Areas of Interest
- Writing pedagogy (composition and technical writing)
- Contemporary literature
- Utopian studies and science fiction
- Online learning/distance education
- Adult/non-traditional education
- Interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning
Publications
Contributions to The Novum, an online website and blog for the Science, Technology, & Society degree program at the South Dakota School of Mines.
A book chapter for Writing STEAM: Composition, STEM, and a New Humanities from Routledge Press. Co-authored with Dr. Alina Handorean. Published March 2022. Available for purchase here.
"The Mulder Effect: I Want to Believe...in STEAM"
The STEAM Journal (2020). Vol. 4: Issue 2, Article 14.
The balance that Mulder and Scully discover in their partnership on The X-Files represents the balance we find in STEAM: trust in science with the ability to question, imagine, and dream.
"Trial by STEAM: A Lesson Plan for Using "Repent, Harlequin!" in the STEAM Classroom"
The STEAM Journal (2020). Vol 4: Issue 2, Article 13.
This lesson plan uses Harlan Ellison’s “Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman” as part of an interdisciplinary first-year curriculum linking perspectives from the humanities with engineering design. Students participated in a “mock trial” based on two characters from the story as a way to reflect on good teamwork, the value of creativity, and on the nature of the engineering profession. Both Ellison’s story and the lesson explore the benefits of taking a “STEAM” perspective that integrates the precision and timeliness needed in engineering (represented by the Ticktockman) with the flexibility and creativity inspired by the humanities (represented by Harlequin).
"Stand Where You Stand on Omelas: An Activity for Teaching Ethics with Science Fiction"
Teaching Ethics, first published online Feb 26, 2020. Also available in print.
Read this article online here.
Science fiction is gaining academic recognition as a tool for teaching ethics and engaging potentially resistant students in communication and critical thinking, but there are not many lesson plans available for how to implement science fiction in the classroom. I address that gap by sharing a successful lesson plan I developed while teaching a STEM-focused first-year composition and ethics course at the Colorado School of Mines. “Stand Where You Stand on Omelas” combines writing, communication, and ethical decision making by asking students to defend what they would do as a citizen in Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” where a young child’s torment ensures the prosperity and happiness of society as a whole.
Contributions to The Novum, an online website and blog for the Science, Technology, & Society degree program at the South Dakota School of Mines.
- Roger Boisjoly and the Challenger Disaster
- Dr. Kathleen Shepherd on Science & Sociability in Egyptology
- Welcome to the Superhuman Sports League
- Whether We're Exploring Space or the Ocean, Stories Fuel Science
- The Politics of Chairs: What Kind of Classroom Would You Build?
- Dr. Qin Zhu on Ethics and Human-Robot Interaction
- What's Facebook?: Belonging and Communication Online
A book chapter for Writing STEAM: Composition, STEM, and a New Humanities from Routledge Press. Co-authored with Dr. Alina Handorean. Published March 2022. Available for purchase here.
"The Mulder Effect: I Want to Believe...in STEAM"
The STEAM Journal (2020). Vol. 4: Issue 2, Article 14.
The balance that Mulder and Scully discover in their partnership on The X-Files represents the balance we find in STEAM: trust in science with the ability to question, imagine, and dream.
"Trial by STEAM: A Lesson Plan for Using "Repent, Harlequin!" in the STEAM Classroom"
The STEAM Journal (2020). Vol 4: Issue 2, Article 13.
This lesson plan uses Harlan Ellison’s “Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman” as part of an interdisciplinary first-year curriculum linking perspectives from the humanities with engineering design. Students participated in a “mock trial” based on two characters from the story as a way to reflect on good teamwork, the value of creativity, and on the nature of the engineering profession. Both Ellison’s story and the lesson explore the benefits of taking a “STEAM” perspective that integrates the precision and timeliness needed in engineering (represented by the Ticktockman) with the flexibility and creativity inspired by the humanities (represented by Harlequin).
"Stand Where You Stand on Omelas: An Activity for Teaching Ethics with Science Fiction"
Teaching Ethics, first published online Feb 26, 2020. Also available in print.
Read this article online here.
Science fiction is gaining academic recognition as a tool for teaching ethics and engaging potentially resistant students in communication and critical thinking, but there are not many lesson plans available for how to implement science fiction in the classroom. I address that gap by sharing a successful lesson plan I developed while teaching a STEM-focused first-year composition and ethics course at the Colorado School of Mines. “Stand Where You Stand on Omelas” combines writing, communication, and ethical decision making by asking students to defend what they would do as a citizen in Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” where a young child’s torment ensures the prosperity and happiness of society as a whole.
"Cyborg Teaching: The Transferable Benefits of Teaching Online for the Face-to-Face Classroom"
Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (2015)
Read my article on "Cyborg Teaching" here.
Critics of online education often assume that traditional classrooms offer the most meaningful form of learning. Some instructors equate physical presence with intimacy, engagement, and effectiveness, though others like myself have discovered that presence and engagement are equally available in an online setting. It is time to reassess what counts as “effective” learning and consider how online education and online technologies can enhance rather than diminish student learning. This development in my own thinking as a once firm believer in the face-to-face classroom came from a one-year experience of developing and teaching my full-time course load from a distance. In addition to discovering new possibilities in online teaching, I found that best practices applied in the online classroom can be transferred to the face-to-face classroom to enhance student learning in any environment. For example, online discussion boards, consistent e-communications, course content videos, and online conferencing are tools that can be implemented into the face-to-face classroom—merging the benefits of embodied presence with the less limited boundaries of technology. When guided by a pedagogical focus on creating effective student learning, online technologies offer higher education a meaningful way to meet the needs and expectations of 21st century learners.
Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (2015)
Read my article on "Cyborg Teaching" here.
Critics of online education often assume that traditional classrooms offer the most meaningful form of learning. Some instructors equate physical presence with intimacy, engagement, and effectiveness, though others like myself have discovered that presence and engagement are equally available in an online setting. It is time to reassess what counts as “effective” learning and consider how online education and online technologies can enhance rather than diminish student learning. This development in my own thinking as a once firm believer in the face-to-face classroom came from a one-year experience of developing and teaching my full-time course load from a distance. In addition to discovering new possibilities in online teaching, I found that best practices applied in the online classroom can be transferred to the face-to-face classroom to enhance student learning in any environment. For example, online discussion boards, consistent e-communications, course content videos, and online conferencing are tools that can be implemented into the face-to-face classroom—merging the benefits of embodied presence with the less limited boundaries of technology. When guided by a pedagogical focus on creating effective student learning, online technologies offer higher education a meaningful way to meet the needs and expectations of 21st century learners.
"Get Happy: Play and the Utopian Imagination in Mark Osborne's More"
The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature (2014)
View this fascinating short film here.
Using the short stop-animation film More, I explore the symbiotic link between play studies and utopian studies. Play and utopia may seem like unlikely sidekicks. Utopia is often defined as a static society that is purpose-driven and bounded by strict rules, while play is spontaneous, rule-breaking activity through which participants can encounter new experiences and ideas. However, I re-assess utopia as an essentially “playful” genre, and argue that both play and the utopian imagination are crucial ingredients to disrupting powerful and oppressive systems like those represented in More.
"Revolutionary Bodies in Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club"
Utopian Studies (2012)
Read an interview I did on this research (with a fun photo shoot!) here.
What is potent and compelling about utopia has shifted, quite decisively, away from the social blueprint model and toward a more open-ended exploration of desire and change. Fight Club is a significant marker in the development of a utopianism that is dynamic and adaptive, existing in the present of history rather than in a vacuum of idealism. Building on theories of revolution proffered by Slavoj Zizek and Frederic Jameson, I argue that within the novel the body becomes a potential site for exploring difference and creates both an alternative to and a critique of the distorted narrative of dominant society. Bodies that are marked, wounded, scarred and beaten are bodies in the process of exploring alternatives to an oppressive social world where “completeness” trumps difference. Fight club allows men to fiercely embody revolution and desire and rejuvenate utopia with every punch. I distinguish between the dynamic and subversive nature of fight club and the militaristic and fascist system of Project Mayhem, which displays the values of traditional utopian thinking, and as such fails to maintain the liberating and transgressive qualities of fight club.
Utopian Studies (2012)
Read an interview I did on this research (with a fun photo shoot!) here.
What is potent and compelling about utopia has shifted, quite decisively, away from the social blueprint model and toward a more open-ended exploration of desire and change. Fight Club is a significant marker in the development of a utopianism that is dynamic and adaptive, existing in the present of history rather than in a vacuum of idealism. Building on theories of revolution proffered by Slavoj Zizek and Frederic Jameson, I argue that within the novel the body becomes a potential site for exploring difference and creates both an alternative to and a critique of the distorted narrative of dominant society. Bodies that are marked, wounded, scarred and beaten are bodies in the process of exploring alternatives to an oppressive social world where “completeness” trumps difference. Fight club allows men to fiercely embody revolution and desire and rejuvenate utopia with every punch. I distinguish between the dynamic and subversive nature of fight club and the militaristic and fascist system of Project Mayhem, which displays the values of traditional utopian thinking, and as such fails to maintain the liberating and transgressive qualities of fight club.
“We want wisdom. We want hope. We want to be good. Therefore we sometimes tell ourselves warning stories that deal with the darker side of some of our other wants. Literature is an uttering, or outering, of the human imagination. It lets the shadowy forms of thought and feeling–heaven, hell, monsters, angels and all–out into the light, where we can take a good look at them and perhaps come to a better understanding of who we are and what we want, and what the limits to those wants may be. Understanding the imagination is no longer a pastime, but a necessity; because increasingly,
if we can imagine it, we'll be able to do it.”
--Margaret Atwood, "Why We Need Science Fiction," The Guardian
if we can imagine it, we'll be able to do it.”
--Margaret Atwood, "Why We Need Science Fiction," The Guardian