John C. Bean

John C. Bean, PhD, is an Emeritus Professor of English at Seattle University, where he previously served as Consulting Professor of Writing and Assessment. He holds a BA in English from Stanford University (1965) and a PhD in Renaissance literature from the University of Washington (1972). Before joining Seattle University in 1986, he taught for thirteen years in Montana at the College of Great Falls and at Montana State University.

Bean is the author of Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, a widely used book in the writing‑across‑the‑curriculum movement that has gone through multiple editions and has been translated into Dutch and Chinese. He is also the coauthor of several influential composition and argument textbooks, including Writing Arguments, The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing, and Reading Rhetorically, and has published numerous articles on writing, writing across the curriculum, and pedagogies that foster students’ development as critical thinkers and researchers.