AboutMy name is Amanda and I am a Senior Lecturer of College Composition and Rhetoric and a mixed media artist.
Chances are good that you've landed here because you have already encountered me in one of those two roles. Or maybe not! Maybe this is our first introduction! Either way, I'm glad you're here now. Ready to learn a little bit more about me? Read on... |
Teaching
Since I started teaching that first composition class as a grad student in 2007, I knew teaching was for me. Feeling this belonging on the first day of class really surprised me. I'd always loved school, but until that day, I couldn't imagine what would make someone want to be in front of a class of students all day, every day. Turns out... the only thing that could make me want to do that is, well, the students.
I'm a people person and a rhetoric and writing nerd. When those powers combine, I have a lot of fun helping people harness their rhetorical smarts and use writing to communicate, persuade, influence, question, protest, comfort, challenge, and whatever else they want to do. My specialty is in First-Year Writing with interests in critical thinking, gender studies, Queer studies, social writing, and the use of creativity in academic writing and research. My current teaching responsibilities keep me busy in Composition I, Composition II, and Queer Rhetorics, a course crosslisted with the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies program. I'm also serving as Assistant Coordinator of the First-Year Writing Program at Georgia Southern, so I have the privilege of working closely with other faculty teaching Composition too.
Though a lot has changed in the world of teaching since I started in 2007, I appreciate the fact that each of these changes has pushed me to learn and grow in new ways. When I started teaching, we had chalkboards (seriously!) and projectors we had to sign out if we wanted to watch a movie or project something from our personal laptops. Now I'm adept at teaching completely online, sometimes with interactive Zoom sessions, and sometimes completely asynchronous, and usually a mix of both in person and online work. I'm grateful for the flexibility I've gained through teaching in varied environments with diverse groups of students. I'm a better teacher when I'm learning!
I'm a people person and a rhetoric and writing nerd. When those powers combine, I have a lot of fun helping people harness their rhetorical smarts and use writing to communicate, persuade, influence, question, protest, comfort, challenge, and whatever else they want to do. My specialty is in First-Year Writing with interests in critical thinking, gender studies, Queer studies, social writing, and the use of creativity in academic writing and research. My current teaching responsibilities keep me busy in Composition I, Composition II, and Queer Rhetorics, a course crosslisted with the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies program. I'm also serving as Assistant Coordinator of the First-Year Writing Program at Georgia Southern, so I have the privilege of working closely with other faculty teaching Composition too.
Though a lot has changed in the world of teaching since I started in 2007, I appreciate the fact that each of these changes has pushed me to learn and grow in new ways. When I started teaching, we had chalkboards (seriously!) and projectors we had to sign out if we wanted to watch a movie or project something from our personal laptops. Now I'm adept at teaching completely online, sometimes with interactive Zoom sessions, and sometimes completely asynchronous, and usually a mix of both in person and online work. I'm grateful for the flexibility I've gained through teaching in varied environments with diverse groups of students. I'm a better teacher when I'm learning!
Art Journaling
A lifelong writer and journaler, I began art journaling in 2015 to manage stress, get creative, and connect with others. If you're not familiar with art journaling, all you need to know is that it combines art and writing into a journaling practice. It's that easy. After doing my own art journaling for a while, I brought my personal practice out into the Statesboro community by offering classes to middle and high schoolers through The Averitt Center for the Arts in Fall 2016.
Things really got interesting when I was able to give a presentation about the impact art journaling was having on me as part of TEDxGeorgiaSouthern. You can watch my talk below, if you're interested in learning about my journey and seeing some of my pages. (As an added bonus, you can also see my tattoo sleeve before it was finished and my hair when it was longer and pinker. Ah, 2015, it was a simpler time.)
Things really got interesting when I was able to give a presentation about the impact art journaling was having on me as part of TEDxGeorgiaSouthern. You can watch my talk below, if you're interested in learning about my journey and seeing some of my pages. (As an added bonus, you can also see my tattoo sleeve before it was finished and my hair when it was longer and pinker. Ah, 2015, it was a simpler time.)
That talk generated new art journaling collaborations with local organizations like The Teal House, Statesboro Bulloch County Breast Cancer Foundation, Total Wellness GA, Sacred Space Yoga Studio, and the Statesboro Regional Art Association. Being able to walk people through doing their own art journaling spread and seeing them get excited about something they've made is really rewarding for me. My background in teaching writing helps me create a supportive, encouraging environment for artists and writers of all ages, experiences, and interest levels.
If you have a group who would like an art journaling workshop, use the contact form below to tell me about it! I've worked with kids as young as four and adults of all ages.
Blogging
Now that you've learned a bit about who I am and what I do, you're probably wondering what this website has for you. I'm not exactly going to teach a composition course or lead a workshop here. These days, this site introduces you to who I am, and offers you an easy way to reach me through the form below. It also holds a (very) small collection of my art, a handful of presentations, and some teaching artifacts on the Portfolio page.
Take a look around the rest of my site while you're here, and reach out if something here intrigues you. :)
Thanks for reading!
Amanda
Take a look around the rest of my site while you're here, and reach out if something here intrigues you. :)
Thanks for reading!
Amanda