Damian Zurro
Assistant Teaching Professor
Education
B.A. University of Notre Dame, May 2003
M.A.R., Yale Divinity School, May 2006
Ph.D., History, University of Notre Dame, May 2015
Profile
Damian joined the UWP as a faculty member in 2016. His teaching supports students in their writing-intensive courses across the disciplines by introducing them to a repeatable set of skills that they can apply to all of their writing experiences. He works with diverse groups of students, including student-athletes, multilingual students, incarcerated students in the Moreau College Initiative, and service members in the Warrior-Scholar Project. Damian strives to help developing writers make connections between aspects of their identities that are important to them and the material they encounter in their courses. Moreover, he employs studio methodology to assist student writers in working together to achieve writing goals in an environment of mutual learning and teamwork.
His scholarly interests are related to his teaching, exploring ways to help students increase their self-efficacy by adopting a growth mindset and assisting them in building relationships with their professors. He also seeks to learn about and contribute to the ways that Notre Dame can become a more welcoming place for all students by drawing on the rich resources of the Catholic tradition.
Scholarly Work
Web-based Publications
“Students, Not Statistics,” Notre Dame Magazine
“I Met My Friend in Prison. Now I Doubt his Innocence,” Marshall Project
“Learning From Prison,” Inside Higher Ed
Conference Participation
“Teams, Skills, and Mindsets: Tapping the Abundance of Student-Athlete, Veteran, and Incarcerated Writers,” Concurrent Panel, Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention, Spokane, April 3-6, 2024
“Equipping Students for Multi-Disciplinary Reading and Writing in College,” Concurrent Panel, Excellence in Teaching Conference, University of Notre Dame, March 10-12, 2023 (Co-Presented with Nicole MacLaughlin, University of Notre Dame)
“Achieving Hope Inside: Working with Incarcerated Tutors in an Intensive Writing Course,” Poster Session, Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention, Chicago, February 15-18, 2023
“Teaching to Capacity: Writing Self-Efficacy in Less-Prepared College Students,” Presented as part of the Dartmouth Summer Seminar for Writing Research, University of Maine at Farmington, August 4, 2022 (Co-Presented with Nicole MacLaughlin, University of Notre Dame)
“A Process in the Seams: Learning From Isolated Writers,” Concurrent Panel, Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention, Online, March 9-12, 2022
“Lighting the Path to Office Hours: A Curriculum for Helping Students Navigate Student-Faculty Interaction,” Allerton English Articulation Conference, Monticello, IL, April 15-16, 2020. Conference canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. (Co-Presented with Nicole MacLaughlin, University of Notre Dame)
“Shifting Dynamics: A Curriculum for Helping Students Build Faculty Relationships,” College Reading and Learning Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, October 30-November 2, 2019 (Co-Presented with Nicole MacLaughlin, University of Notre Dame)
“By Their Boots, You Shall Know Them: The Lay Brother Revolt at Schönau and the Problem of Monastic Unity,” 47 International Medieval Studies Congress, Western Michigan University, May 10-13, 2012
“Not by Work Alone: Cistercian Lay Brothers in Saints’ Lives and Miracle Stories,” Cistercian Studies Conference within the 46th International Medieval Studies Congress, Western Michigan University, May 12-15, 2011
“The Concept of Labor in Peter the Chanter and Alan of Lille,” Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Conference, Villanova University, October 16-18, 2009
Email: dzurro@nd.edu
Phone: (574) 631-6558
Office: 217A Coleman-Morse Center