As both a scholar and a teacher, I focus on connections between communication, culture, and technologies. Both in my rhetorical scholarship and in my teaching, this focus manifests as multimodal, feminist, and archival. I employ a feminist pedagogy, which identifies learning as socially constructed and cultivated and acknowledges the interrelation between knowledge and power (personal, social, cultural). In the classroom this pedagogy practically translates into the texts that I include, how I construct my assignments, and in the assessment process. 

In all regards, I aim to build diverse discourse communities that are reflected in every part of the course, including the texts and scholars we engage. When students see themselves reflected in the scholars they are reading, it encourages them to think of themselves as scholars who have a measure of expertise and authority, themselves. Regardless of the course, I look for texts that are foundational (both important to the development of a topic and providing basic knowledge), exemplary (demonstrate something specific, and offer diversity (in identity, voice, and point of view). Including texts and work from a broad cross-section of voices invokes the notion that scholars speak from both a position rooted in their fields, as well as a position rooted in their sense of self. For instance, in a model on food, we might investigate Wendell Berry, Stephen Satterfield, and Anthony Bourdain – three very different voices looking at the same topic through very different lenses.

In my assignment construction, I continue to promote the social process of knowledge-making through interaction, collaboration, and negotiation. While some days will be lecture-focused, most of my classes take a workshop approach that asks students to interact to build projects that are relevant to their interests. My courses are often connected to local, external opportunities for critical thinking and research that often lasts the whole semester. For instance, working to process an archival collection, or develop research that is of local interest.

For instance, until it relocated back to San Francisco in 2019, my composition classes frequently collaborated with the NAMES Project and the AIDS Quilt, which students researched over the course of the semester. Students first selected quilt panels for semester-long research projects that they developed through object analysis, archival research in GSU’s special collections, and secondary research. Such collaborations generate highly individual topics that connect with the real world. Practical elements are collaboratively constructed as well, with students working in small pods and sharing research, reviewing at each step in the process, and exchanging ideas. Meanwhile, students are learning about the process and practical movements: research practices, essay construction, modalities, plagiarism, and building a project framework.

In assessment, I invite students to take an active role and to access some of that power that comes with knowledge, by negotiating their outcomes. Major project grades always begin with reflections, in which I ask them to assess the success of their work and identify where they see their strengths and where they might see opportunities to grow. From these reflections, I share my own assessment and then offer “the grade today” with an opportunity to revise for more. These assessments become a chain of conversation so that students are able to trace the construction of ideas and development of their work. 

Overall, my teaching strategy is not simply to inform. I do not see students as vessels or me as the source, and I usually learn something new with each semester. Instead, my goal is to make space and opportunities for students to learn new ways of seeing and thinking, and to find themselves in the work and as part of learning communities. I want students to walk away with new knowledge, but I also want them to walk away with the power and agency that knowledge brings to their identities. Passion around the topic may be there for some and not for others depending on the course, but confidence and curiosity should be an outcome of all successful teaching.