetorical discourse analysis and theorizing of media rhetoric, pop culture, and computer-mediated communication texts in e-dating, film/video promotions, constructing interlocutor relationships online, and writing pedagogy.
Current research essay projects include the following:
- Ways in which the Columbo Method has been adopted for workplace communication by healthcare, sales, ministry, and teaching professionals
- Illustration of the strong influence of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment on Columbo (published in the scholarly journal Clues)
- Testimonies of women mega-church leaders that enable their leadership in contemporary Evangelical ministries
- God’s judgment and wrath and the devil’s welcome to eternal residence in hell as recruitment strategies expressed in Evangelical signage
- The rhetorical functions of horror anthology and film “talkers” who host and promote their work; realistic superhero powers and spectatorship in Limitless
- Critical communication educational game development
Based on a previous publication, Dr. Berzsenyi has completed a series of bibliographic essays on the scholarship about the television show The Golden Girls for the Oxford University Annotated Bibliographies online resource.
Publications
Columbo: A Rhetoric of Inquiry with Resistant Responders. Typesetting by University of Chicago/Intellect Books, Ltd. 2019.
“The Columbo Method—A Rhetoric of Inquiry Practiced Across Professions,” Journal of Professional Communication. Vol. 6, No. 2. Fall 2020.
“Writing to Meet Your Match: Rhetoric and Self-Presentation for Four Online Daters,” Innovative Methods and Technologies for Electronic Discourse Analysis. August, 2013.
“Inviting ‘Millennials’ to Be Voices for Social Justice in Their Creative Writings,” College English Association Forum. July (3rd Quarter/Summer) 2011.
“The Golden Girls share signature stories: Narratives of aging, identity, and communal desire,” Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture, 1900 to Present. 2010.
“ ‘We’re Just Kidding’: Sexual Obscenities in Classroom Chat and Teaching about Audience,” The Writing Instructor. 2004.
“Evil, Deadly, Beautiful: Drive-in Horror’s Monstrous Women!” 2003.
“Comments to comments: Teachers and students in written dialogue about critical revision,” Composition Studies. 2001.
“Teaching interlocutor relationships in electronic classrooms,” Computers and Composition. 1999.