Teaching Philosophy
I begin with the desire for students to learn to use rather than simply consume texts. My teaching philosophy is grounded in adaptation theory: I believe that adaptation and appropriation are important building blocks of both academic writing and cultural production, whether in a form as complex as The Lizzie Bennet Diaries’ reworking of Pride and Prejudice across YouTube video blogs, Pintrest boards, Tumblr sites, and Twitter feeds, or as simple as a college student using a quotation to support an argument. By exposing students to a wide range of adaptations and appropriations, and giving assignments that focus on these techniques, I teach two important things: careful consideration of the words and forms that texts take, and the manipulation of those same words and forms. Learning to rewrite the texts they read in both academic and creative ways is useful to college students who are studying a variety of disciplines, for if students can be introduced to the ways in which authors and readers collaborate in the construction of knowledge by interpreting texts and putting them to work, then they can see themselves in the same light, and become more critical and self-aware participants in a variety of disciplines and intellectual communities.
A full teaching portfolio (including a more complete teaching philosophy) is available here:
A full teaching portfolio (including a more complete teaching philosophy) is available here:
| Teaching Portfolio, last updated 8-30-17 |
Favorite Periods and Topics
Major Periods: Medieval, Early Modern, Restoration, Nineteenth Century
Topics: Religion and Literature, Women Writers, Book History, Adaptation, Literature and Popular Culture, Speculative Fiction, Arthurian Literature, Rhetoric and Composition Syllabi and Assignment Guides Sample Student Work |
Favorite Assignments
Commonplace Books: Students transcribe passages from the texts under "commonplace" headings in a notebook and comment on them.
Adaptations: Students adapt texts we read into performances, book covers, artwork, games, and social media. Logical Outlines: Students create evidence-based arguments, focusing on logical development of ideas. Poster Assignment: Students use research or theory to make an argument about a text or image. In some classes, students present their poster in person; in others, students produce a voice-over presentation on Prezi. Quality of Failure: To encourage students to take intellectual risks, part of their grade requires them to reflect on the quality of their failures over the course of the semester. |
Favorite Texts to Teach
Medieval: Beowulf, The Dream of the Rood, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Troilus and Criseyde, The Book of Margery Kempe, The Second Shepherd’s Play, Yvain, The Golden Legend
Early Modern: Utopia, Donne's sonnets, The Examinations of Anne Askew, Doctor Faustus, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Duchess of Malfi, The Temple, Areopagitica Restoration: Paradise Lost, The Blazing World, Pepys’ Diary, Pilgrim’s Progress, Oroonoko Speculative Fiction: Frankenstein, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Handmaid’s Tale, Lillith’s Brood, "Bloodchild," The Eyre Affair, "Mountains of Mourning," "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling," Old Man’s War |
Favorite Pedagogical ToolsAnnotation Studio
Voyant Zotero Colored Pencils Dry Erase Markers After a detailed discussion of Abdiel’s arguments with Satan in Book 5 of Paradise Lost, students used dry erase markers to diagram the events of Book 6.
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Marathon Reading of Paradise Lost, Spring 2016
In Spring 2016, Dr. Sarah Higinbotham and I organized a marathon reading of Paradise Lost with five sections of students in our composition courses focused on the poem. Over the course of 10 hours, more than 200 students, faculty, administrators, and community members joined us to read the entire epic poem out-loud together. Students also produced artwork interpreting the poem for display during the reading. We live-streamed the event through Google Hangouts, and Dr. Rebecca Burnett took photographs (below).