Education

Ph.D., Literature/Cultural Studies, University of California, San Diego

M.A., Humanities, California State University, Dominguez Hills

B.A., French, University of California, Irvine

B.A., Art, University of California, Santa Cruz

In the Classroom

As a graduate of California's public school and university systems, I am well aware of the talents that students in the public education system possess as well as the numerous challenges you face. My commitment is to provide the highest caliber education for each of my students and to provide the necessary skills for each of you to reach your greatest potential.

Aside from the immediate goals of helping you refine your critical thinking, reading, and writing skills, my larger goal is to foster generations of scholars, teachers, and citizens who are intellectually curious, politically aware, and socially responsible. I hope you are as excited as I am as we take this intellectual journey together.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM ME IN THE CLASSROOM...

• To provide diverse and challenging courses that will require you to move beyond your comfort zones in order to help you develop as a reader, thinker, and writer.
• To act as a role model of someone who is interested in ideas and in learning.
• To help you to learn to ask questions that will not lead to dead-ends, but will help expand your critical abilities.
• To be on time and be prepared for each class.
• To be available during posted office hours and by appointment.
• To aid your comprehension of the course materials.
• To offer encouragement and guidance as you develop your critical reading and analytical thinking skills.
• To be honest and forthright in my interactions with you and in discussing your work with you.
• To grade your work in a fair and timely manner.
• To praise work that is well done.

• To help you reach your academic goals!

WHAT YOU CANNOT EXPECT FROM ME AND THE REASONS WHY...

• To act as your personal counselor. I am not trained to advise you on personal issues, but I can direct you to appropriate people on campus who are trained and can act in those capacities.
• To be your surrogate parent/guardian/personal secretary. Just as you are responsible for your own personal hygiene and health, you are responsible for scheduling/managing/ remembering your personal, academic, and work requirements and obligations. If you miss class, it is your responsibility to contact your peers and find out what you missed. It is simply impossible for me to rehearse a lecture or discussion that passed. Plan ahead accordingly.
• To do your work for you. While I can direct, advise, encourage, and provoke you to think, read, and write, I cannot tell you what to think or what to write. It is up to you to make those intellectual journeys and decisions; I am here to offer you guidance, encouragement, and direction. In short, while I am here to teach, it is up to you to learn.
• To be your cheerleader each day or in class. As much as I am invested in the success of each and every one of my students, I must divide my attentions equitably in class. If you need individualized attention, please visit office hours regularly where I can focus exclusively on your individual needs.
• To be your friend. This is because I am very aware that the inherent hierarchical nature of the student-teacher relationship precludes the equality on which friendship is based. That said, I strive for cordial, professional, and respectful relationships with each of my students. And, as many of you know, that doesn't exclude laughter and fun along the way!

ADVISING

I am deeply interested in your successes and challenges. So, please visit me in office hours every semester, or at least each year at a minimum. I find that students who check in regularly with their advisor have a more fulfilling and meaningful experience.

Also, I want to help you avoid any potential scheduling pitfalls by talking with you about taking courses in sequence, overloading in a semester, and meeting graduation requirements.

Remember, if you cannot make office hours because you are taking classes during that time, your work schedule conflicts, or you have childcare issues, I am happy to schedule an appointment with you.

If are you currently being advised by another faculty member and would like me to become your advisor, please just drop in during office hours. Additionally, if, for any reason, you want to switch to another advisor, I'm happy to direct you to someone who might be better suited to your specific needs.

I am able to advise you on major and General Education requirements.

Please note: I do not answer any advising questions via email because there are simply too many variables. If you have any advising questions or concerns, please come to office hours. They are noted above.

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION/REFERENCES

I'm willing to write letters of recommendation and to act as a reference to help my students achieve their various goals. It is a great delight for me when you win awards, scholarships, and prizes; when you go onto graduate programs, both masters and doctoral levels; or you move into new internships and jobs. For me, one of the best things about my role as a professor is being able to support my students as they move onto new challenges and then succeed! I find that writing letters is one small way that I can help.

CAVEAT: I am usually juggling numerous teaching, advising, research, and service activities every semester. While I will make every effort to meet deadlines, I do not guarantee that I will. If I anticipate being late with the letter, I will contact the institution and inform them that a letter will be arriving late. If this condition is troubling to you, then I suggest that you turn elsewhere for your letters. Please remember that for each letter it takes me several hours to read your statement and transcripts, review your work in my classes, and draft and revise the letter.

In order to best help you, I need help from you so that I can write a letter tailored to your specific needs. I never write a boilerplate letter where I fill in the blank with your name. I write each letter to draw attention to your particular strengths and talents and if I need to I will try to mitigate any small shortcomings. In order to do all this, I need you to carefully consider your request.

Before you read on, you might ask yourself if I am really the best person to ask for a letter. How will you know? Well, ask yourself the following questions:

• Have I done my best work in her classes?
• Have I studied with her long enough (at least one full semester)?
• Have I visited her office hours regularly enough so that she knows me both as a student and a person?

If any of the answers to the above questions are no, then you might want to wait for the semester to complete (grades turned in) and ask at the beginning of the following semester. Or, you might want to visit more regularly in office hours so I can get a better sense of your thoughts, your intellectual curiosity, and your interests. Or, you might also want to take another class with me so, if you didn't do your best work the first time around, you can do better the next time.

If the answers to the above questions are yes, then here are some easy steps I need you to accomplish to help me help you attain your goals! Please be sure to submit a complete and orderly package or I will be unable to write a letter for you.

Here they are in brief, the explanations follow below.

1. Come to office hours to talk with me about the letter you'd like me to write at least one to two months in advance of the deadline. It will help me better understand what you are trying to achieve. As a rule, I will write letters for students once they have finished at least one course with me. I will, in certain cases, agree to write the letter before you finish your first course with me, but I will most likely wait until the beginning of the following semester to actually write it and send it off.
2. You will need to be organized. Provide complete and accurate information that I need in one large envelope so that the various pieces of information don't get lost! Please do not place random sheets of paper in my hand or in my mailbox. I will be confused as to what it is and will probably throw into my "sort" pile to address in the summer.
   
   I will need:
   
   
   1. Transcripts, unofficial is fine.
   2. CV or resume with relevant information. In short, a CV is a detailed outline of your academic life and the resume is a quick outline of your professional life.

   For each letter you want me to write, I will need:

   1. A formal statement of purpose that you will be submitting with your package. If you are applying to several programs, I will want to see the statement of purpose for each program/job/scholarship.
   2. An informal, one-page statement of purpose explaining what the letter is for, including the complete scholarship/job/program description. Also, include information regarding which courses you took with me, which semesters, and what grades you earned. If you wrote a paper, please jog my memory about your paper or include a copy of it. (This is different from your formal statement of purpose listed above.)
   3. A stamped, addressed envelope, if I'm supposed to send it directly.
   4. Any accompanying forms that must be filled out.

   For each letter you want me to write that requires an online submission, I will also need:

   1. An email of the link where I will need to submit the materials.

Make sure all your information is accurate and complete. If I don't have everything the first time I sit down to draft your letter, then I will contact you to provide what I need and wait until I get it and I can schedule in time to attempt writing your letter again. This may jeopardize meeting deadlines.

If you would like me to write several letters of recommendation at the same time, please include a cover sheet that clearly indicates what is due to whom and where and by when. Please indicate hard deadlines as well as preferred deadlines.

Each time you ask me to write subsequent letters, you will need to provide the above information again since I shred all your materials after I write the letters.

Please send me reminders. Please send me reminders about your due dates once a week after I have agreed to act as a reference and you have submitted your materials to me, and, then, email me daily during the week leading up to your deadline. I will not reply until I confirm that I've sent it. Please note that at any given time, I am working on 3-10 different student's letters of recommendation (with each student applying to one or more different things) so while your application is important to me, it is not in the forefront of my mind as it is to you. Therefore, please be clear in all your correspondence with me about what you are applying for and when the due date is.

Please do not expect me to write letters during finals and grading weeks or during the breaks; I will get to them as soon as we return to classes.

One last thing: If you get accepted, win the scholarship/award, or get the job, please let me know! I want to hear the good news and add your accomplishments to the above list.