Vanderbilt University (Jan 2023 - February 2024)
The Office of Experiential Learning and Immersion Vanderbilt
Program Coordinator for Innovation, Arts, and Design
• Developed the curriculum for Immersion Vanderbilt’s Innovation, Arts, and Design experiential learning pathway used by over 200 students.
• Implemented innovative student- and faculty-focused programming grounded in experiential learning.
• Coordinated major campus events including, Vanderbilt Undergraduate Arts Showcase and Explorations in Research, serving over 300 attendees.
• Wrote 2-3 weekly pieces for office social media feeds and university-wide newsletter.
• Led teams ranging from 3 to 10 on the development of public-facing campus events and internal projects.
• Overhauled office’s advising system utilized by over 1,200 Vanderbilt students annually.
• Strengthened experiential learning materials relevant to Innovation, Arts, and Design in office pedagogy.
• Improved workflows for daily tasks, such as student form processing, saving 3 to 5 hours weekly.
• Cultivated working partnerships with 10 campus offices and departments to enhance campus experiential pedagogy.
• Mentored over 50 students through experiential learning and advised over 150 other students on the opportunities for experiential learning.
Freelance Artist (July 2021 - December 2022)
• Created a 150-page, full-color comics collection titled "Out There."
• Published multiple comics collections from "Out There" and other sources.
• Presented work in art and comics shows.
• Developed event posters and materials for conferences.
The University of Florida (August 2015 - May 2021)
Department of English
Instructor, Researcher, Editor
• Developed 15 upper- and lower-division university courses covering composition, communication, rhetoric, literature, comics, trauma studies, environmentalism, and new media studies.
• Taught over 250 students from diverse national and cultural backgrounds.
• Wrote and published a 4-year independent research study as doctoral dissertation.
• Published 3 independent peer-reviewed research articles, 4 book reviews, and attended 9 professional conferences.
• Served as Managing Editor, and other roles, for ImageTexT, contributing to the publication of 12 issues.
• Reviewed and edited submissions for 3 issues of Sequentials, collaborating with applicants to refine verbal and visual components comics-articles.
The University Athletic Association at the University of Florida (September 2016 - March 2020)
Tutor for Student-Athletes
• Managed the writing lab, an open study hall focused on composition and rhetoric for student-athletes in group settings.
• Tutored university athletes one-on-one in composition, writing, literature, and German.
• Provided remote tutoring and feedback when student-athletes traveled for away matches.
• Organized and maintained student-athletes tutoring schedules.
Tennessee Technological University Department of English (August 2012 - May 2015)
Adjunct Professor, Instructor, and Researcher
• Taught twelve department-created introductory composition and writing courses.
• Worked extensively with first-year and first-generation university students.
• Tutored English Language Learning students in the departmental writing lab.
• Researched and defended master’s thesis.
• Published one independent peer-reviewed research article and one book review.
• Presented unique research at five professional conferences.
University of Florida
Degree: Ph.D. in English (2021)
Field(s): Comics, 20th/21st Century American Literature, Trauma and Memory Studies, Environmental Literature, Transnational Adaptation
Dissertation: In the Shadow of the Code: Censorship, Underground Comix, and the Rise of American Graphic Memoir
Advisor: Anastasia Ulanowicz
Committee: Marsha Bryant, Sidney Dobrin, Nina Caputo
Tennessee Technological University
Degree: M.A. in English (2014)
Thesis: Traumatic Representations in the Nonfiction Graphic Novels of Spiegelman, Sacco, and Beauchard
Advisor: Anthony D. Baker
Committee: Brian J. Williams, Josephine McQuail
Tennessee Technological University
Degree: B.S. in Communications (2012)
Focus: News Reporting and Editorial
Minor: Public Relations
Tennessee Technological University
Degree: B.A. in History (2009)
Focus: Contemporary American History
Minor: Communications
Adobe Creative Suite
Advanced proficiency with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premier Pro, Captivate, and Dreamweaver
Adult Learning Methodologies
Advanced proficiency with ADDIE and AGILE
Affinity Designer
Advanced proficiency with design application
Amazon Web Services Suite
Moderate proficiency with the suite's web tools and AI offerings.
Articulate 360
Advanced proficiency with Rise 360 and Storyline 360
Comics Maker and Visual Artist
Intermediate proficiency in illustration and comics making
Publishes an independent webcomic
Learning Management Systems
Advanced proficiency with Brightspace and Canvas.
Procreate
Expert proficiency with illustration and design application
Project Management Systems
Expert proficiency with Asana and Monday
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
“Neo-Springfield is About to E*X*P*L*O*D*E: The Nuclear Imagination and Grassroots Mashing of Bartkira.” Sequentials 4 (presented in comics, 2019).
“Networking Multivalence Trauma through Holonymic Representation in David B.’s Epileptic.” ImageTexT 9.1 Special Issue: “Traumics” (2017).
“Expanding the Role of the Gutter: Forged Memories in Joe Sacco’s Safe Area Goražde” Studies in the Novel 47.3 Special Issue: “The Graphic Novel” (2015).
Book Reviews
The Comics of Joe Sacco: Journalism in a Visual World edited by Daniel Worden. UP of Mississippi 2015. ImageTexT 9.2 (2017).
Disability in Comic Books and Graphic Narratives edited by Chris Foss, Jonathan W. Gray, and Zach Whalen. Palgrave Macmillan 2016. The Lion and the Unicorn 41.1 (2017).
Vanishings by Gary Fincke. Stephen F. Austin UP 2015. Under the Sun 4 (2016).
In Love with Art: Françoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman by Jeet Heer. Coach House 2013. ImageTexT 7.4 (2014).
“Hi-Diddly-Ho, Tetsuo!: How Bartkira‘s Fandom Remixed The Simpsons and Akira.” The 2019 Annual Modern Language Association Conference (2019).
“Neo-Springfield is Set to E•X•P•L•O•D•E: Remixing the Nuclear Imaginations of The Simpsons and Akira in James Harvey’s Bartkira.” The 15th Annual University of Florida Comics Conference (2017).
“‘It’s a movie… about camp’: Sexual Scripts and Diegetic Horror in Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s This One Summer.” The 43rd Annual Children’s Literature Association Conference (2016).
“Exoticization and Adaptation through the Diegetic Ichi in Glyn Dillon’s The Nao of Brown.” The 13th Annual University of Florida Comics Conference (2015).
“The War Between the Lines in Joe Sacco’s Comics.” The 13th Annual University of Florida Comics Conference (2014).
“Forged Memories: Closure and Traumatic Representation in Joe Sacco’s Safe Area Goražde.” The Tennessee Philological Association 2014 Conference (2014).
“Blood in the Gutters: Empathy and Memory in Joe Sacco’s Safe Area Goražde.” The Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900 (2014).
“Manifesting Monsters: Metaphorical Representation and Trauma in David B.’s Epileptic” The New Voices Graduate Student Conference at Georgia State University (2014).
“Kitsch as Dialogue in Art Spiegelman’s Maus.” The Columbus College of Art and Design’s 2013 MIX Symposium on Comics (2013).
Self-Designed Courses
Upper-Division at the University of Florida
AML 3041 American Literatures 2: “American War Stories”
Instructor of record.
Involved five, 75-minute class meetings plus two office hours weekly.
Institutional description: Selected texts from 1865 to the present, in diverse historical and cultural
contexts, usually organized around a theme or several themes.
Course incorporated Canvas into instruction and bookkeeping.
Taught: Summer 2019 (one section)
Lower-Division at the University of Florida
AML 2410 Issues in American Literature and Culture: “Graphic Memoir”
Instructor of record.
Involved three, 50-minute class meetings plus two office hours weekly.
One meeting per week incorporated critical making.
Institutional description: Introduces some of the most important issues that arise in the study of
American literature and culture. The instructor determines the breadth and focus of the topic.
Course incorporated Canvas into instruction and bookkeeping.
Taught: Spring 2017 (one section)
AML 2070 Survey of American Literature: “American Literature and the Environment”
Instructor of record.
Involved three, 50-minute class meetings plus two office hours weekly.
Institutional description: Introduces some of the major writers, issues and forms found in the history of American literature. The instructor determines the breadth and focus of this survey.
Course incorporated Canvas into instruction and bookkeeping.
Taught: Spring 2019 (one section), Spring 2018 (one section), Fall 2016 (one section)
ENC 1145 Topics for Composition: “Writing About Summer”
Instructor of record.
Involved three, 50-minute class meetings plus two office hours weekly.
Institutional description: Instruction in expository-argumentative writing related to one special topic selected by the instructor. Readings include variable genres from different disciplines.
Course incorporated Canvas into instruction and bookkeeping.
Taught: Fall 2018 (one section)
ENG 1131 Writing Through Media: “Comics Adaptations and (Re)Making”
Instructor of record.
Involved three, 50-minute class meetings plus two office hours weekly.
Two meetings per week included intensive technology usage during one class meeting.
One meeting per week incorporated critical making or creative production.
Institutional description: Explores the practices of literacy in the context of popular culture, including cinema, television, advertising, popular fiction and journalism.
Course incorporated Canvas into instruction and bookkeeping.
Taught: Fall 2019 (one section), Fall 2017 (one section)
ENG 1131 Writing Through Media: “Images in Transit”
Instructor of record.
Involved five, 75-minute class meetings plus two office hours weekly.
Three meetings per week included intensive technology usage during class meeting.
Two meetings per week incorporated critical making or creative production.
Institutional description: Explores the practices of literacy in the context of popular culture, including cinema, television, advertising, popular fiction and journalism.
Course incorporated Canvas into instruction and bookkeeping.
Taught: Summer 2017 (one section), Fall 2020 (one section)
Department-Designed Courses
Lower-Division at the University of Florida
ENC 1102 Argument and Persuasion
Instructor of record for one section.
Involved five, 75-minute class meetings plus two office hours weekly.
One meeting per week included intensive technology usage during class meeting.
Institutional description: Writing techniques and forms of argument in a range of disciplines. For
their major writing assignment in this course, students will write an extensively researched and
well-documented research paper, learning professional and academic writing conventions and
developing their critical thinking skills.
Courses incorporated Canvas into instruction and bookkeeping.
Taught: Summer 2016 (one section), Spring 2016 (one section), Fall 2015 (one section)
Lower-Division at Tennessee Technological University
ENGL 1020 English Composition 2
Instructor of record.
Involved two, 80-minute class meetings plus two office hours weekly per section.
One meeting per week included intensive technology usage during class meeting.
Institutional description: Emphasizes critical reading, critical thinking, and critical writing
(persuasion) about a variety of written texts and other media.
All sections incorporated Desire2Learn into instruction and bookkeeping.
All students participate in annual Festival of Student Writing, a showcase of student-designed
multimodal projects.
Taught: Spring 2015 (three sections), Spring 2014 (one section)
ENGL 1010 English Composition 1
Instructor of record.
Involved two, 80-minute class meetings plus two office hours weekly per section.
One meeting per week included intensive technology usage during class meeting.
Institutional description: Introduces students to expressive, expository and persuasive writing.
All sections incorporated Desire2Learn into instruction and bookkeeping.
All students participate in annual Festival of Student Writing, a showcase of student-designed
multimodal projects.
Taught: Fall 2014 (three sections), Fall 2013 (two sections)
Tutoring Service
University Athletics Association at the University of Florida (Fall 2016 - Spring 2020).
Worked with a diverse array of student athletes in numerous Humanities disciplines, including,
Literature, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Composition, and German.
Served as a writing tutor for six hours per week per semester in the Writing Lab.
Writing Center at Tennessee Technological University (Fall 2012 - Spring 2014).
Served as a writing tutor in a multi-disciplinary environment.
Worked with copious numbers of English Language Learning Students.
Spent six hours per week in the center.
Teaching Award
Excellence in Teaching awarded by the University of Florida Department of English (2018).
Sequentials: A peer-reviewed, open source journal committed to publishing comics scholarship in the comics medium.
Peer Reviewer (Fall 2019 - Present)
Review submissions to the journal for academic rigor, argument quality, and creative vision.
Advise editorial management team.
Provide feedback and recommendations for submission alterations.
ImageTexT: A peer-reviewed, open source journal focused on comics, Comics Studies, and related fields.
Managing Editor (Summer 2018 - Fall 2020).
Reviewed quality of general submissions to journal.
Assigned outside peer reviewers for submissions.
Coordinated with staff members on editing articles for style.
Organized special editions with outside editors.
Served as contact for all questions and submissions.
Reviews Editor (Summer 2017 - Summer 2018).
Worked directly with reviews writers.
Edited reviews for publication.
Solicited texts for review for the journal.
Assistant Reviews Editor (Summer 2016 - Summer 2017)
Worked under the Reviews Editor with editing tasks.
Under the Sun: An online literary journal exclusively dedicated to the publication of creative non-fiction that welcomes domestic and international submissions.
Associate Editor (Summer 2014 - Summer 2016)
Read and evaluated submissions for consideration in the journal.
Below is a selection of syllabi for the courses I developed and taught at the University of Florida. Each course included numerous critical-making activities and projects focused on the diverse media incorporated into each.
Description:
From the nation’s earliest, independent moments, the United States of America was born out of war, and war remains its constant companion. Yet, military engagement embodies only a portion of the ongoing conflicts tearing at the nation’s soul. Evolving cultural values continually challenge traditionalist views of the nation, leading to the culture wars over equal treatment of all Americans. American literature has paid keen attention to these differing valences of war, from valorizing bravery in military conflict to representing identities lost or destroyed in cultural struggles. Moreover, American literature offers special attention to how military and cultural conflict often intertwine and inform how national identity is constructed. As such, this course examines American war stories from the past century and a half by paying attention to the breadth of American conflicts, as well as the complex depth of the issues at their heart. The course begins in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, with Mathew Brady’s early photography and stories taken from the battlefields as the nation reconciles with catastrophic bloodshed. From that starting point, the course will move through diverse narratives that contend with military experience and ongoing struggles of individuals marginalized for their race, gender, sexuality, and/or disabilities. Intertwining all these issues, the course concludes with Carol Tyler’s graphic memoir, Soldier’s Heart, a narrative of intergenerational trauma in the aftermath of war. Along the way, several questions will guide how the course interrogates America’s continual relationship with conflict and struggle. How did the Civil War and its aftermath fundamentally alter the American cultural landscape? How has American fascination with battlefield valor shaped views of home front struggles for equality? To what extent is America a nation locked in permanent conflict?
Texts:
Mathew Brady – Civil War Photography
Walt Whitman – Memoranda on the War
Muriel Rukeyser – The Book of the Dead
James Baldwin – Another Country
Leslie Marmon Silko – Ceremony
Carol Tyler – Soldier’s Heart
Description:
This course addresses graphic memoir in American literature by analyzing the often idiosyncratic methods employed by comics creators when illustrating their personal memories. Graphic memoir allows for vibrant student engagement through the wide breadth of social issues covered within the genre, including disability, race, ethnicity, queerness, gender, climate change, and trauma. As such, this course places an emphasis on student analysis of each assigned text's formal properties while considering themes and issues. Throughout the course, students will produce weekly writings that engage comics theory and articulate what unique formal elements a creator uses in their memoir. For longer writing assignments, students will construct and sustain arguments that examine these formal elements as well as specific issues and comics criticism. In short, through writing and class discussion, students will answer the course’s guiding question: what are the strengths, weaknesses, and possibilities of representing memoir through the comics medium?
Texts:
Lynda Barry – One Hundred Demons
Alison Bechdel – Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Derf – My Friend Dahmer
Jess Fink – We Can Fix It!
Tom Hart – Rosalie Lightning
John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell – March Book 1
Josh Neufeld – A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
Sam Sharpe – Viewotron #2
Carol Tyler – Soldier’s Heart
Gene Luen Yang – American Born Chinese
Description:
Adventure! Freedom! Self-Discovery! No School! These are only a few reasons why the summer season has taken a mythologized position in popular culture. Free of the limitations and strictures of the traditional school year, adolescents openly gain knowledge of the world, the self, and, perhaps most importantly, love. For these reasons and many more, summer is often thought of as a time of boundless optimism. Summer is when adolescents can define themselves as they confidently transition into adulthood. But do these myths of summer match reality? Does this optimism apply equally to children in disadvantaged or marginalized communities? Is there a dark side to the summer experience that underlines shifting cultural attitudes toward not only summer but adolescence as a whole? Summer-centric media has often dealt with these questions, but over the past few decades, media has increasingly taken these questions to heart. Shifting away from depictions of boundless optimism, and instead focusing on the tumultuousness of growing up faced by all adolescents, creators temper optimism with uncertainty, fear, and disappointment. Hope often burns bright at the end of summer, but that hope must now be earned through emotional and physical trials and tribulations.
This course seeks to address the significance of this shift in summer-centric media, as well as explore the broader cultural implications and revelations this shift reveals. To do so, this course engages media that occurs over the course of a single summer and focuses on young adults. Through their engagement with these media artifacts, students will develop both short and long-form arguments that articulate how summer finds itself as a mythologized season.
Texts:
Ray Bradbury – Dandelion Wine
Friday the 13th (1980)
Gravity Falls
Jaws (1975)
Meatballs (1979)
Nancy comics
Stand By Me (1986)
Summer Camp Island
Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters, and Brooke Allen – Lumberjanes: Beware the Kitten Holy
Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki – This One Summer
Joseph M. Williams and Joseph Bizup – Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (12th edition)
Description:
As the rise of the Marvel and DC cinematic universes bring into stark relief, comics-to-film adaptations about superheroes are immensely popular. Unsurprisingly, then, superhero narratives receive the greatest critical attention in both academic and popular settings. Yet, despite the publicity and box office numbers, these adaptations account for only a small number of comics-based adaptations across all media. This course seeks to ameliorate the discrepancy in attention by focusing primarily on non-superhero adaptations, though we will still attend to the superhero phenomenon. This leads us to three guiding questions for the semester: How does the comics medium lend itself to adaptation with special focus on the structure of the comics page? How do narratives change when they move from their original medium to another? As students of adaptation, how can we use the tenets of adaptation and remix to gain additional understanding of not only media but also our local and global cultures as well?
During this course, we will explore a plentitude of answers to these guiding questions through various techniques both critical and creative. While we will examine Spider-Man—one of the longest-running and most adapted superhero narratives ever—we will expand our field of inquiry to include comics of numerous genres including fantasy, drama, and science fiction. Moreover, we will engage comics from three of the most vibrant national comics traditions: the United States, Japan, and Brazil. Finally, our discussions will include not only film adaptations, but also television, podcasts, soundtracks, prose, and digital mashups enabled by new media technologies. These discussions will spawn from daily class participation, weekly brief writing assignments, and quarterly projects, which include both essay writing and creating comics.
Texts:
Akira (1988 film)
Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon – Two Brothers
Bartkira, Vol 1
Alison Bechdel – Fun Home
Stan Lee and Steve Ditko – Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Volume 1
Milton Hatoum – The Brothers
Fun Home (Soundtrack of the 2015 musical)
Katsuhiro Otomo – Akira, Vol 1
Carey Pietsch, Clint McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, and Griffin McElroy – The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (2018 film)
The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins (Podcast)
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