When I first devised this theme for my ENG 101 class, I thought it would be a great way to apply my research on the Big House into the first-year writing classroom. Little did I know how relevant this theme would become in quarantine! This course worked exceptionally well for distance learning; students were able …
If Rhetoric studies the effective expression of ideas, then Rhetorical Grammar studies how our sentences and paragraphs affect those ideas. In the fall of 2019, I enjoyed teaching two sections of Rhetorical Grammar. Empowering students to write with clarity and intention was a really rewarding experience. Peruse our syllabus below. “[Rhetorical] grammar is a positioning …
In the fall of 2019, I adapted the popular course I taught at Spelman College on selfie culture and self representation. In this course, I asked students to write and think critically about social media, autobiography, and self portraiture. In the process, my students produced some great work! Check it out below. Note: All student …
This spring I am teaching a special topics course at Spelman on Caribbean Women Writers. I’m so excited to study some of my favorite authors with upper-level Spelman students. Check out our syllabus below and stay tuned for course updates! Cover image: Sybil Atteck, Bele
In the fall of 2018, I taught a first-year writing course at Spelman College. Our topic, American Selfie, explored representations of self in literature, media, and pop culture. Assignments included composition essentials like the Selfie Culture Position Piece, which asked students to write a persuasive essay arguing about the harms and benefits of selfie culture, …
In the spring of 2018 I had the opportunity to teach an Irish Studies course at Emory. It was such a pleasure to teach some of the texts and issues that kick started my own graduate studies! Scroll down for our syllabus and a glimpse inside our classroom.
In 2015, I had the opportunity to help Rose Library director Rosemary Magee and curator Kevin Young unpack a new acquisition of Flannery O’Connor materials. I was amazed at the wit, intelligence, and introspection these boxes contained. As I sorted through this wealth of materials, I uncovered a journal that would become one of my …
Emory acquired a series of letters written from Barack Obama to his then-girlfriend Alexandra McNear between 1982 and 1984. I’ve had the opportunity to study each of these nine letters and was moved by their intelligence, sensitivity, and wisdom. They reveal a man of letters engaged in formative dialogue with himself and the world around …
Check out the course website for ENG 101! In the spring of 2016, I participated in Emory’s Domain of One’s Own Initiative. This program fosters digital literacy by helping students build their own websites and curate their own multimedia portfolios. I designed a first year writing course with major digital assignments prompting students think critically about travel. …
Fall 2015 I taught a section of Writing about Literature on Haunted Ireland. This course explored the supernatural in Irish literature and culture. Highlights included holding a mock-trial about a witch burning, reading Sheridan LeFanu’s lesbian vampire novella Carmilla, and exploring Irish-language mermaid poems. For their final, student completed a research project on the supernatural …