Teaching

My philosophy

My philosophy of teaching is informed by the apparent feminist methodology I develop in my dissertation. While apparent feminist pedagogies could manifest in several ways, I describe my apparent feminist approach to teaching as proactive, rhetorical, and critical. By proactive, I mean that I work to make my pedagogy apparent to students. I invite students to be aware of the implications of my authority in the classroom. I want students to see the underlying structures by which the class is governed, and I want them to understand why those structures exist and what they mean.

Students in my classes work toward being rhetorically informed, and they use that knowledge to influence how they are perceived, addressed, and even assessed. Students discover that learning (and teaching) is always rhetorical. This approach helps  students throughout their college careers and lives rather than just in my class. It helps them learn to participate in their own learning.

A critical feminist approach  helps me to consider in complex ways the subject positions my students occupy; in the same way that my teaching is always seen through the lens of my female embodiment, so too are the lives of my students constructed and limited by the realities of their embodiment. Because of my work in feminisms, I am better prepared to deal with the contextual realities of students’ experiences as members of marginalized groups.

Not only does this practice-and-theory approach often get enthusiastic response from students, but it also shows them that they can interact with the world outside academe. I encourage students to do this sort of critique through social media as a means to engage technology and community. We then develop together a deeper understanding of social and technological influences on composing and communication processes.

My History

I come from a family dedicated to teaching, and I was honored to receive the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award for Illinois State University during graduate school. I also have been  nominated for the East Carolina University 2016-2017 Alumni Association Outstanding Teaching Award and the Robert L. Jones Award for Outstanding Teaching, and I was a 2019 Scholar-Teacher Award recipient at East Carolina University.

Selected courses I have taught include:

• WGS 120: Women, Gender, and Society
  Illinois State University
  Developed and taught this elective for students of all levels. This course examines how systems of gender shape societies around the world and how individual and collective actions transform the gender system of a society.

• ENG 145: Writing in the Academic Disciplines
  Illinois State University
  Developed and taught this introduction to research-based writing for multiple academic audiences.

• TWC 200: Impact of Communications Technologies on Society
  Arizona State University (online delivery)
  Developed and taught this course, which focuses on organizational issues and the historical development of technical communication.

• ENG 249: Technical and Professional Writing I

  Illinois State University
  Developed and taught this introduction to technical and professional writing. This course includes study of manuals, reports, proposals, audience analysis, formatting and style. I have taught this course with special emphases on the relationship between form and content, the importance of feminist perspectives, and the necessity of ethical considerations. Visit website.

• ENG 283: Rhetorical Theory and Applications
  Illinois State University
  Developed and taught this course, which is a critical and analytical examination of the nature and historical development of rhetorical theory and its applications to contemporary discourse. I have taught this course with special emphases on feminist perspectives.

• TWC 361: Writing for Health Care Management

  Arizona State University (online delivery)
  Collaborated with nursing faculty and taught this course for nursing professionals looking to study strategies, formats, and techniques for effective writing and presentation of information. I have taught this course to a wide-range of student audiences, including community college students enrolled in a special program with ASU as well as many non-traditional students returning to college after years of workplace experience.

• ENGL 3820: Scientific Writing
  East Carolina University
  Developed and taught this course on scientific writing for students in from science fields with focus on helping students consider the situated nature of particular contexts of scientific writing and also produce scientific writing for various purposes. Students examine theories, methodologies, and ideologies that undergird scientific writing with an eye to perfecting both critique and imitation of scientific styles.

• ENGL 3880: Writing for Business and Industry
  East Carolina University
  Developed and taught this course on composition for students in business and industry with emphasis on developing and practicing professional communication skills. This course includes study of rhetorical aspects of communication, efficient methods for reaching audiences, and the complications introduced by technologies, ethics, information design, visual rhetoric, and usability studies.

• ENGL 4885: Digital Writing
  East Carolina University
  Developed and taught this course on digital writing for students across a range of majors. This course includes study of visual rhetoric, multimodality, usability, web design, typography, and social media. Visit website.

• TWC 401/501: Principles of Technical Communication
  Arizona State University (online delivery)
  Developed and taught this course, which explores information design principles to produce effective written, oral, and electronic technical communication as well as developing in students an understanding of rhetorical and audience analysis.

• TWC 421: Principles of Writing with Technology

  Arizona State University (online delivery)
  Developed and taught this course, which focuses on understanding the historical and social impact of technology on writing, with emphasis on multimedia design, computer-mediated communication, and hypertext.

• TWC 431: Principles of Technical Editing

  Arizona State University (online delivery)
  Developed and taught this course, which introduces students to the basic principles of technical editing (for print and electronic media) including copyediting, reviews, standards, style, and project management.

• TWC 451: Copyright and Intellectual Property in the Electronic Age

  Arizona State University (online delivery)
  Developed and taught this course for both graduate and undergraduate students. This course explores issues related to copyright and intellectual property laws, with emphasis on electronic environments and authorship studies. This class moves from development of a historical understanding of copyright and intellectual property law to theoretical and practical examinations of its intersection with electronic media.

• ENGL 6702: Research Methods In Technical and Professional Writing
  East Carolina University (online delivery)
  Developed and taught this course on TPC methods for graduate students. Participants learn to write a research proposal, literature review, annotated bibliography, and research paper. The course is focuses especially on thinking about the efficiency of particular methods for particular audiences.

• ENGL 7765: (Special Topics) Risk Communication
  East Carolina University (online delivery)
  Developed and taught this study on current understandings of risk communication—its theories, methodologies, and ideologies—within the context of the gendered realities that both support and contradict particular/traditional understandings of risk.