Hello, this is Dr. George Guthridge, PhD, MFA
George Guthridge
Professor Emeritus University of Alaska Fairbanks
- glguthridge@alaska.edu
- 39-328-922-3142
About me
I am an enthusiastic educator and novelist with a rich history of over 40 years in teaching, writing, and editing.
A Proven Track Record of Crosscultural Teaching and Writing
Crosscultural
I have taught cross-cultural writing and thinking skills full-time for 31 years in college and for nine in high school. I have been nationally honored five times for teaching, including being named as one of America's 78 best educators. I also won more later. Alaska's first award for excellence in distance education. Many of my college prep students have graduated from America's most prestigious universities.
Interdisciplinary
My classes are models of diversity of content and cognition. I use an interdisciplinary content approach and meld Western culture's thinking style with those of non-Western cultures. The result strengthens students' analytical abilities by giving them additional cognitions they can consciously access. Students become problem solvers and communicators, not just someone who "writes."
Successful
I'm a former technical writer and science magazine editor-in-chief. My fifth novel won the Bram Stoker Award (the Oscar of horror writing). I also won four international screenwriting awards, and I three times was a finalist for the Nebula and Hugo, the Oscars of science fiction and fantasy. My book of creative nonfiction was a national finalist for the year's best book about education.
Diversity
“Dr. G.” (as his students affectionately call him) does not just teach. He transforms. He learned to do that through his 33 years living among Alaska Natives in rural Alaska.
My methods dramatically raise students’ writing, critical thinking, and creative thinking skills — often several years’ worth in a few weeks — regardless of the student’s age, ability, or academic interests.
For instance, my students from an Eskimo whaling village on a blizzard-swept island in the Bering Sea won three national championships in academics.
Click here for the story.
Selected Teaching Awards
- Twice tenured
- Fulbright Scholar
- Professor Emeritus
- Subject of LearnAlaska TV show
- Named as one of the top 78 teachers in America
- Future Problem Solving National Coach of the Year
- First Alaskan awarded Christa McAuliffe Fellowship
- University of Alaska Fairbanks Exemplary Service Award
- Co-recipient, Alaska’s first Distance Educator of the Year Award
- University of Alaska Fairbanks Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award
- Four times honored by Alaska Natives for excellence in teaching
- Honored by Alaska legislature for excellence in academic coaching
- Profiled in I Am a Teacher (Simon & Schuster) and in Superlearning
(Delacorte) and Supermemory (Delacorte) - Three times nominated in eight years for Stanley Drazek Award for Teaching Excellence
- 1978-1979 Lebanon, Oregon. English Teacher Taught creative writing and sophomore English
Played endless games of Scrabble with two students during study hall
Selected Writing Awards
- Bram Stoker Award, Year’s Best (Historical) Horror Novel. With Janet Berliner.
- Finalist, Nebula Award, Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novelette.
- Finalist, Nebula Award, Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy.
- Finalist, Hugo Award, Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy.
- Finalist, Locus Award, Year’s Best Science Fiction Short Story.
- Semi-finalist, Bram Stoker Award, Year’s Best Horror Short Story.
- Semi-finalist, Bram Stoker Award, Year’s Best Horror Short Story.
- Finalist, Benjamin Franklin Award, Year’s Best Book About Education.
- Grand Prize, Las Vegas International Screenplay Competition.
- Grand Prize, San Francisco International Screenplay Competition.
- Grand Prize, Moondance International Screenplay Competition about Indigenous Subjects.
- Grand Prize, New Hampshire International Screenplay Competition.
- Finalist, Portland International Screenplay Competition.
- Second Place, Willamette Writers’ Screenplay Competition.
- Second Place, Willamette Writers’ Short Story Competition.
- Second Place, Willamette Writers’ Poetry Competition.
Co-authored story with George R.R. Martin
My Experience
1990 – Present
University of Maryland Global Campus
Collegiate Professor of English
Dramatically raised writing skills of U.S. military personnel in Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Germany, and Italy by teaching a simple, memorable, multicultural template that greatly reduced writing anxiety, raised ability to complete academic assignments and to pass written and oral exams for promotion, and lowered time-on-task during active duty. Gave talks to parents on teaching writing to their children, to professors on using modified enthymemes to raise students’ writing skills, and to novice fiction writers on how to write science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Coached former Marine to win as Mrs. Galaxy USA.
1990 – 2015
University of Alaska Fairbanks – Bristol Bay Campus.
Professor (Professor Emeritus) - English & General Studies
Increased outreach by teaching 135 courses via synchronous online and/or by convener; and enhanced interest in college by teaching weekend courses in grant writing, family-history writing, and the literature of fly fishing. Strengthened university-student relations by phoning students biweekly to chitchat and by holding weekend tutoring sessions. Raised student academic skills by teaching courses including but not limited to composition, developmental English, business communications, high-school bridging courses, and new graduate courses in cross-cultural contemporary composition strategies.
2006-2007
Fulbright Scholar – Trained Professors and Teachers in Caribbean
Fulbright Scholar – Trained Professors and Teachers in Caribbean
Taught courses in how to raise scholarship scores of student nurses. Developed course in using creative writing to increase sales in travel agencies. Worked with local TV station to create 25 hours of CDs for instruction in my revolutionary method of learning grammar, which treats words by form instead of by function. Helped locals learn to read and to complete forms for college admissions in the U.S.
1991- 2010
University of Alaska Fairbanks Rural Alaska Honors Institute
Professor of English
Redesigned “summer fun” program by insisting on rigor and college credit. Students were 94% Native; 90% were from rural villages, many of which were dysfunctional. Based new program on my indigenous cognition/Western content method. Students graduated with advanced or professional degrees from Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, U. of Washington, U. of British Columbia, U. of Wisconsin, New Mexico State, and with fouryear degrees from Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Stanford, West Point, Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy, among many other places. Several returned as graduation speakers to say my classes changed their lives.
1982 –1990
Bering Strait School District. Villages: Gambell & Elim
High School English and Social Studies Teacher
Designed and delivered courses in social science, composition, problem solving, science writing, journalism, business, and reading. Ensured compliance with Native learning in all subjects. Transformed international Future Problem Solving Program (FPS, a Gifted-and Talented competition) by insisting that students engage in research-based creativity rather than in spontaneous creativity.
1980-1982
Editor-in-Chief, Western Wildlands
Editor-in-Chief
Edited science and social science articles by wildlife managers, foresters, hydrologists, soils experts, and other scientists. Phoned scientists around the world instead of passively waiting for articles. As a result, magazine twice scooped the national presses and turned a profit for the only time in its history. It went from 563 subscriptions to sellout of 9K+.
1979-1980
Olympia, WA
Technical Writer, Washington Department of Natural Resources
Edited and oversaw production of monographs on forestry, land reclamation, seaweed, etc., 600+ page document for landmark state case involving clearcutting on state lands, and 200+ page general-public book about aquaculture.
1972 –1978
Loras College, Dubuque, IA
Assistant Professor of English (tenured)
Encouraged academic innovation by creating a revolutionary method of subject selection in academic discourse. Twenty percent of my students in developmental English published in national periodicals, including one student who initially had an article accepted by an academic journal whose articles were written by professors and CEOs. Coordinated and oversaw a career-oriented Writing Major, one of first of its kind in a small college. The first semester, we had 51 inquiries (this was in pre-Net days).
Face-to-Face and
Online Teaching
Inservice Instruction