teaching animal studies

Teaching Animal Studies (photo by Beth McHenry, UTA)

Teaching Awards

Spring 2012

The Hermanns Lectures, focusing on Animal Studies and the Posthumanities, will be held Friday March 30th, 2012. Students enrolled in my Animal Studies graduate seminar and undergraduate course will have the opportunity to hear some of the leading scholars in the field of animal studies and the environmental humanities. Confirmed speakers include: Peggy McCracken, Cary Wolfe, Allison Hunter, and Neill Matheson.

Minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies (ESS) (in the School of Urban and Public Affairs)

I helped create the new cross-disciplinary minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies. If you have taken English department courses that focused on the environment, these courses will probably count toward the EES minor.  Click here for more information. I am currently serving as the Coordinator for the ESS Minor and keep aweb page of information about the minor, including the courses approved for current and upcoming semesters.

Teaching

I have had the great pleasure of teaching at UTA since 1994, where I have met many smart, inquisitive, funny, lively, hardworking, socially- and environmentally- conscious students who continue to inspire me. [Scroll down to see some of their projects.]

I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses in multicultural literatures of the U.S., history of American literature, introduction to textual analysis and interpretation, critical theory; feminist theory; and cultural studies. Lately, my courses focus on environmental literature, film, and theory. Whatever the topic, I encourage students to connect the academic content of the course with everyday, real-world challenges. I hope that students will discover how fields of academic inquiry have ethical and political ramifications. I teach as part of the "fierce humanities," that "seeks to unsetltle knowledge and assuptions" (Cary Nelson).

I direct the work of many PhD and MA students in multicultural American literatures, feminist theory, cultural studies, science studies, the environmental humanities, and animal studies. I have taught in the InterGender doctoral program in Scandanavia and have served as an external reader for graduate committees in the U.S. and Australia.

My teaching is deeply informed by my own scholarly research, which allows me to present cross-disciplinary perspectives on texts, cultural formations, and scholarly questions to my classes. Although pedagogy is not my primary area of expertise, I have published on environmental pedagogy, in an essay entitled, "The Trouble with Texts, or Teaching Green Cultural Studies in Texas," which appears in the MLA collection, Teaching North American Environmental Literatures, edited by Frederick O. Waage, Mark Long, and Laird Christensen. I have also taught the Graduate Seminar on Literary Pedagogy.

Undergraduate and graduate students: click on "For Students" on the right, for more information and resources.

Fall 2012:

Multimedia HALL OF FAME!

Check out these magnificent multi-media projects from advanced undergraduate courses. These projects combined academic research, (intrepid) field work, the construction of an original argument, and creative, savvy design.

Spring 2012: Animals

Fall 2010: Literature and Film of Environmental Justice

Spring 2009: Multicultural Literatures of Power and Place and Contemporary Environmental Literatures:

Courses I have taught at UTA:


Undergraduate

Graduate

I've also directed graduate and undergraduate independent studies in feminist theory; cultural studies; feminist corporealtheory; 19th century American women writers; environmental theory and African- American literature and criticism; environmental literature and theory, interdisciplinary environmental humanities and science studies; queer theory; deaf poetry and disability studies; disability studies; trauma studies.

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Peggy Kulesz, Laura Kopchick, Ken Roemer, and Stacy Alaimo, with the 2011 Regents Awards


Peggy Kulesz, Laura Kopchick, Ken Roemer, and Stacy Alaimo with their 2011 Regents Awards