Teaching

Situated in our multimodal culture, modern composition teachers should be not only firmly rooted in both classical and contemporary rhetoric, but also be informed by the special literacies that construct (and connect!) our digital age. I aim to show my students the value of choice, that every act of communication has rhetorical and creative undertones, and that digital modalities of writing and reading are valuable and necessary.

I am also a strong believer in service learning as an essential part of composition pedagogy. When students actually see the impacts of their writing and research, it creates a lasting investment in writing, learning, and helps foster a deeper sense of community.

Currrent Teaching

  • 2018 Present

    Department of English (Carnegie Mellon University)/h4>

    I focus on teaching first-year writing courses, including a sixteen-week Interpretation and Argument course with a thematic center of "Smartphones and Society." This specific course explores how smartphones both simultaneously connect and disconnect us from our world and asks students to undertake research positions of issues related to that. I am also building additional "Interp" courses around Amateur Radio, New and Emergent Literacies, and Writing in the Digital Age.

    Additionally, I teach the "Writing about Data" and "Writing about Public Problems" eight-week "mini" courses.

Teaching History

  • 2017 2018

    Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

    This program teaches the foundational writing subjects (CI-HWs) in CMS/W, and collaborates with MIT faculty and departments to teach written, oral, and visual communication...in more than 100 communication-intensive subjects. [This program] also teach[es] both semester-long subjects and specialized workshops on a variety of communication topics for graduate students in a variety of departments. -MIT Department of Comparative Media Studies & Writing

    • 2016 2017

    Professional Writing for Engineers (Case Western Reserve University)

    This course "introduces principles and strategies for effective communication in both academic and workplace engineering settings. Through analysis of case studies and of academic and professional genres, this course develops the oral and written communication skills that characterize successful engineers. Students will prepare professional documents that focus specifically on communicating academic and technical knowledge to diverse audiences. Because such documents are always situated within professional, social, and rhetorical contexts, this course also requires students to explain and justify their communicative choices in order to become adept in navigating the rhetorical environments they will encounter as professional engineers. As a SAGES Departmental Seminar, English 398 also prepares students for the writing they will do in Capstone projects." -CWRU Dept. of English

    • 2011 2016

      English Composition 1 & 2 (Southern Illinois University)

      This First Year Composition (FYC) sequence moves writers through various academic writing genres and teaches basic literary and rhetorical criticism methods.

    • 2013 2015

      Intermediate Analytical Writing (Southern Illinois University)

      This course focuses on the more specialized genres of academic writing, with an emphasis on scholarly discourse across the disciplines. Students will engage in a traditional exploration > proposal > essay sequence that also includes multimodalities of digital age writing.

    • 2012 2015

      Intermediate Technical Writing (Southern Illinois University)

      "A course in technical composition, English 291 engages students in the challenges of 'practical' writing as they prepare for careers in applied technology, science, agriculture, business and various other fields. Technical writers often produce texts (e.g., instructional manuals, training manuals, project reports) that explain “technical” subjects or procedures to those who are unfamiliar with them. In such contexts, attention to accuracy, detail and concise expression is essential. Technical writers also are highly conscious of how visual elements enhance the information they are trying to convey, whether in print or electronic forms." -SIUC Dept. of English

    • 2013 2015

      Writing Enrichment (Southern Illinois University)

      I designed and instructed this course for incoming Upward Bound high school seniors coming into SIU through the "Saluki Summer Bridge" program. It was developed to provide a cursory overview of the writing, reading, collaboration, and critical thinking demands of SIU's First-Year Composition (FYC) sequence. By the end of the program, students had a preliminary draft of the first, exploratory essay in English 101.

    • 2010 2011

      Intoductory, Advanced, and AP Latin (Henderson County High School)

      These three classes were for various levels of high school Latin: first-year, third-year, and AP/senior, respectively. I provided instruction using traditional textbooks such as Wheelock's Latin and Ecce Romani as well as original Latin works from Cicero, Tacitus, and Lucretius. I also served as faculty director of the Classics Club.