Teaching Responsibilities

This page provides an overview of my teaching responsibilities, including Course Instruction, Mentoring Students, Interdisciplinary Guest Lectures, and City Tech Science Fiction Collection Class Visits.

Course Instruction

Overall Teaching Distribution 2014-2020

Since 2014, I have taught 26 classes. The majority of those–16–were classes taught in or aligned with the B.S. in Professional and Technical Writing (PTW) program. Six classes were in the First Year Writing (FYW) program’s ENG1101, English Composition I. And, four were Literature-focused classes.

It is important to note that I created a unique syllabus, assignments, and lectures for each course that I taught based on my approach to meet and exceed the Course Learning Outcomes established by faculty governance.

PTW Teaching Distribution

In those classes connected to the PTW program, the majority of them were five sections of ENG1133, Specialized Communications for Technology Students (3 credit hours), which focuses on workplace and technical writing.

I taught four sections of ENG1710, Introduction to Language and Technology (4 credit hours), which helps students understand the shifts from oral to literate to digital cultures, and the role media play in how we communicate.

I taught three sections of ENG2570, Writing in the Workplace (3 credit hours), which focuses on various forms of business writing. While not required in the PTW program, some students elect to take it. It is required in the B.Tech. in Electrical Technology and B.Tech. in Telecommunications Engineering Technology programs.

I taught two sections of ENG2575, Technical Writing (3 credit hours), which emphases different forms of technical communication. It is required in the PTW program. Also, I serve as the ENG2575 Course Coordinator and provide sample syllabi, assignments, and textbook options to new adjunct faculty teaching the course.

Two of the most enjoyable classes to teach but those that required the greatest amount of planning and preparation were ENG2720, Writing with New Media (4 credit hours) and ENG3760, Digital Storytelling (4 credit hours). Unfortunately, I was only permitted to teach these once each by the program director despite having excellent student evaluations.

First Year Writing Teaching Distribution

In the First Year Writing program, I have taught four sections of ENG1101, English Composition I (3 credit hours). This is, of course, an important foundational course for incoming college students.

Literature Teaching Distribution

I have taught three sections of ENG2420, Science Fiction (3 credit hours, Writing Intensive), which introduces students to the long history of SF from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the present. My primary training is in Science Fiction Studies, so this is a class in which I bring to bear a special enthusiasm and depth of knowledge. I dovetail the work in this class with the City Tech Science Fiction Collection and the annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium. In fact, one student presented her work at the 2nd symposium and many students have participated over the past four years of symposia.

I taught one section of ENG3401, Law Through Literature (3 credit hours, Writing Intensive), which explores legal issues through literary works including novels and plays. This class may serve as a Capstone Course for A.A. and A.S. students, and it is required for B.S. in Legal Assistant Studies students.

Mentoring Students

In addition to giving advice and writing recommendation letters for students, I have mentored two students formally. Most recently in Spring 2020, I served as a Faculty Mentor for LeRoy J. Kenner who wanted to do his Honors Project on “Science Fiction and Stage Design for Live Entertainment.” He reached out to me about this while he was taking my ENG2420, Science Fiction class. Mentoring during the pandemic using email, the phone, and Zoom proved challenging but not insurmountable. In the end, he saw it through and participated in the online poster session (NS4).

In Fall 2018, I was Jessica Roman’s Faculty Mentor for the Emerging Scholars Program. She was a student in two of my classes before (Science Fiction, ENG 2420, and Introduction to Language and Technology, ENG 1710). Also, she had presented her research essay, “‘Any Direction Might as Well be Forward’: An Examination of the Science, Technology, Linguistics, and Philosophy of Ted Chiang’s ‘The Story of Your Life'” at the Second City Tech Science Fiction Symposium in 2017. I offered to have Ms. Roman read a selection of texts taken from my current research on the personal computer’s appearance in Science Fiction between 1975-1995. She would find and write about her own discoveries, which we would discuss at meetings and these would inform the research poster she would make for the program. I shared my working bibliography with her throughout the project. Unfortunately, Ms. Roman had to withdraw from school toward the end of the semester for a medical emergency, but she completed the majority of the research that I had planned for her in an exemplary manner.

Interdisciplinary Guest Lectures

I have taught two different guest lectures for two Interdisciplinary courses–both in Spring 2020.

Before the pandemic forced our campus to close, I delivered this lecture on “Physics and Science Fiction” for Prof. Darya Krym’s PHY2443ID, Modern Physics. I developed this lecture and reading selections based on the needs of the class to highlight how SF engages topics relevant to the Modern Physics course, which includes Relativity, Black Holes, and Quantum Mechanics. The video above is an edited version of my talk.

As my guest lecture for Prof. Geoff Zylstra’s HIS3209ID, History of Technology class was scheduled for after the campus closed due to pandemic, I recorded my lecture and presentation slide show and made it available to his students on YouTube. In the lecture, I provide an overview of media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s ideas, including “the medium is the message,” new media = new culture, hot and cool media, figure and ground, and the tetrad. The lecture includes tangents focusing on the work of Salikoko Mufwene, Walter Ong, Friedrich Kittler, and J. David Bolter and Richard Grusin.

City Tech Science Fiction Collection Lectures

As part of my work with the City Tech Science Fiction Collection, I support my colleagues who bring their classes to visit the collection and use its materials in the adjacent Library classroom, L543. Beforehand, I will pull materials based on the professor’s needs pertaining to the class and assignment before the visit. I deliver an introductory 10-15 minute lecture on the collection, respond to student questions throughout the class meeting, and pull additional materials that might be relevant to a given student’s research project. After the visit, I reshelve the materials in the collection.

I assisted with these classes (those that are linked below provide more context and photos):

• Lucas Kwong’s ENG3407, Gothic Literature and Visual Culture, Fall 2019
• Lucas Kwong’s ENG2420, Science Fiction Class, Spring 2019
• Lucas Kwong’s ENG2420, Science Fiction Class, Spring 2018
• Jill Belli’s, ENG2420, Science Fiction Class, Spring 2017
• Jill Belli’s ENG2420, Science Fiction Class, Fall 2016