I am currently an instructor for introductory lecture courses at Brown, which involves supervising graduate teaching assistants as well as developing syllabi and assignments, facilitating discussion, and administering students. For two years previously, I was a full-time Acting Assistant Professor of Film & Media Studies at Stanford, where I created seven new classes dedicated to enriching the program’s offerings beyond traditional film topics. I also worked with colleagues and staff to extend the curriculum and to build connections with other departments and groups such as the student-run television station, SCBN. I advised students on independent projects, including one masters thesis: “Transforming Taiwan Through Transmedia: The Digital Rise of Imitation Sensation Chen Handian” by Patricia Ann Hayward.
My pedagogical training during my graduate program at Brown University culminated in a Teaching Fellowship, an opportunity for departmental support to design and run my own course (Spring 2007). I have since drawn on and expanded the materials and approach from the resulting class, “TV on the Internet”: a seminar with the goal of building a critical framework for analyzing how the convergence of television and the internet is changing the production and consumption of media. It introduced a range of methodologies from critical theory, cultural studies, media studies, and political economy and applied them to media production, texts, and reception across a range of phenomena. Overall, my objective was to promote media literacy as well as general skills in critical viewing, reading, and writing. I devised a structure and requirements for the course to foster specific aspects of these skills:
- To encourage an active and collaborative learning environment, where students facilitate productive conversations with their peers, I devoted our Thursday meetings to student presentations on the week’s material and designated a respondent for each presentation who was responsible for leading discussion.
- To encourage a dynamic and participatory climate, weekly lab meetings, which introduced and demonstrated specific objects of analysis, also served as an informal space for student- driven sharing and discussion.
- To encourage familiarity with the internet as a medium for interaction and creativity, both within the class and as part of a wider public, we maintained a blog for sharing course information, presentation notes, papers, links and other comments and materials. I also required students to produce a multimedia web-based work directed at a general audience for their midterm project.
- To encourage an understanding of writing as a cumulative process with several stages, I asked students to approach their class presentations as an opportunity to work through questions and debates. They then turned in a short essay based on the concerns of their presentation. Their final formal paper was an expansion of one of these short essays.
TEACHING COMPETENCIES
My visiting professorship at Stanford University and further adjunct work and graduate training at Brown University have prepared me to teach courses from introductory to graduate levels on media studies, digital media, television, and critical and cultural theory. I am particularly qualified to incorporate a focus on feminist and queer theory and topics into curriculum design. I aspire to continue developing new and innovative classes which could cover subjects including media convergence, television industry and audiences, fan cultures, online communities, web video, and the representation of gender and sexuality. Such classes could involve production training for beginners in video editing, audio editing, graphic design, and web design. I am comfortable with a wide range of learning formats, from large lecture courses to seminars to individual mentoring.
PEDAGOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
I have continued to foster my capabilities as an engaging teacher through a variety of public engagements and invited course presentations. I’ve recently had opportunities to speak on remix video at events hosted by California College of the Arts and California State University. I was a guest lecturer for Suzanne Scott in the class “Fandom and Geek Culture” at UC Santa Cruz (February 2011), for Gail Wight in the class “Digital Art I” at Stanford University (November 2010), and for Wendy Chun in the class “Imagined Networks” at Brown University (October 2007), and for Bob Rehak in the class “Fan Cultures” at Swarthmore College (March 2008). At Swarthmore, I also gave an open campus talk. At Brown, I organized several educational events at which I also presented, such as “Media Fetish: The Vidshow!” (April 2008), which was part of a film and media series for Pride Month, and “(Re)Producing Cult TV: Battlestar Galactica” (March 2007), a panel discussion sponsored by the Malcolm S. Forbes Center for Research in Culture and Media Studies. These avocational ventures demonstrate my dedication to fostering critical inquiry through teaching. On each occasion, I strive to improve my techniques for communicating effectively to groups of all sizes, which include multimedia illustrations, clear signposting, and audience participation.
I have also seized opportunities to explore pioneering pedagogical approaches, including participating in the 2010 Digital Media and Learning conference and THATCamp Bay Area (an unconference on technology and the humanities). I was invited to contribute to an extended working group on Open Educational Resources at the 2010 Open Video Conference. In addition, my techniques for creating an effective learning environment were considerably enhanced by my participation in the three Certificate programs at Brown’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning. In 2008-2009 I served as Modern Culture & Media’s Departmental Graduate Student Liaison to the Sheridan Center, in which capacity I strove to connect the two associations’ respective resources in pedagogy and technology. I hope to continue and extend my commitment to innovations in higher education teaching in the context of my future positions and institutions.