Effective learning happens, I believe, when students are pushed to encounter complex problems and realistic situations to which there are no simple solutions, correct answers, or easy outcomes. To achieve this requires creating rhetorical situations that strive not for realism, but engagement; the ultimate goal, then, is to push students to treat each project as a genuine communicative instance and opportunity for growth and reflection, even if the result is failure or frustration. I see my role as complicating how students approach such challenges and guiding them to work through and with complexity, rather than against it. Whether teaching English majors in the Writing Concentration or students from across all four colleges at Xavier, my pedagogy is grounded in a desire to engage students in practical, scaffolded assignments that build upon their individual skills or interests while layering opportunities for critical writing, hands-on learning, and local exigencies.
Course Sections Taught at Xavier University (fall 2018 - fall 2022)
Professional and Technical Writing
ENGL 305: Professional Writing (Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Spring 2022)
TBA
ENGL 312: Technical Writing (Spring 2019, Fall 2022)
TBA
Multimedia Writing
ENGL 499: Senior Seminar - Visual Rhetoric and Storytelling (Spring 2021)
TBA
ENGL 339: Digital Writing - Sonic Rhetoric, Soundwriting, and Podcasting (Fall 2021)
TBA
First Year Composition
ENGL 115: Honors Rhetoric - (Spring 2021)
TBA