Academic Writing Samples

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Abstract: "'Organizing in East Texas' is a firsthand account of the practices and action steps taken to soften the climate of a region hostile to union activity. We tell the story of how that shift in attitudes took place among a group of graduate students. From a grassroots letter-writing campaign that anonymized but personalized the economic reality of our shared situation, to surreptitious propaganda disbursal of student-made ‘zines around campus locations to raise general awareness, concrete steps that translate regardless of population are recommended and discussed. Told from the perspective of a blue-state native’s attempts to unionize amidst a climate antagonistic to the practice and a red-state native’s jump headlong into labor organization and activism, 'Organizing in East Texas' discusses practices and immediately actionable steps anyone can take to form solidarity and affect change in the work climate for graduate students or other precarious labor. "

Abstract: "In this brief article, we—a group of graduate students and a WPA—reflect on the challenges faced during a recent summer session. In doing so, we consider how our experience speaks to a larger issue: the compounding impacts that dictate the pedagogical and administrative decisions that need to be made within a writing program. Compounding impacts, as a concept, describes how local classroom concerns and programmatic logistics accumulate and exacerbate labor disparities and pedagogical challenges. Specifically, we consider the various changes necessitated when graduate students acting as instructors of record are assigned to teach overenrolled first-year writing courses during a compressed, five-week summer session. From our experience, we outline compounding impacts on labor related to course planning, class activities and management, and assessment as well as issues of financial precarity and international student status. We conclude with the list of suggestions we provided our local administration in the hopes that readers can understand how we blended scholarship and experience into praxis as well as anticipate similar impacts at their colleges and universities."

Cowritten with Dr. Gavin Johnson, Yu Lei, Haomei Meng, Reza Panahi, and Gouda Taha.