James Cochran

Assistant Professor of English & Director of the 21st-Century Writing Competency Program and Writing Center

Recent courses taught:

• • College Writing
  • Rhetoric and Public Memory
  • Writing Center Theory and Practice
  • Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
  • Writing Essentials
  • Journaling and Mindfulness
  • Technical Writing

  Distinctions (awards, fellowships, and grants):

  • Winifred D. Wandersee Scholar-in-Residence, Hartwick College, 2025-2026
  • Faculty Research Grant, Hartwick College, 2025-2026
  • Martinson Award for Innovation, Small Liberal Arts Colleges-Writing Program Administrators, 2024
  • Seed Fund Grant, Griffiths Center for Collaboration and Innovation, 2023
  • Seed and Growth Grant, Community Literacies Collaboratory, 2023

  Selected publications:

  • Cochran, James M., Kathryn Pilliod, and Madilynne Smith. “Countering AI Shame in the Writing Center: Cultivating Tutoring Practices of Openness and Vulnerability.” Writing Centers and AI: Generating Early Conversations. Eds. Elisabeth Buck and Joshua Botvin. WAC Clearinghouse, 2026, 225-235.
  • Cochran, James, Kara Poe Alexander, Rachel Herzl-Betz, and Ricardo Ramos Duran. “More Than a Celebration: Writing Center Anniversaries as Epideictic Rhetoric.” Praxis: A Writing Center Journal 23.1 (2025): 19-34.
  • Cochran, James M. “ ‘Our Hands are Dirty:’ Using Waste to Respond to Environmental Apocalypse in Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad.” Revenant 10 (2024): 64-80.
  • Cochran, James M. “Misjudging and Reevaluating Genres Through The Crush,” Dynamic Activities for First-Year Composition. Eds. Michal Reznizki and David T. Coad. NCTE, 2023.
  • Cochran, James M. “ ‘They Carried the Land Itself:’ Eco-Being, Eco-Trauma, and Eco-Recovery in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.” Journal of Ecohumanism 1.1 (2022): 57-71.
  • Cochran, James M. “ ‘Neigh Way, Jose’: Posthuman Communication in BoJack Horseman.” Posthumanist Perspectives on Literary and Cultural Animals. Ed. Krishani Maiti. Springer, 2021, 101-112.

  Professional affiliations:

  • International Writing Centers Association
  • Northeast Writing Centers Association
  • Small Liberal Arts Colleges-Writing Program Administrators
  • Council of Writing Program Administrators