This page contains teaching documents, including a list (with descriptions) of courses I have taught. I designed and maintained full responsibility for all courses listed. Sample syllabi and additional course materials are available upon request.

TEACHING DOCUMENTS:

A link to my teaching philosophy can be found here.

A link to sample student evaluations and comments from teaching observations can be found here.

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY NORTHRIDGE:

Graduate Seminar in Narrative Writing: Spring 2017

Theories of Fiction: Spring 2017

Major British Novelists 1900-Present: Fall 2016

History of African-American Literature: Fall 2016

Intermediate Expository Writing: Spring 2016

Forms and Ideas in Humanities: Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017

Approaches to University Writing: Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016

Introduction to Literature: Fall 2015

Cultural Areas in Humanities II (Renaissance to Present): Fall 2015

SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA UNIVERSITY, ENGLISH DEPARTMENT:

Critical Reading and Writing: Spring 2015

Second semester course designed to develop skills in reading critically, analyzing written models, and writing in response to a variety of texts.

What’s So American About American Literature?: Fall 2014

Beginning with the work of Emerson, Whitman, and Dickinson, this course investigates various constructions of “America” and “American-ness” as outlined in works by a diverse group of American literary pioneers. Structured as a survey of works by major American writers, this course examines work by a variety of authors, including Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Charles Olson, Muriel Rukeyser, Amiri Baraka, Sylvia Plath, John Barth, Ralph Ellison, and Harryette Mullen.

Freshman Composition: Fall 2014

Introductory course designed to provide instruction and practice in the basic principles of expository writing.

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY, ENGLISH DEPARTMENT:

Upper Level Courses

Modernism and Memoir: Spring 2014

“Dwelling in Possibility”: American Women and Experimental Poetry: Fall 2013

Beginning with the work of early poetic innovators like Emily Dickinson and Gertrude Stein, this course investigates a tradition of experimental feminist poetry originating in the nineteenth century and continuing into our contemporary moment. Taking up the question asked by contemporary poet Susan Howe (herself a self-confessed inheritor of this tradition) as to  “Why these two pathfinders were women, why American” (My Emily Dickinson), this course examines issues of gender positioning, “American-ness,” appropriation, and re-vision as students consider not only these earlier works but the ways in which contemporary women poets continue to struggle with, revise, and renew the poetic legacy begun by Dickinson and Stein.

From Paterson to Paris: American Modernists at Home and Abroad: Spring 2013

An exploration of modernism in an American context, this course examined works by authors such as Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, H.D., Marianne Moore, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway. It paid particular attention to depictions of space and place and the way in which these issues are connected to broader questions of national/cultural identity.

Blurring the Lines of Gender and Genre: Women’s Experimental Fiction: Fall 2012

This course examined a selection of “unconventional” 20th and 21st century prose texts written by and about women, looking specifically at the ways in which these texts blur the boundaries of traditional conceptions of gender and genre in order to expose the philosophical and social implications of formal innovation. Texts used include Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, and Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body.

We Too Sing America: American Literature and Culture Since 1875: Summer 2012

A survey course covering major authors and works from 1875 to the present. Authors studied include Mark Twain, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Ezra Pound, Jean Toomer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sylvia Plath, and Toni Morrison.

Lower Level Courses

Introduction to the American Short Story: Summer 2013

A sophomore level introductory course designed to introduce students to literary analysis and critical reading and writing skills. In addition, students were exposed to various historical moments and movements within American literature, such as Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, and Postmodernism.

Contemporary Literature: American Postmodernism: Spring 2012

An introductory course that combined theoretical accounts of postmodernism (such as works by Brian McHale, Linda Hutcheon, Andreas Huyssen, bell hooks, and David Foster Wallace) with a diverse group of novels by authors such as Kathy Acker, Octavia Butler, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, David Markson, and Thomas Pynchon.

Introduction to Poetry: Modernist and Contemporary American Poetry: Fall 2011

A survey course beginning with the work of Whitman and Dickinson and moving forward through the contemporary moment. Students were exposed not only to multiple poetic forms, but to major movements in twentieth century American poetry.

Contemporary Literature: Long Poems by American Women: Fall 2011

An in-depth examination of extended poetic forms through the specific lens of women writers who approach the long poem not only as a vehicle for formal experimentation but as a means of engaging with questions of gender and authorship in both the past and the present moment. Authors studied include H.D., Bernadette Mayer, Susan Howe, and Harryette Mullen.

Introduction to the Slipstream Short Story: Spring 2011

A sophomore level introductory course designed to introduce students to literary analysis and critical reading and writing skills. In addition, students examined the intersections and divides between “literary” and “genre” fiction.

Writing About Fairy Tale Re-Tellings: Fall 2010

Themed composition course for first-year freshman.

Freshman Writing and Research: Spring 2010, Summer 2010, Summer 2011

A research writing course focused on introducing students to the principles of analysis, basic research skills, and writing for a variety of audiences.

Freshman Composition and Rhetoric: Fall 2009

Introductory composition course designed to introduce students to the elements of successful college-level writing. Particular attention was paid to issues of audience, genre, and argumentation.

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, ENGLISH DEPARTMENT:

Upper Level Courses

Fiction Workshop: 2009

Writing workshop designed to introduce students to the basic fundamentals of writing craft, as well as to the peer review workshop model.

Lower Level Courses

First Year Writing: Literature Focus: 2008

Composition course focused on developing rhetorical awareness and an understanding of the principles of analysis. This particular section of the course had a literature focus (specifically fairy tale re-tellings).

First Year Writing: 2007-2009

First year composition course focused not only on helping students develop the skills necessary for producing college-level writing, but on providing them with a detailed knowledge of rhetorical analysis and production. Fifty percent of the course was taught in a technology-enhanced classroom where each student had access to a computer, and digital media was integrated into both classroom activities and course assignments. Taught courses on various themes, such as “Consumerism and Activism” and “The Ethics of Giving,” which investigated the ethics of intertwining charity and consumer culture, and “Gender in Popular Media.”