At Niagara University, I teach courses that range from the English department’s general education course (ENG110) to courses on American literature that include broader surveys (ENG201) and more specialized focus on African-American works (ENG313) to courses on literary methods like aesthetic theory (ENG260) and disability studies (ENG361). I also have more than a decade of experience teaching composition/first-year writing.
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ENG110 (Literary Perspectives):
"BODY POLITICS" In this general education course students answer questions about how the body is politicized in relation to identity: how do identities mark bodies? How do bodies shape identities? They explore this process of politicization by studying how contemporary art and literature represent the ways in which individual bodies identified as different come into conflict with institutions and larger structures. |
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ENG201 (Studies in American Literature):
"DISABILITY AND IDENTITY IN AMERICAN LITERATURE" In this survey of American literature (1880s to present) students learn about the role that identity plays in the medical treatment of marginalized people with disabilities. They historicize disability, drawing parallels and contrasts between how Americans with disabilities have been treated in the past and present while oppose their mistreatment through aesthetics and political action. |
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ENG260 (Methods of Literary Study):
"AESTHETICS AND CAPITALISM" In this literary methods course students learn how to read the relationship between aesthetics and capitalism. They consider whether it is still possible for aesthetics to oppose the system of capitalism by engaging with avant-garde works of art and literature. |
ENG313
"AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND POPULAR MUSIC"
In this American literature course students consider how African Americans have driven aesthetic innovation by experimenting with literary and musical forms. They historicize how musical genres have been used as literary devices as well as the poetics of musical genres, progressing from the blues and Jim Crow to jazz and the Black Arts Movement to rap music and Black Lives Matter.
"AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND POPULAR MUSIC"
In this American literature course students consider how African Americans have driven aesthetic innovation by experimenting with literary and musical forms. They historicize how musical genres have been used as literary devices as well as the poetics of musical genres, progressing from the blues and Jim Crow to jazz and the Black Arts Movement to rap music and Black Lives Matter.
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ENG361
"INTRODUCTION TO DISABILITY STUDIES" In this literary methods course students are introduced the field of disability studies. Students learn how the framework of disability studies can be used to analyze art and literature as well as society more generally. |