I am committed to helping students express their thoughts more clearly, and to push that thinking beyond superficial levels. In other words, critical thinking is at the heart of all that I do in a classroom, whether it’s a composition or literature or cultural studies course. I find that teaching writing works well only in the context of also teaching reading, so in all of my classes we spend time closely analyzing texts and samples. In order to promote critical thinking and student ownership of ideas, I find that a de-centered classroom is invaluable. Thus rather than lecture, I will usually break the class into small groups or pairs to work on various critical reading or collaborative writing exercises.
Publications and Presentations
2017 “Integrating Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines.” Learning Community Presentation. Center for Faculty Excellence Symposium.
2008 “Close Reading as a Bridge to Critical Thinking and Argumentative Synthesis.” Center for Faculty Excellence Symposium
2004 “Pontecourvo’s Burn! and Images of Blackness.” Guest Lecture, Bowling Green State University
2003 “Collaborative Teaching and Module Building.” Professional Development Session, Bowling Green State University
2003 “Media and Democracy.” Panel Chair and Event Organizer, Bowling Green State University
2001 “Postcolonialism: An Overview.” Guest Lecture, Bowling Green State University
1999 “Wole Soyinka” and “Ayi Kwei Armah.” Chapter revisions in Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Salem Press, 1999.
1999 “Stories of Necessity: Postcolonial Narrative and Historical Trauma.” University of South Carolina Graduate Student Day, Columbia, SC.
1997 “Active Reading and the Collision of Cultures.” National English Teachers Colloquium, Ecole Normale Superieure, Rabat, Morocco.
1994 “Bakhtin, Moffett, and the Dialogic Classroom.” NEATE Annual Conference, Nashua, NH.
