• BLUES MUSIC
• EARLY BLUES MUSIC
• JUVENILE LAW
• SOCIOLOGY OF MUSIC
• STREET GANGS
• VIOLENCE PREVENTION
• WORKPLACE VIOLENCE
• WRITING
• YOUTH CRIME

W. Mark Franks is an adjunct instructor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Mississippi. He received his BA with majors in Sociology and English from UM in 1979, and worked as a Graduate Research Assistant from 1979-1981 while completing his MA in Sociology. He also took courses in Criminal Law and Contract Law at UM. He then took graduate courses while apprenticed to UF Writer-in-Residence Harry Crews at the University of Florida, and taught Composition and Literature there. In 1981-82 and 1984-85 h was awarded the Instructorship in Sociology and taught all sections of SOC 101 and 102 at UM. From 1985-87 he attended the Iowa Writer's Workshop, where he taught Freshman Rhetoric while completing his MFA under the guidance of James Alan McPherson. He served as Language Arts Team Leader at the University of Montana's Upward Bound Program from 1988-90. He ha also worked as a Job Corps Counselor and Social Skills Coordinator, and as a private consultant specializing in workplace violence prevention and gang interdiction.