BOSTON UNIVERSITY, 2022-Present
WR 152: “Breaking the Class Ceiling”
Together, we will scrutinize the perpetuation of classist stereotypes in historical and contemporary texts, reassess myths of the poor and the wealthy, and unpack multimedia texts that (re)define class consciousness. We will generate intersectional questions about race, gender, region, and sexuality, and how these subject positions collide with and complicate notions of class hierarchies and class politics. Studying various scholarly agendas will aid in the design and execution of individual research projects that elucidate some aspect of class identity or class culture, with the goal of producing informed, ethical, anti-classist research. Research projects will offer new insights into complex contemporary notions of class cohesion and division using various digital multi-modal/non-linguistic forms (e.g., podcasts, short films, data visualizations). Possible course texts include works by: Pierre Bourdieu, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Gloria E. Anzaldua, and Tillie Olsen. (Spring 2023)
WR 120: “Performing Class”
In this course, we will explore how social class, like gender, is performative. We will turn to literature and popular culture to ask questions such as: How do we consciously or unconsciously perform our class identities? How does the performance of class determine choices we make (e.g., where we go to college, the kind of food we eat, what we post on social media)? To what extent do these performances intersect with other facets of our identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender)? Together, we will examine work by interdisciplinary scholars and artists to make informed arguments about the (in)stability of class identity in contemporary culture and, in so doing, offer new insights into complicated notions of class cohesion and/or division. (Fall 2022)
WR 120: “Who Cares? Domestic Labor and the Commodification of Care”
Care work, according to labor activist Ai-jen Poo, is “the work that makes all other work possible,” yet the people who clean, cook, and care are so often invisible, undervalued, and sometimes unpaid. In addition to physical and mental labor that is required, what forms of emotional labor are also expected for domestic and care workers? What are the individual and societal ramifications of this labor force being largely unregulated, underpaid, and unappreciated? Together, we will consider the complex forces of classism, racism, and sexism that perpetuate the ongoing subjugation of domestic and care workers. By thinking about how domestic labor is imagined in literature, television, and film, we will unpack paradigms of privilege and power and develop arguments about exploitation, agency, and the care economy. (Fall 2022)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 2021-2022
“Fundamentals of Academic Writing”
This course is designed for students seeking preparation for EXPO E-25, which is a course required for admission to the undergraduate program at the Harvard Extension School. Students review such basics of academic argument as thesis, claims, evidence, and structure. Students complete short writing assignments that help develop the skills essential for producing persuasive academic essays. Students also learn strategies for reading and analyzing complex texts. (Summer 2022)
“Expository Writing 20: Domestic Labor”
Domestic work, according to labor activist Ai-jen Poo, is “the work that makes all other work possible,” yet the people who clean, cook, and care are so often invisible and undervalued. Because domestic labor takes place within the home rather than the factory or other industrial sites of labor, what are the consequences of the erasure of boundaries between home and work, for both the employer and the employee? To what extent do domestic workers possess agency when their very occupation is to serve their employer? In addition to physical and mental labor required, what forms of emotional labor are also expected? What are the individual and societal ramifications of this labor force being largely unregulated, underpaid, and unappreciated? This course considers the complex forces of classism, racism, and sexism that have contributed to the subjugation of domestic workers and the labor they perform. In the first unit, students will closely read the popular British television series Downton Abbey, Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat,” and Maya Angelou’s biographical fiction “What’s Your Name, Girl?” to consider how the text illustrates servants possessing or lacking agency. In unit two, students will use sociologist Arlie Hochschild’s theory of emotional labor as a lens through which to examine Alfonso Cuarón’s film Roma, which features the perspective of an indigenous housekeeper and the blurry boundaries between work and family. In the final unit, students will focus on a text of their choosing, situating their work alongside the scholarly work of others. By thinking about how domestic labor is imagined in literature, television, and film, students will investigate the dynamics of privilege and power, exploitation and identity, and the care economy. (Fall 2021, Spring 2022)
BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY, 2014-2021
“University Writing Seminar: Domestic Labor: Class, Race, and Gender”
In 2018, the nation’s first ever Federal Domestic Workers Bill of Rights was proposed. If successful, this legislation will be the culmination of years of lobbying to address the forces of classism, racism, and sexism that have contributed to the subjugation and devaluing of domestic workers and the labor they perform, including but not limited to: housekeeping, cooking, and childcare. In this course, students will examine and develop arguments about the social, cultural, and economic conditions and systems that underpin the pervasive exploitation of domestic labor in the U.S. and abroad. By thinking about how domestic labor is imagined in literature, television, and film, students will unpack paradigms of privilege and power, and carefully consider the intersections of class, gender, and race. Domestic labor in the U.S. is tinged with the legacy of slavery and its divisions of labor along lines of both race and gender, as well as the legacy of the devaluation of women’s work within the household (under capitalism, all feminized labor is systematically undervalued or dismissed as unproductive). While unpaid domestic labor is a significant and important field of study, this class focuses on social, cultural, and public policy debates surrounding paid domestic labor. (Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Summer 2021)
“Rednecks, Hillbillies, & White Trash: Literature & Culture of the ‘Deplorables’” (Upper-division literature course)
This course examines literature and other cultural productions by and about America’s “original underclass”: poor white people. The central goal of this course is for students to unpack “the paradox of privilege”—the notion that poor whites enjoy racial privilege concurrent with economic disadvantage. This paradox results in a complicated social position and identity category that few take seriously—perhaps until recently. Students will scrutinize the perpetuation of classist stereotypes in historical and contemporary texts, re-assess myths of the poor and the downtrodden, and seek to better understand texts that celebrate and attempt to re-claim identities and labels that have long been deployed to demean and stigmatize. Students will engage a discussion of whiteness as a socially constructed and economic incorporated entity to consider the deep entanglement of race and class in American culture. We will also situate our discussion within the contemporary political context, given that the 2016 U.S. Presidential election initiated a re-emergence of conversations about “the forgotten” men and women—or what some have deemed a dangerous turn towards white supremacy summed up by the phrase white trash to white lash. This course will take seriously intersectional questions about race, gender, region, and sexuality, and how these important subject positions collide with and complicate notions of class identity and class politics. While this course is rooted in literary and media studies, it depends on an interdisciplinary perspective that unites theories and scholarship from the fields of history, economics, sociology, and anthropology. This course’s ultimate mission is to consider how close analysis of textual and visual narratives can productively incite new critical understandings and reassessments of American class inequity—its past, its present, and its future. (Spring 2019, Recipient of English Department Prize Instructorship)
“Critical Reading in the Humanities & Social Sciences” (Gateway Scholars Program, Summer Course)
This course is part of the Brandeis University Gateway Scholars Program. This course will help to prepare you for the critical reading that will be expected of you as a Brandeis student. You will read short fiction, non-fiction, and a novel, as well as other kinds of academic writing. As a reader, you will learn effective strategies for tackling difficult material as well as how to unpack a text for meaning through analysis and close reading. You will increase your academic vocabulary, your capacity to develop your own reading of a text, and your understanding of American and Western cultural values and controversies. You will also develop various strategies for comprehending more complex texts. Though in class, we will focus primarily on reading skills, you will be asked to complete various writing tasks to demonstrate your reading comprehension and practice your analytical skills. (Summer 2017, Summer 2018, Summer 2019, Summer 2020)
“University Writing Seminar: White Trash”
According to sociologist Matt Wray, the phrase white trash “conjures images of poor, ignorant, racist whites: trailer parks and wife beaters, too many kids and not enough government cheese. It’s hard to care about such people. It’s even harder to take them seriously.” This course will examine the ways in which white trash stereotypes are deployed in various 20th and 21st century cultural productions (literature, television, film). Students will engage in a semester-long interrogation of white trash—an odd and complex social category that represents a collision of racial privilege and class inferiority—what anthropologist Kirby Moss calls a “paradox of privilege.” Students will consider how issues of class, race, gender, sexuality, religion, politics, and geography complicate and inform a critical understanding of white trash. (Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018)
“We Are Historic! Skills for College and Career Success”
This course is a 2-credit learning community course for the Student Support Services Program (SSSP) at Brandeis University. This course is designed to support incoming students in this program in achieving their college and career goals. Students will participate in weekly lectures and complete activities which develop skills necessary for success. Examples of topics covered include: time management, coping with stress, career exploration, and exploring identity. Over the course of the semester, students will complete a portfolio of assignments intended to engage students in self-reflection, skill acquisition and goal formation. Students will also develop networks of support among peers within the learning community as well as with campus staff and faculty. (Fall 2016)
“Academic Oral Communication”
This class will focus on strategies for improving all aspects of oral communication in an academic setting, including but not limited to effective classroom interactions, impromptu speaking, presentations, and interacting with instructors, advisers and peers. You will also be expected to participate in class discussions and will need to be prepared to contribute your opinion effectively and succinctly, or ask questions effectively in class. Activities will include watching and listening to live weekly guest lectures, studying and practicing listening strategies and participating in a weekly practicum. (Summer 2016)
LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY, 2012-2014
”Rhetorical Arts”
Rhetorical Arts is the study of articulate expression, critical thinking, and moral reflection, enabling students to engage in written and oral public debate with persuasive force and stylistic excellence. Jesuit rhetoric (or Eloquentia Perfecta) developed the classical ideal of the good person writing and speaking well for the public good and promotes the teaching of eloquence combined with erudition and moral discernment. Developing this tradition in light of modern composition study and communication theory, Rhetorical Arts complements the other Foundation courses with topics such as ethics and communication, virtue and authority, and/or knowledge and social obligation. (Spring 2014)
“Introduction to Fiction”
This course introduces students to literature through the genres of the short story and the novel. In this course, you will have the opportunity to read texts from a variety of authors, and you will react and respond to those texts through a critical and analytical lens. This course builds upon the critical reading and composition skills acquired in English 110: College Writing, allowing you to further develop and refine your analytical, academic writing. (Spring 2013)
“College Writing”
This course is organized around two principles. First, writing is a complex, extended process that must be examined to be mastered. Second, writing is most improved when revision is emphasized both as an investigative and as a critical component of the writing process. Through extensive writing, revision, reading, research and discussion, students will explore and develop: 1) rhetorical knowledge, 2) critical thinking, reading, and writing skills, 3) processes, and 4) knowledge of academic conventions. (Fall 2012)
COURSES ASSISTED:
Brandeis University
English 20a, Bollywood (Spring 2015, Fall 2018)
English 130a, Representing Poverty (Spring 2016)
English 1a, Introduction to Literary Studies (Spring 2016)
English 87a, Sex and Race in the American Novel (Fall 2015)
Loyola Marymount University
First Year Seminar, Graphic Stories (Fall 2013)