TEACHING >>>
American Writers since 1865
In this course we studied post-Civil War USAmerican literature from 1865-present. The historical period covered by this course was one of great change and upheaval: it begins at the end of the US Civil War and moves through the failings of Reconstruction and the racist violence that followed, the beginnings of the globalized USAmerican Empire, and the late 19th and 20th century’s world wars, pandemics, genocides, fascism and totalitarianism, the specter of nuclear oblivion, and the rise of neoliberalism. It was also a period of great social progress: this period witnessed the Civil Rights movement, women’s liberation, LGBTQ+ rights movements, labor rights movements, and the cultural shifts brought on by technological innovations, among others.
Our studies in this course considered how writers responded to, critiqued, or celebrated these changes through literature. What is literature’s role in a period of such extended change, violence, and eventual progress? What is the purpose or role of literature in moments of upheaval, change, or even chaos? And how might we apply the answers to these questions in our own time, with its own great changes, including climate change, lingering and hastening inequalities, and the current pandemic? We approached these questions through close study of writers such as Toni Morrison, Claudia Rankine, Gertrude Stein, Danez Smith, Muriel Rukeyser, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison. (ENG 242, University at Buffalo)
Writing for Change
This course introduces students to the written genres and rhetorical practices utilized by change agents and advocates who champion social causes. Change writing can take a wide variety of forms, such as letters, essays, poster art, blog posts, proposals, and speeches, to name just a few. In the process of composing in different genres to address timely local issues, students study the psychology of change, research local communities, and meet with the stakeholders they hope to learn from and influence. Major assignments include letters, reports, proposals, speeches, and strategy design.
The class is divided into three units: in the first, we will look at the use of different genres and rhetorical approaches in change documents. In the second, we will study historical change movements and begin to consider how they structure their actions and how they utilize both local and large-scale change. Finally, in the third unit, we will combine what we have learned from the first two units in order to propose our own change projects, using the rhetorical and genre skills honed in unit one and the strategies and historical-cultural awareness gained from unit two.
We will be engaged in practical experience—drafting and revising change-making documents—while studying change-making documents from many different historical and contemporary change movements, including environmentalism, environmental justice, feminism, queer liberation, anti-capitalism and anti-classism, anti-racism and racial justice, equality for people with disabilities, Indigenous land rights, among others. We will also look at reactionary change movements that work to undo these changes. These studies are intersectional in nature: for example, we look at documents of racism and disability, sexuality, and the environment side-by-side in order to see how different social and identity structures intersect, inform, and influence one another, and therefore should be considered alongside one another when making change. These studies will also help us to understand what adrienne maree brown means by “emergent strategy,” or a mode of enacting change that links local and personal change with larger change actions, and which will be a starting point for our work this semester. (ENG 205, University at Buffalo)
Professional Writing
Throughout the course, we approach professionalism from two angles. First, focus on the fundamentals of professional writing and communication more broadly, from memos and emails to proposals and presentations. Second, engage in a semester-long critique of “professionalism,” what it is, what its boundaries are, and how it came to be. In other words, I want student to not only learn how to write professionally, but also to understand what professional means. In essence, the goal is to learn how to write professionally through learning how to embody and internalize professionalism, whatever that might mean in the contemporary cultural climate, rather than simply memorizing by rote skills and tricks that you may easily forget or that may go out of style. As part of our research into what professionalism is, we critique “professionalism” as a core organizing structure of people’s public lives, and how professionalism presents itself as neutral, when it is often ideologically inflected by sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism and white supremacy, and classism. (ENG 210, University at Buffalo)
Creative Writing
In my creative writing classes, we focus on form, composition, poetics, how we read, why we write, and with an eye to shifting their view of creative writing as only a sort of interior, individual activity into thinking instead about other modes of making—not just personal record, but also witness, documentation, exploration, research, projection, speculation. To this end, the students complete multiple small writing projects throughout the semester, which are workshopped regularly alongside class discussion to situate their work in relation poems and stories we read together. We visit the poetry archives to explore the artist’s books and chapbooks there, and they are tasked with creating chapbooks of their work as final projects to emphasize sharing and distributing creative writing, which can shape how they compose and revise (i.e. writing to end up in a book instead of on an 8.5x11 Word document on their computer screen). (ENG 207, University at Buffalo)
Writing and Rhetoric
This is a course in rhetoric and writing. To develop these skills, you will practice writing in different genres for a variety of readers, supporting arguments with outside research, and developing your credibility. Overall, the course is meant to provide a set of tools for you to use in the very wide range of formal and informal writing situations you will encounter throughout your academic and professional career. The aim of this course is to help you become more confident in your ability to respond to situations that require communication—which is to say, most situations in life.
Our work this semester will focus on honing and practicing writing, communication, and research skills. Most of this work will be practical rather than theoretical: we’ll spend a bit of time each week going through the how’s and why’s of writing, but for the most part you’ll be learning through doing. Because it is impossible to be a good writer without also being a good reader, you will also be reading a lot, including especially the work of your classmates. You will be reading and writing something for almost every class meeting, before class and sometimes in class. You will write for situations with high stakes (such as grades on assignments) and in situations with low stakes (such as brainstorming exercises). You will be asked to write formally and informally, for yourself and for others.
There is a significant emphasis on drafting and revising in this class: you won't be asked to simply turn in an essay and be graded on it, but instead will have a few weeks to draft, review, revise, and re-write essays before they are graded. As a result, the main content of this class is your own writing, as well as the writing of your peers. Most of your time will be spent on writing, drafting, and peer reviewing. (ENG 105, University at Buffalo)
Research Journal
In this course series on peer review and publishing, my co-teacher, Dr. Andrea Stone, and I guided students through the peer review process, with the ultimate goal of publishing a student-run journal of student research. The result, The CROW: Campus Research & Observational Writings, is a print and online journal of peer-reviewed articles of interdisciplinary scope, ranging from environmental studies, theology, biology, cultural studies, chemistry, public policy, and literary criticism, among others, which continues to be published by students today. Dr. Stone and I modeled the peer review process by using the student editors’ own writing as a starting point: the students would bring in samples of their writing for peer review, giving them familiarity with multiple disciplines, practice in the peer review process, and, finally, an understanding that the peer review process is not limited to writing classes, but is a fundamental part of writing and research at all levels. (BHS 496, University of Washington, Bothell)
Writing Studio
As a writing studio facilitator, I assisted students in developing strategies for improving academic and creative writing by guiding whole and small group writing workshops. The course focused on interpreting assignments, developing rhetorical awareness, applying self-assessment, and improving revision strategies.(BWRIT 137, University of Washington, Bothell)
Just Buffalo Writing Center (Youth Writing Workshops)
>>> "Digital Publishing"
>>> "Plastic Exposure / Plastic Injustice"
>>> "Writing Solutions & Achieving Water Justice"
>>> "Drawing Words and Writing Visuals"
>>> "Experimenting with Essays"
American Writers since 1865
In this course we studied post-Civil War USAmerican literature from 1865-present. The historical period covered by this course was one of great change and upheaval: it begins at the end of the US Civil War and moves through the failings of Reconstruction and the racist violence that followed, the beginnings of the globalized USAmerican Empire, and the late 19th and 20th century’s world wars, pandemics, genocides, fascism and totalitarianism, the specter of nuclear oblivion, and the rise of neoliberalism. It was also a period of great social progress: this period witnessed the Civil Rights movement, women’s liberation, LGBTQ+ rights movements, labor rights movements, and the cultural shifts brought on by technological innovations, among others.
Our studies in this course considered how writers responded to, critiqued, or celebrated these changes through literature. What is literature’s role in a period of such extended change, violence, and eventual progress? What is the purpose or role of literature in moments of upheaval, change, or even chaos? And how might we apply the answers to these questions in our own time, with its own great changes, including climate change, lingering and hastening inequalities, and the current pandemic? We approached these questions through close study of writers such as Toni Morrison, Claudia Rankine, Gertrude Stein, Danez Smith, Muriel Rukeyser, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison. (ENG 242, University at Buffalo)
Writing for Change
This course introduces students to the written genres and rhetorical practices utilized by change agents and advocates who champion social causes. Change writing can take a wide variety of forms, such as letters, essays, poster art, blog posts, proposals, and speeches, to name just a few. In the process of composing in different genres to address timely local issues, students study the psychology of change, research local communities, and meet with the stakeholders they hope to learn from and influence. Major assignments include letters, reports, proposals, speeches, and strategy design.
The class is divided into three units: in the first, we will look at the use of different genres and rhetorical approaches in change documents. In the second, we will study historical change movements and begin to consider how they structure their actions and how they utilize both local and large-scale change. Finally, in the third unit, we will combine what we have learned from the first two units in order to propose our own change projects, using the rhetorical and genre skills honed in unit one and the strategies and historical-cultural awareness gained from unit two.
We will be engaged in practical experience—drafting and revising change-making documents—while studying change-making documents from many different historical and contemporary change movements, including environmentalism, environmental justice, feminism, queer liberation, anti-capitalism and anti-classism, anti-racism and racial justice, equality for people with disabilities, Indigenous land rights, among others. We will also look at reactionary change movements that work to undo these changes. These studies are intersectional in nature: for example, we look at documents of racism and disability, sexuality, and the environment side-by-side in order to see how different social and identity structures intersect, inform, and influence one another, and therefore should be considered alongside one another when making change. These studies will also help us to understand what adrienne maree brown means by “emergent strategy,” or a mode of enacting change that links local and personal change with larger change actions, and which will be a starting point for our work this semester. (ENG 205, University at Buffalo)
Professional Writing
Throughout the course, we approach professionalism from two angles. First, focus on the fundamentals of professional writing and communication more broadly, from memos and emails to proposals and presentations. Second, engage in a semester-long critique of “professionalism,” what it is, what its boundaries are, and how it came to be. In other words, I want student to not only learn how to write professionally, but also to understand what professional means. In essence, the goal is to learn how to write professionally through learning how to embody and internalize professionalism, whatever that might mean in the contemporary cultural climate, rather than simply memorizing by rote skills and tricks that you may easily forget or that may go out of style. As part of our research into what professionalism is, we critique “professionalism” as a core organizing structure of people’s public lives, and how professionalism presents itself as neutral, when it is often ideologically inflected by sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism and white supremacy, and classism. (ENG 210, University at Buffalo)
Creative Writing
In my creative writing classes, we focus on form, composition, poetics, how we read, why we write, and with an eye to shifting their view of creative writing as only a sort of interior, individual activity into thinking instead about other modes of making—not just personal record, but also witness, documentation, exploration, research, projection, speculation. To this end, the students complete multiple small writing projects throughout the semester, which are workshopped regularly alongside class discussion to situate their work in relation poems and stories we read together. We visit the poetry archives to explore the artist’s books and chapbooks there, and they are tasked with creating chapbooks of their work as final projects to emphasize sharing and distributing creative writing, which can shape how they compose and revise (i.e. writing to end up in a book instead of on an 8.5x11 Word document on their computer screen). (ENG 207, University at Buffalo)
Writing and Rhetoric
This is a course in rhetoric and writing. To develop these skills, you will practice writing in different genres for a variety of readers, supporting arguments with outside research, and developing your credibility. Overall, the course is meant to provide a set of tools for you to use in the very wide range of formal and informal writing situations you will encounter throughout your academic and professional career. The aim of this course is to help you become more confident in your ability to respond to situations that require communication—which is to say, most situations in life.
Our work this semester will focus on honing and practicing writing, communication, and research skills. Most of this work will be practical rather than theoretical: we’ll spend a bit of time each week going through the how’s and why’s of writing, but for the most part you’ll be learning through doing. Because it is impossible to be a good writer without also being a good reader, you will also be reading a lot, including especially the work of your classmates. You will be reading and writing something for almost every class meeting, before class and sometimes in class. You will write for situations with high stakes (such as grades on assignments) and in situations with low stakes (such as brainstorming exercises). You will be asked to write formally and informally, for yourself and for others.
There is a significant emphasis on drafting and revising in this class: you won't be asked to simply turn in an essay and be graded on it, but instead will have a few weeks to draft, review, revise, and re-write essays before they are graded. As a result, the main content of this class is your own writing, as well as the writing of your peers. Most of your time will be spent on writing, drafting, and peer reviewing. (ENG 105, University at Buffalo)
Research Journal
In this course series on peer review and publishing, my co-teacher, Dr. Andrea Stone, and I guided students through the peer review process, with the ultimate goal of publishing a student-run journal of student research. The result, The CROW: Campus Research & Observational Writings, is a print and online journal of peer-reviewed articles of interdisciplinary scope, ranging from environmental studies, theology, biology, cultural studies, chemistry, public policy, and literary criticism, among others, which continues to be published by students today. Dr. Stone and I modeled the peer review process by using the student editors’ own writing as a starting point: the students would bring in samples of their writing for peer review, giving them familiarity with multiple disciplines, practice in the peer review process, and, finally, an understanding that the peer review process is not limited to writing classes, but is a fundamental part of writing and research at all levels. (BHS 496, University of Washington, Bothell)
Writing Studio
As a writing studio facilitator, I assisted students in developing strategies for improving academic and creative writing by guiding whole and small group writing workshops. The course focused on interpreting assignments, developing rhetorical awareness, applying self-assessment, and improving revision strategies.(BWRIT 137, University of Washington, Bothell)
Just Buffalo Writing Center (Youth Writing Workshops)
>>> "Digital Publishing"
>>> "Plastic Exposure / Plastic Injustice"
>>> "Writing Solutions & Achieving Water Justice"
>>> "Drawing Words and Writing Visuals"
>>> "Experimenting with Essays"
