Name: Bryan Ghent
Title: Instructor of English
Education: M.A.T., Winthrop University
B.A., University of California-Berkeley
Office: 204 Bancroft Hall
Phone: 803/323-4544
E-mail: ghentb@winthrop.edu
Web: http://faculty.winthrop.edu/ghentb
Area(s): Rhetorical Arguments, Corporate Personhood, Literature of Dreams, Culture of Self-Documentation
As an instructor of English at Winthrop University, where he earned his Master of Arts in Teaching, Mr. Ghent recently taught a section of Critical Reading, Thinking, and Writing dedicated to understanding the context and aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This course required in-depth research and analysis of arguments and counter-arguments on the case, and group travel to the assassination site in Dallas. Students evaluated how logical fallacies, inconsistent standards, and intellectual arrogance compromise complex evidence and uncertainties, and then synthesized their new understandings into arguments of their own. Due to the unique and timely nature of this course, his students appeared on local television as well as in national print media. Ghent presented research from this course at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece and was cited as an expert by NBC News.
In addition to giving core courses a unique focus, Ghent also developed English 333: Global Narratives, a one-credit-hour course that focuses on a narrative written by an author outside the dominant cultural experience of our students' lives in order to facilitate deeper global perspective, awareness, and engagement. A recent section on incarceration narratives included a tour of a maximum security penitentiary, while another section included daily meditation and discussion of the Tao.
He has also supervised student teachers, served as an advisor at the Academic Success Center, tutored writing in the LEAP program, has been an Orientation Faculty Member, taught Public Speaking and Winthrop's core writing courses, and was a featured reader at Winthrop's Research Conference Creative Showcase.
Before joining the Winthrop community, Ghent received his B.A. at UC Berkeley, designed and built his own home; had been a waiter for President Bill Clinton, the Dalai Lama, and other cultural luminaries; produced short subject documentary videos; taught in an underprivileged New York City elementary school; explored Shamanism in the Amazon; climbed the Great Pyramid; and bathed in the Ganges. He now lives in Rock Hill with his beautiful wife and son.