Jill Belli’s Profile
utopian studies, science fiction, happiness studies, writing studies, scholarship of teaching and learning, digital humanities, American studies, cultural studies, medical humanities
Jill Belli, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English at City Tech, CUNY.
Her interdisciplinary interests and expertise bridge happiness studies & well-being, science fiction & utopia, self-care & social hope, education & pedagogy, parapsychology, medical humanities, āinvisibleā illness, healing, grief, trauma, writing studies, digital humanities, critical data studies, storytelling, tarot, astrology, and nature. Her monograph ‘Pedagogies of Expansiveness’ and memoir ‘Beautiful War’ (both in progress) explore these intersections.
At City Tech, she teaches courses in science fiction, utopian studies, self-help literature, freshman writing, and professional & technical writing (including writing with new media & digital storytelling) and co-organizes the college’s annual Science Fiction Symposium. From 2014-2020, Jill served as Co-Director of the OpenLab, the collegeās open-source digital platform for teaching, learning, and collaborating. She currently serves as a CUNY Mindset Ambassador.
She is a founding member of the Writing Studies Tree (writingstudiestree.org), an online, open-access, interactive academic genealogy for the field of writing studies, and she serves on the Steering Committee, the Teaching Committee, and as the web developer for the North American Society for Utopian Studies (utopian-studies.org).
When not researching, writing, or teaching, Jill travels, hikes, camps, practices yoga, and plays violin with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra.
My Courses
Sandbox course for OpenLab workshops
This is a model course for ENG 1101
This is an online asynchronous course facilitated by Dr. Shauna Chung. The course involves the following: Students complete a 120-hour internship. Class activities provide an opportunity for discussions and electronic portfolio development to enrich the learning experience. Students write weekly status reports, and supervision is by both the faculty and the job supervisor.
ENGL2720 Writing with New Media, Spring 2023
This is Professor Shauna Chung’s course site for ENG 2720, “Writing with New Media.” In this class, students will learn how to leverage the affordances and constraints of new media through critical analysis of texts and online phenomena, hands-on creative production, and collaborative research projects. Students will also use this OpenLab site to share their work and develop an online presence throughout the semester.
English 2420 combines analysis of science fiction as literature with consideration of the questions science and technology raise about past, present, and future societies. In class discussions and essays, students will focus on the basic elements of literary analysis, the historical development of the science fiction genre, and the thematic concerns of each assigned text. Class discussions will address issues of form and will delve into the cultural contexts that have helped shaped some of the core tropes of the genre, such as artificial intelligence and human/machine interactions, the exploration of space and time, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Attention will also be paid to the ways in which authors have used utopian and dystopian societies of the future to comment upon humanity’s present relationship with science and technology. *Course Avatar Credit: Andrew Dutt (https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/members/cobaltdrew/) Andrew describes the image as follows: “The illustration featured above was done for a project where the theme was Robotics. It was done many years ago, and i guess that you could say I was influenced by The Matrix and Terminator in some of my robot designs. It shows a humanoid android cradling a human child in its arms, while an ominous sentinel-type machine looms behind with a menacing mechanical arm reaching for the baby. This dichotomy prompts the question: are the machines our friends or foe?”
My Projects
City Tech’s Source for Academic Affairs Information
Science Fiction is an important, modern cultural expression that relies on interdisciplinary approaches to explore the relationships between and within humanity, science, and technology. This project connects the individual and collective efforts to leverage science fiction to enrich City Tech’s students’ experiences, deepen classroom learning with archival research, and connect City Tech to the networks of science fiction research around the world.
Welcome to The Buzz, a student blogging site dedicated to all things City Tech–from how to handle the pressures of school, to what movies to see. Join the discussion by adding a comment to a post you like, or by adding a post yourself! And be sure to join the project to get regular updates!
The Open Road is our place to highlight all thatās possible on the OpenLab. Join now to keep up on OpenLab news, events, and updates. Check our weekly In the Spotlight posts for a glimpse into the incredible work being done by City Tech students, faculty, and staff. Follow OpenLab News for announcements and site updates. And see our OpenLab Calendar for office hours, events, and workshops. You can find our workshop schedule and signup for workshops here as well. The Open Road is also a place for the OpenLab community (meaning you!). We would love your feedback, insight, and comments. Please send along anything on the OpenLab that you love! We are always available for any questions you might have. Email us anytime at openlab@citytech.cuny.edu!
WAC encourages courses throughout the college to incorporate formal and informal writing into the course practices and requirements. Avatar retrieved from Bridgeline Digital, Creative Commons License
My Clubs
This club site will be used for the tutorial portion of the Club Council OpenLab Workshop (Fall 2017) and will house materials that may be useful to club representatives in building out their own sites on the OpenLab.
