Hello, and welcome to my web-space for exploring literature, teaching, writing, and the teaching of writing (I will endeavor to keep this online forum better organized than my various scrawl-marked notebooks).

An assortment of my writing notebooks on a bookshelf, accompanied by several published texts. Photo by Jennifer Polish

I am an instructor of first year composition at CUNY LaGuardia Community College through the CUNY Humanities Teaching and Learning Alliance, while pursuing my PhD at the CUNY Graduate Center. I’ve previously taught at CUNY Queens College.

As a teacher, I am dedicated to student-centered pedagogical practices that create writing environments meant to affirm students’ own expertise while encouraging critical thinking and growth.

As a researcher, interests include affective whiteness in writing classrooms and the intersections of dis/ability, race, and trauma in children’s literature and media.

I am currently working on my first novel, a queer YA fantasy, the writing process for which is intimately informed by both my teaching and academic research.

As you navigate this site, please feel free to explore the following sections:

Orals Reading Reflections Archive (detailing my reading journey through my Orals exam)

Creative Texts (documenting my experiences with fiction writing while in graduate school)

Pluralizing Literacies Blog (Spring 2016: weekly reflections on the course readings for Carmen Kynard’s African American Literacies and Education class at the CUNY Graduate Center)

Teaching by Learning Blog (on navigating writing classrooms)