Research Overview: My research program is twofold, focusing on popular culture and pedagogy. I use a critical cultural approach to better understand how movies and television represent individuals or groups of people with the understanding that these artifacts are cultural documents that can both articulate and generate our understanding of gender. In addition, I am also interested in helping improve teaching and learning in K-12 schools and higher education. My work frequently analyzes pedagogical practices in active learning and assessment. Through my work, I offer best practices for the classroom supported by evidence-based research.

Teaching Overview: I teach courses in popular culture, media literacy, professional writing, and online education. As a teacher, I view myself as a facilitator or guide. In all of my classes, I employ active learning strategies to engage students in course content. At the graduate level, I take particular pride in mentoring our students. In each of my graduate class periods, I explain my pedagogical approach to learning for that day; after several class periods of modeling different techniques, I ask students to practice using these different strategies by facilitating a discussion or activity. 

Much like writing, I believe that teaching is a reflective practice. In order to write and teach effectively, one must be willing to revise. To improve my courses, I participate in a variety of professional development opportunities related to teaching throughout the year.

2023 Teaching

• COMM 112: Understanding Media and Social Change
• COMM 425: Specialty Writing
• COMM 435: Critical Approaches to Popular Culture
• COMM 702: Introduction to College Teaching in the Humanities and Social Sciences