TEACHING PHILOSOPHY:
In regards to my teaching philosophy, I am heavily influenced by research on writing transfer and critical literacy. As of now, scholarship on writing transfer focuses on facilitating students’ ability to conform to and successfully compose genres within a given discourse community; however, operationalizing writing transfer in this way, I believe, is insufficient in that it only serves to reify and reinforce hegemonic ideologies, ideologies which may be oppressive and marginalizing. With regards to critical literacy, critical scholars describe the purpose of critical literacy as producing critical agitators; this objective, though, fails to pay due respect to students’ own goals, goals which may include acceptance of and agreement with discourse community beliefs and practices. What is needed, I believe, is a combining of transfer theory/pedagogy and critical theory/pedagogy, for it is only in bringing these two together in productive tension that I, as an instructor, can empower students to exercise their full prerogative: to accept, resist and/or transform the ideologies of the academy and of the greater society at large.
Furthermore, because of my graduate studies in education, I have gained a great deal of experience and training regarding sensitivity to and understanding of diversity. Prior to my studies, I had believed that the best policy was to eschew such issues of diversity and profess to be "colorblind," i.e., to see everyone as completely the same. However, I now know that such an approach both wholly ignores the culturally rich experiences that our students bring to the classroom and suggests tacit approval of the asymmetrical power relations that exist within our society. That being said, I do commit to discussing issues of diversity in a respectful manner that honors the academic ethos of fostering open and frank discussion. Further, I commit to encouraging students to leverage their cultural knowledge and assets in the classroom not only so that they can see their backgrounds as strengths rather than weaknesses but also so that they can operationalize their roles as co-teachers in the class by sharing their experiences to their classmates, who may come from different backgrounds.
EDUCATION:
California State University, Dominguez Hills
Degree: M.A. Education
Option: Curriculum and Instruction
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Degree: M.A. English
Option: Rhetoric/Composition (additional coursework in TESL)
University of California, Berkeley
Degree: B.A. Rhetoric
Emphasis: History & Theory
Cypress College
Degree: A.A. Liberal Arts
SCHOLARSHIP:
“Toward a Critical-Transfer FYC: Theory, Pedagogy, and Reflection” Master’s Thesis, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (2019)
“Response to Michael Bunn’s ‘Motivation and Connection: Teaching Reading (and Writing) in the Composition Classroom,’” interchange in College Composition and Communication 65.4 (2014)
“Exploring Discourse Conventions: Taking a deeper look into Civil Engineering Writing,” paper delivered at the International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, 2014 (Panel: Theorizing WAC Contexts)
“(Re)Envisioning ‘First-Year Composition’ as ‘Introduction to Comics Studies’ (kind of!),” paper delivered at the Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association Conference, 2014 (Panel: Pedagogy and Popular Culture)
“The Rhetoric of Social Movement in Marvel’s Civil War: A Dramatistic Perspective,” paper delivered at the Pacific Ancient & Modern Language Association Conference, 2013 (Panel: Rhetorical Approaches to Literature Panel)
“Teaching for Transfer: Using Comics in FYC,” paper delivered at the Young Rhetoricians’ Conference, 2013 (Panel: Surfing with the Alien: Popular Culture, Graphic Novels, and English Studies)
“Loki Laufeyson: A View on Villainy,” paper delivered at the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association Conference, 2013 (Panel: Graphic Novels, Comics and Popular Culture—Villains)
LIKES:
hippos, ramen, comic books, bowling
DISLIKES:
snakes, spicy food, science texts, running
