The Humanities seek to emphasize precisely what is human and to teach students what it is to be human. In a literature class, my goal is for the students to come away with a more engaged notion of what it is to be human. Through minority literature and literature in translation, I emphasize the multiplicity of voices and cultures that make up the wide range of human experience. In a world that has become increasingly transnational and globalized, it is important for students to understand the ways in which human experiences and histories span national borders. I am particularly interested in the intersection of politics and literature, and my focus on global borders and transnational literature humanizes marginalized communities.
I alternate teaching approaches to cater to different student learning methods and include technology in the classroom. I provide a historical context so that literature comes alive through archival resources, particularly those readily available in digital forms, such as through digital archives, photographs, maps, sound or musical recordings, and videos.
I create and nurture a classroom environment in which my students and I can have a fruitful and productive conversation that draws on their readings of the material, based on their own personal experience, cultural background, and academic interests. I encourage students to think about literary texts from a multidisciplinary contexts, so that all the students can engage with the literature in ways that make sense to them.
COURSES
Instructor, MAS 2340: Introduction to Mexican American Studies, University of Houston
Instructor, MAS: 3342: Mexican Immigration to the US, University of Houston
PAST COURSES TAUGHT
Faculty speaker, University of Houston College of Education/HISD ELL and Migrant Institute for Summer 2019. https://steamcamplit.wordpress.com/
Instructor, MAS 2340: Introduction to Mexican American Studies, University of Houston
Instructor, MAS: 3342: Mexican Immigration to the US, University of Houston
Co-instructor, ENGL 371/SPAN 396/SWGS 354: Survey of Chicana/o Literature: Becoming Mexican in the United States, Rice University
Instructor, ENGL 175: Global Literature: The New World (B)order, Rice University
Teaching Assistant, ENGL 342: Victorian Fiction, Rice University
Teaching Assistant, ENGL 398: Slavery in 20th Century American Fiction & Film, Rice University
Instructor, SPAN 101: Introduction to Spanish Language and Culture, Rice University
Workshop led
Topics include: Introduction to Digital Humanities, Decolonizing the Digital Humanities, US Latina/o Digital Humanities, Ethnic Digital Humanities, Introduction to the Command Line, Omeka, Omeka Exhibits, Timeline JS, Esri Story Maps, metadata creation, and Zotero.
