Richard Essam

Richard Essam serves as a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the University Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University, where he has instructed writing courses since 2020. His role focuses on developing first-year composition curricula that integrate historical rhetorical traditions with contemporary pedagogical approaches.

Trained as an Assyriologist at the University of Toronto and German institutions (Würzburg, Heidelberg, Leipzig, Jena), his doctoral research examined writing pedagogy in the Old Babylonian period (1900-1600 BC). This foundation informs his current scholarship in Composition Studies and Rhetoric, where he investigates wordplay in composition classrooms, classical rhetoric applications, and writing's relationship to "Great Books" educational models.

His teaching philosophy centers on demonstrating writing's transformative power for self-expression, interpersonal connection, and real-world impact. Through historical and modern rhetorical lenses, he cultivates students' critical engagement with language as both cultural artifact and practical tool.