At Niagara University, I teach courses that range from the English department’s general education course (ENG110) to a survey of American literature (ENG201) 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? Students 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. Students leave this course with a better understanding of how the study of literature can contribute to the most pressing political issues of our times.
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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. Students historicize disability, drawing parallels between how Americans with disabilities have been treated in the past and present. They also explore the politics of disability, studying how Americans with disabilities have organized to oppose their mistreatment. Additionally, they imagine ways to accommodate disability in their communities. Students leave this course with a better understanding of how literary and artistic representations of disability relate to the lives of actual people.
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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. Students engage with foundational and contemporary accounts to gain an understanding of these concepts. They learn how capitalism has influenced aesthetics, and how it continues to do so during our time of "too late capitalism." Students also consider whether it is still possible for aesthetics to oppose this system: they do so by engaging with avant-garde works of art and literature. Students leave this course with a better understanding of the importance of aesthetics in building systems outside and beyond capitalism.
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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 study how musical genres have been used as literary devices as well as the poetics of musical genres. They learn how to historicize aesthetics in relation to the African American experience, from slavery and Jim Crow to the Harlem Renaissance and Black Lives Matter. Students leave this course with a better understanding of the contributions that African Americans have made to culture and society.
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ENG361:
​"INTRODUCTION TO DISABILITY STUDIES"
In this literary methods course students are introduced the field of disability studies. Students read foundational and contemporary thinkers of disability, becoming familiar with key concepts in the field. They learn how the framework of disability studies can be used to analyze art and literature as well as society more generally. They focus on how to theorize the intersectionality of disability: how, for example, disability intersects with gender and with race. Students leave this course with a better understanding of how attending to disability can inform political action in working towards a more justly structured world.
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