Welcome!

I’m Dr. Clifton Justice, and I will be your instructor. I’m a full-time lecturer in the English program at CI, and this semester begins my fourteenth year teaching at the school. I have taught many writing classes and am a specialist in writing and literacy activities. Most of my assignments are related to exploring writing and literacy activities.

I came to be a university teacher through an unusual set of circumstances. I returned to college at the turn of the 21st Century to finish a degree that I had abandoned years ago. When I began course work again at a community college, I thought I would be a high school drama teacher, as most of my previous college credits were in theatre; however, events unfolded in a different way than I expected. It is amazing the new places learning and education can take you. Through my university classes and conversations with instructors, I became interested in teaching writing and have found deep satisfaction in doing so.

I like teaching CSU students because I was one. My B.A. and M.A. are both in English from CSU Northridge. I even went to a state school in Pennsylvania to earn my Ph.D. in Composition. I consider myself a rhetorician and am interested in how rhetoric changes attitudes. My doctoral dissertation, “‘As a Gay Man, I’: How One Instructor’s Coming Out Changed a College Campus,” tells the story of an English teacher and how his speaking out changed his campus community.

I look forward to learning with you and from you.