University of Florida

courses devised and taught:

  • LIT 4334. Section 6822. “The Golden Age of Children’s Literature.” Fall, 2008. This class examined the “Golden Age” of children’s literature in Britain and the U.S. — from The Swiss Family Robinson (1812) to The Secret Garden (1911) and Peter Pan (1911) — even as it questioned the very conceit of a golden age. A key component was looking at the important periodical for which many authors wrote, St. Nicholas, in the University of Florida’s Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature. I juxtaposed works by Christina Rossetti, Hans Christian Andersen, and Oscar Wilde to analyze gender and sexuality. We examined depictions of African Americans in Tales of Uncle Remus and Little Black Sambo.
  • LIT 2120. Section 3613. “Asian & Asian Diasporic Childhoods 1930 – 2008.” Spring, 2008. required course for Asian American Studies Certificate. I engineered this World Literature course to brig together post WWII Asian and Asian-American literature, film, and contemporary cultural theory. This created a space for students to understand how authors use the child or young adult protagonist to explore issues of subjectivity, audience, history, colonization, gender, and war. We read the graphic novel Persepolis, Vietnamese autobiographies, a novel about Korean comfort women through the lens of the military-sexual complex, several written and filmic works by Yukio Mishima to discuss homosexuality and Japanese nationalism, and two Chinese-American texts, The Woman Warrior and the graphic novel American Born Chinese alongside Asian-American and feminist criticism. The class ended with Miyazaki’s movie Spirited Away, which students critiqued alongside Disney films. This course was thereafter added to the University’s list of required courses for the interdisciplinary undergraduate Asian American Studies Certificate.
  • LIT 2120, Section 2504. “The Element of Cute in International Children’s Culture 1890-2006.” Fall, 2006. This class explored “cute” as a vehicle to explore race, nationality, hetero/homo/transsexualities, trauma, subversion, imperialism, and war. Texts included Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Hayao Miyazaki’s film Kiki’s Delivery Service, and the picture books The Story of Babar and Little Black Sambo.
  • Guest teacher for Aaron Talbot’s AML 2410, “Issues in American Literature and Culture: Gay Male Adolescent Literature.” Discussed Dennis Cooper’s novel Closer for two days.

California State University, Los Angeles

California State University, Los Angeles English 430: “Children’s Literature.” I guest lectured on the history of counting books (Ten Little Injuns, Ten Little Niggers, Ten Little Jappy Chaps) and U.S. race history, touching on concepts including institutionalized racism. Spring, 2009.

  • English 101: Freshman Composition. Course Schedule.
  • English 100:One unit, credit/no credit supplement, taken in conjuction with English 101, for students scoring between English 96 and English 101 level.
  • English 96: Basic Writing
  • English 430: Children’s Literature Graduate Student Assistant. Lectures and power point presentations on African-American children’s picture books, trauma literature, graphic novels, comic books, children’s literature awards, lesbian & gay chldren’s literature. Attendance and grading of exams, papers, and weekly Internet postings for lecture course of 75-100 students. Facilitate discussions for smaller groups of 4-40 students.
  • University Writing Center Tutor and Writing Proficiency Exam Consultant: Individual writing tutoring across the curriculum for undergraduate and graduate students. Conduct and facilitate workshops for 2-35 students on topics including the Writing Proficiency Exam, Proofreading, Grammar, ESL, Conversation Lab.
  • University Tutorial Center Tutor: Multiple subject tutoring. Tutor certification by the College Reading and Learning Association.

East Los Angeles College

  • English Department grader for Composition and mythology courses.