Teaching History

Mississippi State University—Lecturer of English, 2020-2021
University of North Carolina, Wilmington—Adjunct Instructor of English and Creative Writing, 2018-2019
University of North Carolina, Wilmington— Teaching Assistant (Teacher of Record), 2015-2018
Belmont University— Adjunct Instructor of English, 2014-2015
Columbia State Community College— Adjunct Instructor of English, 2014-2015
Mississippi State University— Teaching Assistant (Teacher of Record), 2012-2014

Composition and Grammar

COLLEGE READING & WRITING I—ENG 101
(University of North Carolina Wilmington)

Composition 1 seeks to identify the structural components, including thesis, supporting evidence, and various rhetorical strategies, for all essays read and written. Students will articulate in a variety of venues how audience expectation shapes purpose in their own writing and in the essays they read. Students will summarize an array of viewpoints they have read on a given topic. Students will synthesize these viewpoints as a means of 'mapping' a field of perspectives. Students will analyze these viewpoints in order to assess how and where their own views and experiences relate to those they've encountered in their reading. Students will engage in rubric-guided peer review. Students will demonstrate through proofreading and editing an awareness of the difference between a working draft and a polished version of an essay. Students will enact a revision of their writing, thereby demonstrating an awareness of the ongoing nature of the writing process.

Required Texts:
They Say, I Say (UNC Wilmington Edition), Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein

COLLEGE READING & WRITING II—ENG 201
(University of North Carolina Wilmington)

The goal of English 201 is to facilitate the transition from writing and reading based on personal experience (ENG 101 or 100) to writing and reading for the variety of academic purposes students will encounter at UNCW and beyond. Involved in that transition is the gradual acquisition of the conventions of academic writing, such as inquiry-based research and attaining a balanced, informed voice and a tolerant, intellectual, persuasive stance.

Required texts:
They Say, I Say (UNC Wilmington Edition), Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein

HEROES AND VILLAINS—FIRST-YEAR WRITING
(BELMONT UNIVERSITY)

Pop culture’s latest obsession seems to be retelling the villain’s side of the story, altering tales we thought we knew, and providing us with evil protagonists. In this course, we will examine the idea of what it means to be a hero versus a villain in our culture. We will use these ideas to learn how to construct valid arguments, perform research, and examine arguments from both sides. Here are some heroes and villains we’ll consider: Peter Pan, Captain Hook, The Wicked Witch of the West, The Good Witch of the North, the Wizard of Oz, The Evil Queen, Maleficent, Walter White, Frank Underwood, V, (Milton's) Satan.

Required texts:
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Gregory MacGuire
Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie
The Curious Researcher, Bruce Ballenger

FAIRY TALES—FIRST YEAR WRITING
(Belmont University)

A trend in pop culture recently has been the retelling of fairy tales. We’ve seen it in Disney’s nearly century old tale of Snow White, their recent retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Snow Queen” as Queen Elsa in Frozen, and in ABC’s Once Upon a Time and NBC’s Grimm. In this course, students will read the original versions of several well-known fairy tales, discuss them in their original context, write reading responses, and then compare them to modern-day versions. We will discuss what the evolution of these tales says about the society in which they were/are told. A few of the characters we’ll consider are: Cinderella, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty/Briar Rose, Rumplestiltskin, Rapunzel, The Frog Prince, The Snow Queen, the Little Match Girl.

Required texts:
Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen
Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Brothers Grimm
The Curious Researcher, Bruce Ballenger

DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES AND SELF-DISCOVERY - THIRD-YEAR WRITING
(Belmont University)

The primary goals of this course are to better your writing abilities and research practices. The books we will read focus on characters who need to discover their identities, and these characters all discover importantances about themselves through their families and pasts. Some of your research will consist of researching your own families: customs, practices, old family stories, secrets, even. You may also use research methods to produce knowledge about your hometown or city. Much of our identities are shaped by the people and places we grew up around. What’s your hometown like? What kind of family do you come from? These are ideas we will explore both through literature and in our own lives. Through the semester, you will be expected to produce 20 pages of polished work. These pages will consist of three major assignments. The goals are to not only produce better writing and research skills, but also to learn new things about our families and ourselves.  

Required texts:
Oral History, Lee Smith
Bloodroot, Amy Greene
A River So Long, Vallie Lynn Watson

COMPOSITION 1
(Mississippi State University)

This course stresses principles of logic, rhetoric, and analysis that govern effective organization and presentation of ideas. Primary emphasis is on close reading, careful analysis, and argument.  Students are expected to create a limited thesis and develop it appropriately while meeting conventional standards of accuracy in mechanics. Students are required to write three drafts of four essays, with the principal objective being to learn to create an argument.

Required texts:
Forming a Critical Perspective (FCP)
Guide to Freshman Composition at MSU, 5th Edition (Guide)
The Little, Brown Handbook, 3rd MSU Custom Edition (LBH)

COMPOSITION 2
(Mississippi State University)

This course emphasizes an enhancement of the study and practice of stylistics, logic, argumentation, research methods, and literary analysis. The first half of this course will focus on scholarly research. Students will formulate research questions, utilize and evaluate library resources, extract and synthesize information from sources, and integrate these sources into academic writing. The second half of this course will focus on the study of literature. Students will demonstrate an understanding of authorial purpose and of literary devices of short fiction and poetry through written analysis. Students are expected to utilize accurate and strong grammar and syntax and will be evaluated on this aspect of writing in addition to content.

Required texts:
The Curious Researcher, 7th Edition (CR)
MSU Reader: Selections for EN 1113—Comp II, Custom Edition (MR)
Guide to Freshman Composition at MSU, 4th Edition (Guide)
The Little, Brown Handbook, 4rd MSU Custom Edition (LBH)

Creative Writing

INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING — CRW 201
(University of North Carolina Wilmington)

This course will introduce students to three creative writing genres: poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction. Students will read published works in each genre and be expected to discuss assigned readings. Each student will submit an original work for each genre to be workshopped by the class. Coursework will include weekly readings and responses, creative exercises, quizzes, workshop pieces, critiques of peers' work, and a final portfolio.

Required texts:
Show and Tell (UNCW CRW Pub Lab textbook)

INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING — ENG 2203
(Mississippi State University)

This course will introduce you to the art of fiction and poetry writing at the beginner’s level. You don’t need to have written anything creative before, but you do need to love reading and writing. At the start of each section, you’ll read chapters from the respective textbooks on the art and craft of each genre. Once you have a basic understanding of the nuts and bolts of each genre, you’ll read published works in each and consider them using the craft techniques and ideas you learned from your textbook reading. Creative works will be workshopped in small groups and with instructor.

Required texts
Writing and Workshopping Poetry: Stephen Guppy
The Art and Craft of Fiction: Michael Kardos
Intro to CRW story packet (publication specific to this course designed by instructor, available in campus bookstore)

THE EVOLUTION OF CREATIVE WRITING — CRW 203
(University of North Carolina Wilmington)

This course is a survey of the development of creative writing over the centuries. Genres covered will include drama, poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Students will read and analyze work by authors such as Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Bronte, Gilman, and Hemingway. Rather than asking the English course question of “What did the author mean by this?", we will ask questions through a creative writing lens: what did the author make this choice? how would this piece be altered written in third person rather than first? why did the author write this character this particular way? in what ways has this genre of writing evolved over time? what techniques and crafts have carried through, and which have been lost—and why? In studying how writing has evolved and progressed throughout history, we will determine what we as writers can use in our own work and how to better read as writers. Students will write two analytical essays and one creative piece to be workshopped by the class.

Required texts:
The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde
Boy Erased, Garrard Conley
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan

INTRO TO FICTION— CRW 207
(University of North Carolina Wilmington)

Students will read published works by contemporary writers, as well as read and discuss the work of their peers in a workshop setting. Over the course of the semester, we will explore the critical elements of successful fiction writing and how we can apply them to our own work. Students will be expected to produce weekly writing exercises and scenes, complete reading quizzes, and finish two full-length pieces of fiction, with a final portfolio serving as the final exam.

Required texts:
The Art and Craft of Fiction, Michael Kardos

Special Topics Courses

HONORS FRESHMAN SEMINAR
(University of north carolina wilmington)

Honors 110 courses introduces the Honors student to the college experience by direct involvement in research, service, and leadership activities. The nature of knowledge; the concept of a university; how a university education changes individuals and affects the future. Includes field experiences, collaborative learning and independent scholarship. Emphasis on discussion; required student projects.

In this seminar, we will explore how place and identity are connected to the ways in which we tell stories. How does your home, the places you’ve lived and visited, the culture you grew up in define you? How does it change the way you might tell a story? How does it shape how you might tell your own story? Over the course of the semester, students will keep a journal documenting their experiences in the transition from home to college-life, which they will use to pen their own short creative nonfiction essay for the final project. Our primary text will be Trespass: Ecotone Essayists Beyond the Boundaries of Place, Identity, and Feminism, an anthology of essays first published in Ecotone, UNCW’s award-winning literary journal on place-based writing.

Required Texts:
Trespass: Ecotone Essayists Beyond the Boundaries of Place, Identity, and Feminism

WRITING WILMINGTON: GHOSTS OF THE CAPE FEAR — Hon 120
(University of North Carolina Wilmington)

Wilmington has been home to many characters: Brooke Davis, Dawson Leery, Blackbeard, Michael Myers, Sam Jenks and Gray Ellen, Jamie Sullivan and Landon Carter, Emma Baldwin, Samuel Jocelyn. Some are still alive. Some are dead. Some never existed at all. Whether spirits lingering in windows, characters imagined and written into our cobblestones, or the weight of true events will whispering into our present, ghosts are all around us. In this class, we will explore Wilmington on the page, on the screen, and in haunted downtown. Through an array of works and experiences, including historical fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, film, and ghost stories, we’ll consider how our hometown of Wilmington has been represented in art and how we can represent it in our own. Students will perform research on local stories, legends, and historical figures/events and submit a final written project in the genre of their choosing.

Required texts:
27 Views of Wilmington (various authors)
Ghosts of Old Wilmington by John Hirchak
Legends of Old Wilmington and Cape Fear by John Hirchak

CHOOSE ONE of the following:
Cape Fear Rising by Philip Gerard (fiction)
Wilmington's Lie by David Zucchino (nonfiction)

UNCW & DIGITAL PUBLISHING—HON 210
(University of North Carolina Wilmington, Honors College)

This course will focus on the publishing industry as related to UNCW publications and digital mediums specifically. The first half of the semester will focus on various publishing opportunities available at UNCW, as well as publications distributed by various departments across campus, including Ecotone literary magazine, Lookout Books, the Creative Writing Department’s Publishing Laboratory, Chautauqua literary magazine, Atlantis, Second Story, UNCW Magazine, and Her Campus magazine. Students will become familiar with UNCW publications, what makes them well-designed and aesthetically successful, and the process of a manuscript’s journey from a computer screen to a bookshelf. The second half of the semester will focus on the art of digital publishing and how the industry is shifting from page to screen. Students will create an imaginary publication relevant to their major and produce digital content aimed to make their proposed business succeed.

Required texts:
Atlantis, Issue 81
Chautauqua, Moxie Issue
Ecotone, the Body Issue
Lookout Books title

Literature

INTRO TO LITERATURE — ENG 2203
(Mississippi State University)

This course is designed to teach you how to think and write critically about literature. We will cover poetry, fiction, and drama, focusing on key literature elements in each section of the course so that you will gain a working knowledge of literary terms as well as some literary theory.

Required texts:
The Norton Introduction to Literature, 12th portable edition
The Cake, Bekah Brunstetter

INTRO TO AMERICAN LITERATURE — ENG 2130
(Columbia State Community College)

This survey of American Literature introduces students to key works from the Colonial era to the present. Students will read works by authors such as Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopin, James Baldwin, focusing on analysis and reading comprehension. Students will also be assigned a selection from a list of “great American novels” and will be responsible for presenting on their book to the class at semester’s end.

Required texts:
The Norton Anthology of American Literature
individually-assigned novel

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