EDUCATION

Ph.D., English

University of Texas at Arlington, August 2018

Dissertation: “Teaching Elsewhere: Curating↔Calibrating Posthumanist Possibilities”

Committee: Dr. Penelope Ingram (Chair), Dr. Stacy Alaimo, Dr. Estee Beck

M.Ed., Teaching

University of Texas at Arlington, December 2008

Student Teaching: Mansfield Timberview High School, Mansfield, TX

Emphasis in Literacy Studies: Teaching the Writing Process, Language Arts in Secondary Schools, Multicultural Literature, Language Learning, Literacy Instruction in the ESL/Bilingual Setting

B.A., English with a minor in Rhetoric and Composition

University of Texas at Austin, May 2003

Praxis Interests: experiential learning, the materiality of reading/writing and classrooms, posthumanist pedagogy, posthumanism, critical theory, composition studies, AI in composition studies, AI in literature, speculative fiction, fat studies, contemporary literature, young adult literature, feminism, disability theory, agential realism, post-qualitative inquiry

EMPLOYMENT

• Senior Lecturer & Coordinator of Social Media, University of Texas at Arlington, August 2020-Present
• Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Arlington, January 2019-July 2020
• Post-Doctoral Research Associate/Fellow, University of Texas at Arlington, August 2018-December 2018
• Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Arlington, August 2017-May 2018
• Grader (Engineering Problem Solving/Writing), University of Texas at Arlington, January 2017-May 2017
• Enhanced Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Texas at Arlington, August 2014-December 2016
• Assistant Director or First Year Writing, University of Texas at Arlington, July 2014-June 2016
• Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Texas at Arlington, August 2013-May 2014
• Secondary English Teacher, Mansfield Independent School District, Mansfield, TX: Timberview High School (THS) August 2008-May 2012 and Lake Ridge High School (LRHS) August 2012-May 2013
• H/R & Accounting Assistant, Head of Corporate Communications, All-Pro Fasteners, Inc., September 2003-August 2008

PUBLICATIONS

Chapter:

“A Posthumanist Pedagogical Praxis of Diffraction: Teaching Elsewhere.” Towards Posthumanism in Education: Theoretical Entanglements and Pedagogical Mappings edited by Jessie A. Bustillos Morales and Shiva Zarabadi, Routledge, 2024.

Article:

“‘As Their Waistlines Recede’: Tracing and Challenging the Fat Quest in Young Adult Literature.” Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society 5:2 (2016). Edited by Natalie Boero. [Article]

Book Reviews:

“Dumplin’: Go Big or Go Home by Julie Murphy.” Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society 6:2 (2017). [Book Review].

“Film Dumplin’ and Book Puddin’.” Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2019.1603941 (2019) [Book Review]

“Book Reviews: Young Adult Novels in 2021.” Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2021.1977468 (2021) [Book Review]

Other:

Edited Collection of Essays on Identity, with the students of Advanced Exposition, Fall 2023. Forthcoming through the UTA Library’s OER publications, Spring 2024.

“Fatphobia in Healthcare: A Fat Studies Perspective and Reading List.” Stimulus: A Medical Humanities Journal. https://doi.org/10.32855/stimulus.2022.02.007 (2022).

INVITED TALK

“The Agential Classroom: Tuning to a Posthuman Pedagogy.” The Center for Theory, UTA, October 18, 2017.

AWARDS & HONORS

UTA Libraries Open Initiatives Grant ($5,000) to organize/edit the OER project UTA Experiential Learning Edited Collection. Spring 2024-Fall 2025.

UTA Libraries’ Experiential Learning Faculty Facilitators Grant ($1,500) to implement library maker spaces into experiential learning component of the Storying through Social Media course. Summer 2025.

Dissertation Fellowship, University of Texas at Arlington Office of Graduate Studies and the College of Liberal Arts, Summer 2018

O’Neill Academic Excellence Award, University of Texas at Arlington English Department, May 14, 2016.

Philip Cohen and Elaina McMillan Graduate Fellowship Award, University of Texas at Arlington English Department, November 12, 2015.

Distinguished Educator Award. Academic Recognition Banquet, Mansfield ISD Education Foundation, May 6, 2013.

CONFERENCE/PRESENTATION ACTIVITY

“Teaching AI in Fiction: Using Pop Culture to Interrogate AI Narratives and Speculate Different Futures.” SWPACA Summer Salon, June 26-28, 2025. [Virtual] 

“Experiential Learning through OER: Insights from a Student-Written Essay Collection on Identity.” OEP@TWU 2024, April 4, 2024. Recording of presentation: https://twu-ir.tdl.org/items/1d49fed1-1fc0-40a9-a5e8-9e6b83d21f85

“So, Play-Doh?: Intra-Active Reflection for Multimodal (and Joyful) Composition.” 54th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association, Presenter. Co-Chair of session: Manifesting Joy through a Posthuman Feminist Praxis, March 24, 2023.

“@UTAEnglish: A Social Media Experience.” CRTLE Faculty Showcase: A Celebration of Teaching, April 21, 2022.

“Insight in the 2020s: How YA Literature is Changing the Fat Narrative.” Popular/American Culture Association National Conference, April 16, 2022.

“From Piggy to Juliet: Bookending Fatphobia in YA Literature.” Conference of College Teachers of English, March 4, 2022.

“Posthumanist Praxis: Challenging Stories of Pedagogy and Place.” Facilitator (Engaged Learning Session), CCCC, April 10, 2021. [Virtual]

“Posthumanist Praxis: Challenging Stories of Pedagogy and Place,” Facilitator (Engaged Learning Session), CCCC, March 26, 2020. CANCELLED due to coronavirus. Alternate recorded presentation/workshop at PH Praxis.

“The Semester Story: Using Composition Theory for a More Posthumanist Literature Assessment,” CCTE, March 6, 2020.

“The Embodied Graduate Student in Relation,” Panelist, MLA January 4, 2019.

“Fan- & Meta- Fiction: Using YA Literature to Recalibrate Student Relations to Reading and Writing,” SCMLA, October 12, 2018.

“Pedagogies of the Waterless Flood: Atwood’s MaddAddam as Education’s Disaster,” UTA English Graduate Conference, April 13, 2018.

“Curation↔Calibration: Tuning to the Posthuman Possibility in the English Classroom.” UTA COLA Spotlight Student Research Forum, March 21, 2018.

“Agential Composition: Intra-Active Pedagogy and Writing as an Onto-Epistemological Act.” SCMLA, October5, 2017.

“English Remix: Curating and Enacting a Posthuman Classroom.” Teaching as Theoretical Practice Panel, MLA, January 6, 2017.

“These Aren’t the Robots You’re Hoping For: Imagining and Implementing the Posthuman English Classroom.” UTA English Graduate Conference, April 8, 2016.

“Reengineering Writing: How Classroom Materiality Determines Rhetorical Reality.” CCTE, March 5, 2016.

“Exodic Impulse and Edenic Nostalgia: The Fantasy of Immunitary Logic and the Reality of the Anthropocene in YA Dystopian Series.” SLSA, November 12-15, 2015.

“Shake the Bones.” SCMLA, November 1, 2015.

“Enduring Silence: The Impossible Sound of Stolen and Sacred Names in Fantasy Fiction.” SCMLA, November 3, 2015.

“Erased and Replaced: The Absence of Fat Bodies on the Covers of Young Adult Novels.” Cultural Constructions 2015:  Image/Text/Meaning, April 23, 2015.

“No Still Blues, Only Dust Lands: Environmental Fantasies versus Anthropocene Realities in YA Dystopian Series.” UTA English Graduate Conference, April 3, 2015.

“Realizing Space and Reconstituting Silence: Rozema’s Mansfield Park as a Postcolonial Text.” Popular/American Culture Association National Conference, April 16-19, 2014.

“In the Flesh: Theory Through Fiction in Miéville’s The Scar.” UTA English Graduate Conference, April 5, 2014.

“Three Covers, One Message: Fat Bias and the Repackaging of Young Adult Literature.” Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, February 19-22, 2014.

“Between the Mirror and Society’s Gaze: The Fat Teen Protagonist’s Struggle to Break Free.” UTA English Graduate Conference, April 13, 2013.

Panel Chair. “From Fat Princess to Savior Queen: The Quest for Worth in Rae Carson’s The Girl of Fire and Thorns.” Southwest/Texas Popular/American Culture Association Conference, February 13-16, 2013.

CAMPUS TALKS

“C is the New A: Grade Consistency and Transparency.” Presented and led grade norming workshop at the FYW Fall Faculty Orientation. August 19, 2014.

SERVICE

University of Texas at Arlington

• Maverick Advantage Faculty Engagement Facilitator, Fall 2022-Present
• Undergraduate Assembly, CoLA Representative, Fall 2024-Present
• Student Experience Project, Fall 2024
• CoLA IDEAs Committee, Member, Spring 2023
• CoLA Spotlight Committee, Fall 2022-Present
• CoLA Spotlight Liaison for English, Fall 2022-Present
• CoLA Spotlight Judge, 2022, 2023
• Judge (on behalf of the Disability Studies Minor) for the Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities Barbara Jordan Media Awards, 2022
• Maverick Ally Training 2019
• Assistant Leader for Scoring Day for the Communication Core Objective with Institutional Effectiveness and Reporting, May 20, 2015.
• ACES Judge for Undergraduate Posters, March 25, 2015.
• Pilot Scoring Day with Institutional Effectiveness and Reporting, July 23, 2014.

Department of English, University of Texas at Arlington

• Coordinator of Internship Program, August 2025-Present
• Coordinator of Rhetoric and Writing Studies Minor, August 2024-Present
• Coordinator of Social Media, July 2020-Present
• First Year Writing Committee, AY 2024-2025
• Advisory Board, AY 2024-2025
• Ad Hoc Committee on Service and APT Faculty, Spring 2025
• Ad Hoc Committee on DTLE in the Major, Member, Fall 2024
• Technology and Digital Media Tenure Track Search Committee, AY 2023-2024
• Degree Plan Committee, Member, Fall 2023
• Rhetoric and Writing Studies Minor Working Group, Point, Fall 2023-Present
• English in Professional and Public Life Working Group, Point, Fall 2023-Present
• Periodic Chair Review Committee, Member, Spring 2023
• Lecturer Search Committee, Member, Fall 2022
• Chair, Promotional Materials Committee, Fall 2021-Spring 2023
• Outreach Committee, Fall 2021-Spring 2023
• DTLE Committee, Fall 2021-Present
• NTT Evaluations Committee, Spring 2022-Spring 2024
• Department Newsletter Planning and Production, Spring 2021-Speing 2023
• NTT Evaluation and Promotion Ad hoc Committee, Spring 2021
• Digital Commencement & Awards Ceremony Planning Team, Fall 2020-Present
• Adjunct Liaison Spring 2020 to Present
• ENGL 1301 Reading Cluster Committee, 2016
• Chair, Duncan Robinson Essay Contest Committee, 2016
• Associate Professor of Digital Humanities Search Committee, 2016
• Director of First Year Writing Search Committee, 2016
• Chair, Duncan Robinson Essay Contest Committee, 2015
• Summer Curriculum Committee, 2014
• Duncan Robinson Essay Contest Committee, 2014

English Graduate Student Association, University of Texas at Arlington

• Professional Development Chair, 2015-2016
• Abstract Committee, English Graduate Student Conference, 2015
• Treasurer, 2013-2014, 2014-2015
• Editorial Committee, {stet} literary magazine, 2013-2014

Fat Studies:  An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society

• Peer Reviewer, “‘Fats,’ Futurity, and the Contemporary YA Novel,” 2017

South Central Modern Language Association

• Session Chair, Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2017
• Session Chair, Creative Nonfiction, 2017
• Session Secretary, Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2016
• Session Secretary, Creative Non-Fiction, 2016

Mansfield Independent School District

• UIL Academic Coordinator and Ready Writing Coach (LRHS), 2012-2013
• Founder/Editor of the Aeire LRHS literary magazine, 2012-2013
• Sponsor and Editor of the Wolfmoon THS literary magazine, 2011-2012
• District Curriculum Writing Committee (THS & LRHS), 2010-2013
• AVID Site Team, (THS) 2010-2012, (LRHS) 2012-2013
• TELPAS Supplemental Trainer (THS), 2010-2012
• Ready Writing UIL Coach, (THS) 2010-2012
• Sponsor of N.E.R.D. (sci-fi/fantasy club), (THS) 2010-2012
• Sponsor of National Novel Writing Month each November, 2009-2013
• Founder/Sponsor of nov·el·T (a student creative writing club), (THS) 2009-2012
• District Textbook Adoption Committee, (THS) 2009-2010

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS/AFFILIATIONS

• Society for Literature, Science, and The Arts
• Modern Language Association
• South Central Modern Language Association
• Popular/American Culture Association
• Southwest Popular/American Culture Association
• National Council of Teachers of English
• Writers’ League of Texas

COURSES TAUGHT

University of Texas at Arlington

• ENGL 1301: Rhetoric and Composition I (Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2021)
• ENGL 1302: Rhetoric and Composition II (Online/Summer 2015, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Online/Summer 2020, Fall 2023, Honors/Spring 2024).
• ENGR 1300: Engineering Problem Solving (Writing Component/Lab) (Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2017 Grader, Fall 2017, Spring 2018)
• ENGL 2303: Special Topics (Fall 2016: “Reuse. Remix. Rewrite.”)
• ENGL 2329: American Literature (Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2021)
• ENGL 3371: Advanced Exposition (Fall 2019, Fall 2023)
• ENGL 2338: Technical Writing (Spring 2020)
• EGNL 3333: Dynamic Traditions (Spring 2020: Speculative Fiction)
• ENGL 3350: Introduction to Analysis and Interpretation (Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023)
• ENGL 2303/DS 2301: Special Topics/Disability Studies (Spring 2021 and 2023: “Fat Fiction”)
• ENGL 4375: Topics in Digital Studies (Spring 2022 and 2023: “Storying through Social Media”)
• ENGL 3374: Rhetoric & Multimodal Authoring (Fall 2022: Creative Composition)
• ENGL 3374: Rhetoric & Multimodal Authoring (Spring 2024: Social Media Team)
• ENGL 2303: Special Topics (Spring 2024: “AI”)

Mansfield Independent School District

• AP English Language and Composition (AY 2011-2012, 2012-2013)
• English Language Arts IV/British (AY 2010-2011)
• English Language Arts III/American (AY 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013)
• English Language Arts II/World (AY 2009-2010)
• Language Lab: combined electives Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction, Multicultural Literature and Poetry, Literary Magazine, and Creative Writing (AY 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013)