Recent Courses

First-Year Writing 

Description: This is the University’s required first-year composition course. My sections of the course makes use of a variation of the English Department Writing Program’s standard syllabus which asks students to explore personal literacy development in the context of broader issues in higher education.  Students focus primarily on the development of academic writing, analysis, and research skills.

Junior-Level Writing

Description: This course fulfills the University’s requirement for a junior-level course in Communicative Skills. The prime objective is to enhance analytical, communicative, persuasive, and explanatory capabilities. My specific section focuses on writing and literacy in very broad forms. Students read research on writing, explore their own reading/writing/composing experiences and practices, research the literacy experiences of others, and work to educate a public audience about important writing/literacy issues.

The New “Normal”: Introduction to Disability Studies 

Description: At least a sixth of the people in the United States have some kind of disability. That fact alone suggests that disability is worth considering when we think about American culture. This course is meant to help students become more informed about disability as a matter of identity, language, writing, power, education, politics, literature, art, and more.

Rhetoric and Social Justice 

Description: This course offers a broad introduction to rhetoric as integral to language, communication, and meaning-making. We read rhetorical theories; apply theories to various scenarios and artifacts; and become more thoughtful practitioners of rhetoric. Specifically, we use rhetorical theories and methods to better understand events, protests, and media representation surrounding Ferguson, Black Lives Matter, and other rights-based social movements.

Teaching College Writing 

Description: This course aims to give students a broad overview of and grounding in various theories and practices of composition studies, a robust and diverse field within English Studies that is committed to understanding how people write and how writing is taught across various spaces, with a particular emphasis on postsecondary/“college-level” writing.

Rhetorics of Public Memory

Description: This course offers an opportunity to consider how and why we remember and share information about places, people, and events. In other words, we will focus on the rhetoric of memory–or how memory is represented, communicated, and taught. We will investigate and analyze the ways Americans remember, commemorate, and memorialize, particularly at sites like museums and memorials. We will also focus on the accompanying pedagogies of public memory, exploring connections to civic identity and engagement.