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Richard Schur, Ph.D.

Portrait of Rich Schur.

Office: Pearsons Hall 316
Phone: (417) 873-6834
E-Mail: rschur@drury.edu

Fall 2024 Office Hours

Monday
1 – 4 p.m.

Tuesday
10 – 11 a.m.

Wednesday
1 – 4 p.m.

Thursday
1 – 3 p.m.

Friday
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.

Use www.calendly.com/rschur to schedule appointments. That is the best way to meet with me. If none of the posted times work for you, please email a few alternatives and we will find a time to talk.

Richard Schur, Ph.D.

Professor of English
Director of the Honors Program

Dr. Schur began teaching at Drury in the fall of 2001. He received his Ph.D. in America Studies (2000) from the University of Kansas for his dissertation, Rites of Rhetoric: Toni Morrison, Luis Valdez, and Critical Race Theory. Schur earned a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) from the University of Wisconsin Law School (1994) and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Illinois (1991).

Dr. Schur has taken on a number of administrative roles at Drury, including the Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Center (2003-2010), Founding Director of the Law & Society Program (2011-2015), and the Director of the Honors Program (2015-Present). He has won grants to participate in the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) Shared Futures Project, a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, and a Fulbright German Studies Seminar. He won the 2006 Faculty Award for Liberal Learning and the 2008 Joel Weixlmann Award from the African American Review.

Over his time at Drury, Dr. Schur has taught classes in English, Writing, Political Science, Philosophy and the Honors Program during his time at Drury. He regularly teaches American Literature I: 1620-1865, American Literature II: 1865-1980, African American Literature, Literature Matters, Creative Writing Nonfiction I, Literature and Ethics, Expository Writing, First-Year Honors Seminar, the Honors Colloquium, and Introduction to Law & Society. Dr. Schur loves to teach in Drury’s core curriculum and has taught the topic of American Popular Music in the Drury Seminar (Core 101) and the topic of Human Trafficking in Global Foundations (Core 201).

Dr. Schur’s scholarship focuses on racial narratives in American culture, from popular music and literature to law and ethics. He is the author of Parodies of Ownership: Hip Hop Aesthetics and Intellectual Property Law (2009) and co-editor (with Lovalerie King) of the collection of essays, African American Culture and Legal Discourse.

Schur also enjoys blogging on Drury’s Humanities Blog and has written essays for The Chronicle of Higher Education and editorials published in the Springfield News Leader. He enjoys spending time with his family and running the trails and hills of the Ozarks.

Drury University faculty member since 2001
Professor since 2013

Education

  • B.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1991
  • J.D., University of Wisconsin, 1994
  • Ph.D., University of Kansas, 2000

Publications

  • “A Right to be Hostile: Black Cultural Traffic in the Classroom.” Teaching Tainted Lit: Popular American Fiction in Today’s Classroom. Ed. Janet Casey. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2015. 105-122.
  • “Copyright Outlaws and Hip Hop Moguls: Intellectual Property Law and the Development of Hip Hop Music.” The Organic Globalizer: Hip Hop, Political Development, and the Movement Culture. Eds. Christopher Malone and George Martinez Jr. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014. 79-98.
  • “The Crisis of Authenticity in Contemporary African American Literature.” Contemporary African American Literature: The Living Canon. Eds. Lovalerie King and Shirley Moody-Turner. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013. 235-254.
  • “The Mind-Body Split in American Desert: Synthesizing Everett’s Critique of Race, Religion, and Science.” Perspectives on Percival Everett. Eds. Keith Mitchell and Robin Vander. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2013. 75-93.
  • “Sampling is Theft? Creativity and Citation after Hip Hop.” Critical Conversations about Plagiarism. Eds. Michael Donnelly, Rebecca Ingalls, Tracy Ann Morse, Joanna Castner Post, and Anne Meade Stockdell-Giesler. Anderson, South Carolina: Parlor Press, 2013. 67-77.
  • “Memories of Walter Majors: Searching for African American History in Springfield.” Springfield’s Urban History. Ed. Stephen McIntyre. Springfield: Moon River Press, 2012. 113-137.