Ryan Carroll

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (he/him/his)

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Research Specialities: 19th- and 20th century Transatlantic literature, focusing on knowledge creation and information overload across novels, slave narratives, journalism. 

 

Ryan Carroll is an instructor and PhD student in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He studies 19th- and 20th century Transatlantic literature, focusing on knowledge creation and information overload across novels, slave narratives, and journalism. He teaches first-year writing and composition and emphasizes voice, affect, and organization in the writing process.

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Affiliated Institution: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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Avu Chaturvedi

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (he/him/his)

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Research Specialities: cultural studies, critical theory, postcolonial studies, the Indian diaspora

 

Abhivyakti (Avu) Chaturvedi teaches and studies at the University of Washington, having previously completed a degree in economics from New York University. He briefly joined the finance industry before taking a sharp left turn to get his M.A. at Boston College. He is originally from India and lived in a number of countries, mostly in Asia, before pursuing higher education in the United States. Avu's focuses include culture, critical theory, postcolonial studies, and the Indian diaspora, and he is currently examining the reception of Hollywood films from the Hays Code era in former British colonies. He has five years of experience teaching various composition and rhetoric courses at both UW and BC. Avu is a huge fan of film, sports, and playing with his dog Pearl. He hopes to eventually settle into a Cultural Studies department.​

 

Affiliated Institution: University of Washington

 

 

Henry E. Christopher

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (he/him/his)

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Research Specialities: fiction, rhetoric and composition, creative writing

 

Henry Christopher is an Ohioan writer living in Seattle, Washington. He received his BA from Mount Vernon Nazarene University in 2018, and his MFA from the University of Washington in 2023. While attending school in Mount Vernon, Ohio, Henry served as editor-in-chief for Penmarks Journal of Literature and Art, news writer for The Viewer, and presented in a roundtable conference on small press lit journals at the Sigma Tau Delta International English Honors Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since graduating, he has worked with CRAFT Literary as the section editor for critical essays and interviews, art marketing assistant, fiction reader, and editorial consultant. His creative writing has been presented at events such as Cleveland Drafts, Black Jaw, and Castalia, and received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Henry's debut novel, No One Dies in Palmyra Ohio, was published in October 2022 through What Books Press. He is most familiar with MLA and CMS, but has experience working with AP, APA, and other styles such as those utilized in script and media development. In his experience as a composition and creative writing instructor, he focuses on public-facing compositions, essayistic structuring, research-driven approaches, and internal logic. He teaches grammar rhetorically, according to student intentions and learning goals. His passion for uplifting diverse voices and art/activism leads him to read, write, and give instruction according to anti-racist and equitable pedagogy practices, of which we are all lifelong learners. 

 

Affiliated Institution: University of Washington

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Bowen Du

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (he/him/his)

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Research Specialities: Asian American literature, critical race and ethnicity, settler colonialism, East Asian philosophy

 

Bowen Du teaches at the University of California, Davis, where he is a PhD candidate in English. His research focuses on Asian American literature, critical race and ethnicity, settler colonialism, and East Asian philosophy. In particular, he studies Asian thought’s reception in American literature at large and in Asian American literature specifically, with an emphasis on how Asian American writers use Asian thought to critique American empire. He has taught courses on college-level composition, Native American literature, and race and gender in Westerns.

 

Affiliated Institution: University of California, Davis

 

 

Cathryn Flores

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (she/her/hers)

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Research Specialities: bilingual, Spanish-English adaptations of early modern literature/Shakespeare, digital/media studies, environmental humanities, performance theory

 

Cathryn Flores teaches and studies at the University of California, Davis. Her research specializes in bilingual, Spanish-English adaptations of early modern literature/Shakespeare, digital/media studies, environmental humanities, and performance theory. Flores served as a music director for community-based theatre organizations Shakespeare in Yosemite and Merced Shakespearefest. Her latest work on the bilingual YouTube series Ricardo II (2020) has been featured in Arden Bloomsbury's Lockdown Shakespeare: New Evolutions in Performance and Adaptation. In November 2022, she was a featured panelist at Shakespeare and Race: Spoken Word(s) Academic Symposium hosted by Shakespeare's Globe and King's College in London.

 

Affiliated Institution: University of California, Davis

 

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Laura Frater

Associate Instructor of English 

Pronouns: (she/her/hers)

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Research Specialities: Federal Indian Law, Tribal Law, law as literature, representations of missing and murdered Indigenous people

 

Laura Frater teaches and studies at the University of California, Davis. Born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, Frater’s PhD work focuses on the formation of Public Law 280 and its relationship to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people on reservations in the United States. She also works as an investigative journalist for the Two Rivers Tribune, a weekly newspaper based on the Hoopa Reservation. Laura is currently collaborating with Tenderfoot TV to create a podcast about MMIP cases in Hoopa. She holds an MA in Holocaust Literature from Iona College, and a BA in English Language and Literature from King’s College London. 

  

Affiliated Institution: University of California, Davis

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Meleena Gil

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (they/she)

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Research Specialities:  queer theory, environmental humanities, specializing in representations of youth in contemporary Latinx literature 

 

Meleena (they/she) is a first-generation US-American and college graduate now working towards a doctoral degree in English and Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill. Drawing from queer theoretical and environmental humanities frameworks, Meleena specializes in representations of youth in contemporary Latinx literature. Meleena hopes to unite their service work and research by partnering with various organizations on and off campus to invigorate their pedagogy and foster more formidable local ties. They aim to create a space for meaningful experiences and mutual acknowledgment.

 

Affiliated Institution: University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

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Thomas Nez

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (he/him/his)

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Research Specialities: 20th century American literature, poetics, literary realism, documentary, critical race theory  

 

Thomas Nez, PhD, teaches literature, film, and writing at Longwood University. Both his teaching and his scholarship draw on popular culture, science and technology studies, political economy, and critical race theory to grapple with the submerged and entangled contradictions of everyday life. His current book project, Beyond Commitment: Documentary Writing and the Crises of Modernism, suggests that the organization of historical record can expose the invisible relations of historical production that situate the practice of writing.​

 

Affiliated Institution: Longwood University

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Dana E. Maller 

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (she/her/hers)

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Research Specialities: the novel, postcolonial literature, study of narrative

 

Dana Maller is an English PhD student and graduate instructor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her scholarship focuses on the novel, postcolonial literature, and the study of narrative. Currently, her research explores ontological approaches to narrative theory to assess how literature answers to the emergent conditions and problems of the Anthropocene. 

 

Affiliated Institution: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

 

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Yasmin Mendoza

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (she/her/hers)

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Research Specialities:  American literature post 1945, censorship of literature in America post 1973, media studies, digital humanities, advocacy work 

 

Yasmin Mendoza (she/her/hers) teaches at the University of California, Davis, where she is a PhD student studying English literature. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Theatre at Whittier College in the fall of 2021. She is a Mellon Mays fellow and an Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers fellow. At UC Davis, she studies American literature post 1945 and her research interests include censorship of literature in America post 1973, media studies, digital humanities, and advocacy work. She is Vice President of Graduate Scholars of Color+ and was involved in planning the 2023 Annual Graduate Anti-Racist Symposium. Her most recent work, entitled "Banning Without Bans," was published on MLA Sites in the summer of 2022. She is most excited to help students working on essays about American literature, Cultural Studies, Statements of Purpose (for graduates or undergraduates), and personal experience essays. 

 

Affiliated Institution: University of California, Davis

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Monika Sierkowska

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (she/her/hers)

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Research Specialities: holocaust studies, life writing, critical theory, feminism, memory theory 

 

Monika Sierkowska, PhD, teaches French and German at Bridgewater College. Her research focuses on female subjectivity in German and Polish literature and film, with particular attention paid to the historical sequence that leads from WWII to the Eastern Bloc and then finally to the post-1989 transformation. She specifically interested in the forgotten perspectives of women during and after WWII, situating gender as the primary category by which to interrogate conventional narratives of war and recovery.

 

Affiliated Institution: Bridgewater College

 

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Andrew Tran

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (he/him/his)

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Research Specialities:  global modernisms, contemporary autofiction, memoir 

 

Andrew Tran is an instructor and PhD student in the Department of Comparative Literature at UNC, where he focuses on global modernisms, contemporary autofiction, and memoir. His recent work centers the aesthetics of evolving beliefs and contingent worldviews that permeate the everyday ambiguities in modern and contemporary fiction.

 

Affiliated Institution: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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Elijah Two Bears 

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (they/them)

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Research Specialities:  the overlooked theoretical nexus of queer and trans studies and blue humanities (also known as critical ocean studies) in early modern English literature. 

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Elijah Two Bears teaches at the University of California - Davis in the department of English, where they are a PhD student with Emphasis in Environmental Humanities. They received a MA in English Literature with Designated Emphasis in Renaissance and Early Modern studies from the University of Mississippi. Elijah’s research focused on the overlooked theoretical nexus of queer and trans studies and blue humanities (also known as critical ocean studies) in early modern English literature. 

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Elijah has over a decade of experience working with high school, college, and graduate students on their writing and is particularly ready to assist students with applications (grants, scholarships, statements of purpose, personal essays). Elijah is thrilled to work with students from any academic department.

 

Affiliated Institution: University of California, Davis

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Erika Wenstrom

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (she/her/hers)

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Research Specialities:  literature, critical reading and thinking (including logic and rhetoric), composition 

 

Erika Wenstrom, PhD., is an experienced, award-winning educator. Her main subject areas are literature, critical reading and thinking (including logic and rhetoric), and composition. She has worked with diverse student populations — including ESL, disabled, neurodivergent, and at-risk students — and understands their unique needs. Erika loves mentoring students and excels at one-on-one instruction. She'll demystify the writing process for you and give you quick, clear, actionable advice on improving your papers.

 

Affiliated Institution: Diablo Valley College

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Duane Wright 

Associate Instructor of English

Pronouns: (he/him/his)

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Research Specialities:  work/labor, social movements, education

 

Duane Wright has taught as an Associate Instructor and Teaching Assistant at the University of California Davis since fall 2011. Before graduate school he worked in the public school system as a substitute teacher, paraprofessional, and after-school program instructor for k-8. He studies labor unions and the tensions within them between bureaucratizing forces and democratizing movements. His dissertation focuses on dissident rank-and-file autonomous organizing and the repressive response to this organizing by union leaders. Duane has taught a variety of sociology courses including Intro to Sociology, Social Problems, Labor and Employment, Corporations and Society, and Social Policy.He has helped dozens of students with applications for scholarships, graduate school, and non-profit jobs. Duane has also been involved in social movements for over 20 years and has hosted countless teach-ins at occupied buildings, picket lines, and more. 

 

Affiliated Institution: University of California, Davis