-Ph.D. in Cultural and Critical Studies-
JESSICA FITZPATRICK
Curriculum Vitae
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CURRENT POSITION:
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Director of the Digital Narrative and Interactive Design joint major between English Department and the School of Computing and Information at the University of Pittsburgh
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Director of the Digital Media Lab
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Teaching Assistant Professor in English, University of Pittsburgh
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EDUCATION:
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Ph.D., English: Cultural and Critical Studies, University of Pittsburgh, August 2017
Dissertation: “Hacking the Future: The Space and Place of Earth in Postcolonial Science Fiction”
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M.A., English, University of Pittsburgh, May 2013
Project Papers: Women Rebels in 20th Century Postcolonial Novels of the Global South
B.A., University of Delaware, May 2009 (Magna Cum-Laude, Honors Degree with Distinction)
Majors: English & Anthropology; Minor: History
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RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS:
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19th, 20th, and 21st century Anglophone world literature, Public Humanities, Digital Humanities, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, popular culture, African and African Diasporic literature, narratology, gender and women’s studies, literature of the Global South, ethnic studies, multimodal composition, genre writing, first-year composition, science fiction studies, introductory literature, spatial theory, trauma and violence studies, creative writing, and storytelling technologies.
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AWARDS & GRANTS:
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Pitt Cyber Accelerator Grant, University of Pittsburgh. “Extended Reality Tour of a Media Archaeology Lab to Widen Access to Material Resources Representing a History of Technology.”
To design and implement an extended reality (XR) tour of the Media Archeology Lab (MAL) at University of Colorado-Boulder to enable Pitt learners to virtually access MAL’s rich media holdings. Core project teammates: Dmitriy Babichenko (Pitt), libi stregel (University of Colorado Boulder). 2022.
Pitt Cyber Accelerator Grant, University of Pittsburgh. “Hour of Code and CEC/English Community Liaison and Digital Infrastructure.”
To continue building the infrastructure to bring Hour of Code events to 4-10th graders from under-resourced schools in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh. 2022.
President's Contingent Faculty Travel Award, Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. April 2021.
Year of Creativity Grant, University of Pittsburgh. Soundcloud Subscription and Podcast Support for English Department. 2020.
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Public Humanities Fellowship
A competitive fellowship funded and organized through the collaborative efforts of the University of Pittsburgh Humanities Center and the non-profit organization City of Asylum. Developed a series of interviews showcasing authors from countries listed in the "Travel Ban" of the Trump Administration, and the introduction to this new sub-series; worked collaboratively with other City of Asylum fellow and the non-profit's editorial team. Interview series to be published in Sampsonia Way during the Fall. Summer 2017.
Marlee and James Myers English Department Award
Recognizing the best undergraduate essays in literature courses taught by Graduate Teaching Fellows. Awards are presented to both the student author of the essay and the instructor in order to honor student composition and instructor writing pedagogy. 2014 and 2015.
Honorable Mention, Elizabeth Baranger Excellence in Teaching Award
Awarded by the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Organization of the University of Pittsburgh to outstanding graduate instructors. April 10, 2015. Nominated for the Baranger again in Fall 2017.
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PUBLICATIONS:
“Restoring the ‘Lived space of the body’: Attunement in Critical Making.” Co-authored with Dr. Kelsey Cameron of the University of South Carolina. electronic book review for their 2021 issue on Critical Making, Critical Design. August 12, 2021.
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“Designing Lived Space: Community Engagement Practices In Rooted AR.” Chapter in Augmented and Mixed Reality in Communities textbook. Co-authored with Dr. Kelsey Cameron. Published by Taylor & Francis CRC Press. Forthcoming in Fall 2020.
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“Afrofuturist Aliens: Shifting to the space of third contact.” Extrapolation Special Issue on Beyond Afrofuturism. Edited by Isiah Lavender III and Lisa Yaszek. Forthcoming; Journal Issue to be published in late Fall 2019.
“Seeds of Catastrophe: The Rosewater Insurrection and The Rosewater Redemption.” Solicited Book review. Los Angeles Review of Books. <lareviewofbooks.org/article/seeds-of-catastrophe-the-rosewater-insurrection-and-the- rosewater-redemption/>. 29 Feb 2019.
“Rosewater by Tade Thompson: An Alien Invasion that ‘grows on you.’” Book review. Los Angeles Review of Books. <https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/tade-thompsons-rosewater-an-alien-invasion-that-grows-on-you/>. Oct 27, 2018.
Travel Ban Interview Series. Including “Grappling in the Dark, an Interview with Ali Jimale Ahmed,” “Keeping an Honest Pen, an Interview with Sharnush Parsipur,” and Series Introduction. Sampsonia Way, a Magazine on Literary Freedom of Expression. City of Asylum. <www.sampsoniaway.org/blog/2018/04/18/grappling-in-the-dark-an-interview-with-ali-jimale-ahmed/>. April 2018.
“Writing from the Body: An Interview with Nalo Hopkinson.” Hot Metal Bridge, a literary magazine. University of Pittsburgh. <hotmetalbridge.org/an-interview-with-nalo-hopkinson/>. Summer 2015.
CURRENT DIGITAL & COMMUNITY PROJECTS:
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Playing Place : Pittsburgh, Augmented.
A student and faculty generated augmented reality (AR) mobile application that enables people to physically explore the stories of Pittsburgh. An ongoing spatial storytelling project illuminating interactions between narrative and cityscape, Playing Place is now in the early stages of development, with University stakeholders in the English Department, the School of Computing and Information, the Open Lab Makers Space, and the Vibrant Media Lab undergoing a series of AR training workshops, planning Digital Narrative and Interactive Design (DNID) curricular sequences for faculty and students to develop the app interface, AR experiences, content curation, and playable narrative. This work builds from a 2018-2019 data collection phase undertaken with Dr. Kelsey Cameron (University of South Carolina), and GIS specialists Emma Slayton and Jessica Benner of Carnegie Mellon University. In this phase, Pitt undergraduate students composed site-based stories, wireframe AR experiences, and prototype playable narrative threads.
August Wilson House Organization Oral History Project.
In order to assist the August Wilson House with gathering, preserving, and sharing community stories about August Wilson’s connection to the Hill District (as an individual, as a neighborhood citizen, as an author), the University of Pittsburgh literature course, Secret Pittsburgh is partnering with the August Wilson House and the Pitt Community Engagement Center in the Hill District to generate an August Wilson Oral History Collection. In the Fall of 2019 these partners established an oral history questionnaire and assemble a list of interviewees. In the Winter of 2020, Secret Pittsburgh university students connected with local community residents to collaboratively learn how to conduct, record, edit, and preserve oral history story audio files. The completed August Wilson-focused oral histories will be preserved by the August Wilson House Organization for use by interested Wilson scholars, fans, and neighbors, and—most crucially—as a content library the Organization can use as they move forward with their interpretive plan.
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Secret Pittsburgh Digital Guidebook: https://secretpittsburgh.org/
The Secret Pittsburgh site houses student entries about the city of Pittsburgh, PA. New content is uploaded each semester reflecting the experiences and work of the most recent course participants. I designed, launched, and managed the initial online guidebook of the “Secret Pittsburgh” literature course and currently serve as the site’s content director and managing editor. During the 2019-2021 academic period, the project team is finalizing the redesign, updating project style guides and web policies, and migrating course content.
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OMEKA Science Fiction Exhibits. Fall 2019. https://sff19.omeka.net/
My science fiction class of fall 2019 is designing OMEKA digital exhibits that constellate archival objects, raise awareness of Pitt Pop-Culture archival collection, and encourage students to author narratives about science fiction history, art, megatextual tropes, and community. Project provides students with the opportunity to learn about and generate metadata and the OMEKA publishing platform. A collaboration with University Library Services Special Collections & Archives and the Digital Scholarship Services departments, this assignment sequence serves as the Archive’s first collaborative OMEKA course venture. Class exhibits will serve as showpieces in technology displays at Special Collections Reading Room.
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Transatlantic Media Map Workshop: Secret Made Strange Blog. Fall 2019.
Designed blog for collaborative transnational course assignment between Pitt London Film program and Pitt main campus courses. Collaboratively developed assignment sequence with Dr. Sarah Joshi (Pitt London). Students in Secret Pittsburgh (main campus) and City Made Strange (London campus) build thematically narrative and interpretive multimedia maps of their respective cities (London / Pittsburgh). Through the virtual space of Secret Made Strange Blog, geographically distant students join together as workshop participants, providing each other with constructive feedback on their developing map projects, testing new technical and narrative skills, and commiserating with useful resources, like online tutorials. Provides students practice in generating productive and clear written-only communication with long-distance project collaborators.
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ENTER the City. Secret Pittsburgh Course Trailer, May 2-5 2019.
For the Derek Jarman Lab (of Birkbeck College, University of London) Film Production Workshop on Film and University Practice, I wrote, directed, and produced a short film that visualizes the Secret Pittsburgh literature course methodology and advertises the course and one of the guidebook’s represented city locations. This short film will be used as a trailer for the class to help pique student enrollment, and as one sample text for future classes asked to interpret city spaces via film.
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Timelines of Archival Materials, Special Collections ULS. Spring 2018. Including: Science Fiction Fanzines: A Collection of Thoughts, Theories, and Other Things
A collaborative project I organized with University Library Services Special Collections and Digital Scholarship departments. My Composing Digital Media class compiled metadata and composed public-facing timeline interfaces about archival texts using Knight Lab’s TimelineJS tool. The finished products include photographs critically transformed on Photoshop by the students. We are in the process of displaying the timelines on the ULS website and they have already served as reference tools for researchers.
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INVITED TALKS:
“Speculative Scales: Narrative Mapping” Pittsburgh Lecture at Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image. Birkbeck, University of London. 19 Nov, 2021.
“Working Through Third Space in the Science Fiction of Octavia Butler, Nnedi Okorafor, and Tochi Onyebuchi.” Edward Waters College. Center for Undergraduate Research Lecture series. March 8, 2021.
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“Placed Pedagogy : Literature and Public Humanities Beyond the Classroom.” University of Colorado, Boulder. Originally Spring 2020, Postponed due to COVID-19.
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“Digital Storytelling.” Carnegie Mellon University. Spatial Storytelling 2018-2019 Series.
February 18, 2019.
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CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS:
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“Disanthropocentric Climate Fiction: Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon as Turn of Tide” with Dr. Kylie Korsnack for the panelist-organized panel (What We Talk About When We Talk About Cli-Fi). Science Fiction Research Association Conference: Futures from the Margins. University of Oslo / Virtual. June 27 – July 1, 2022.
“The Right to Space: Reimagining Citizenship in Anders, Basu, and Onyebuchi” in the panelist-organized panel “Movements Beyond the Body: Speculative Migrations / Alternative Realities,” for The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. Spring 2021, virtual.
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”Dangerous Pleasures: Mixing (Virtual) Reality, Speculative Fiction, and Ecological Precarity While the World Ends.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, “Climate Change and the Anthropocene.” Orlando, FL. Accepted; conference canceled due to COVID-19. Accepted for 2021 conference, forthcoming in March.
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“Ethical Positioning: University AR and Community Engagement” with project collaborator Dr. Kelsey Cameron, Regis University. Ethical XR: A Multidisciplinary Symposium on the Future of Extended Reality, Florida Atlantic University. 21 Feb. 2020.
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“Making Space: Alternative Citizenship in SF Heterotopias.” Science Fiction Research Association Annual conference; “Facing the Future, Facing the Past: Colonialism, Indigeneity, and Science Fiction.” Chaminade University, Honolulu, Hawaii. June 21-24, 2019.
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“Breaking the Mold: Spatial Postcolonial Speculation.” North Eastern Modern Language Association Convocation. Pittsburgh, PA. Upcoming, April 12-15, 2018.
“Closer to Home: the Spatial Crucible of Twenty-First Century Global SF.” Science Fiction Research Association Annual conference; “Unknown Pasts / Unseen Futures.” University of California, Riverside, CA. June 28 – July 1, 2017.
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“Reconsidering the Space(s) of Global Science Fiction.” The Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS) 17th Triennial conference. Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa. July 10-15, 2016.
“Making Space for The World in a Worlds Literature.” The Society for Novel Studies conference. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. May 13-14, 2016.
“Reading Indian SF Protocols” in the seminar “Science Fictions and Asian Histories” at the American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting. Harvard University, MA. March 17-20 2016.
“Shifting Earthly Spaces Towards Alien Futures: Space in Postcolonial SF.” Revising the Past, Remaking the Future Conference. University of California Riverside. October 16-17, 2015.
“How to Save the World, the Nation, and Your Identity as a Postcolonial Superhero.” Science Fiction Research Association Annual Conference. Stony Brook, NY. June 25-27, 2015.
“Postcolonial Science Fiction: Disturbing the ‘Empire of Bones’” North Eastern Modern Language Association Convocation. Toronto, Canada. April 30-May 3, 2015.
“Genre Locations, Space Utilizations: Exploring Postcolonial Science Fiction.” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. National Conference. New Orleans, LA. April 1-4, 2015.
“The Day the Sardines Swam Free: Women Rebelling Against Enforced Reality.” African Literature Association Conference. Charleston College, Charleston, SC. 2013.
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DEPARTMENTAL TALKS:
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Critical Making: Bringing Digital Resources into the Literature Classroom. Pedagogy Talk for Literature Program. Fall 2019.
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“Story-Teaching with Twine.” Digital Brown Bag Pedagogy series, University of Pittsburgh. Upcoming, November 10, 2017.
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“We Need a Hero: Challenging Nationalism Through Superpowered Perspectives.“ Works in Progress Panel. Race, Poetics, and Empire Literature focal group, University of Pittsburgh. February 2, 2017.
“Using Critical Pop-Culture to Complement Discussions of Difficult Topics.” Panel on Pedagogy and Current Events in the Classroom. Race, Poetics, and Empire Literature program concentration, University of Pittsburgh. October 1, 2015.
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GUEST LECTURES:
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“Cuts like a Water Knife.” Guest Lecture for Dr. Shalini Puri’s Interdisciplinary Methodology Graduate Seminar. Nov 19, 2018.
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“Rewiring Spatial Conceptions: Introduction to Spatial Theory & Cyberspace.” Guest Lecture for Dr. Nicholas Coles’ Secret Pittsburgh course. Spring 2017.
“Thirdspace is the Place: Spatial Theory as a Lens and a Method.” Guest Lecture for Dr. Nicholas Coles’ Secret Pittsburgh course. Fall 2016 and Fall 2017.
“Dream Machines: the mind and the brain as gateways to Interior and Exterior worlds in Haruki Murakami’s Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.” Guest Lecture for Dr. Thora Brylowe’s Lectures in Literature course. Fall 2012 and Spring 2013.
“Inside the Outside: The Boundaries of J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians.” Guest Lecture for Dr. Thora Brylowe’s Lectures in Literature course. Fall 2012 and Spring 2013.
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SELECT COURSES TAUGHT AS INSTRUCTOR OF RECORD:
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University of Pittsburgh:
Provost Academy, Secret Pittsburgh: How to Narrate a City Summer 2019
Invited by the Provost to design and run a weeklong section of Secret Pittsburgh
as an experiential course in the inaugural provost academy orientation for incoming
first-generation freshman students. Organized production of class generated zine.
Collaboratively taught with Dr. Hannah Johnson.
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Secret Pittsburgh Summer 2019
Course solicited by OLLI for continuing education adult students over the age of 50.
Collaboratively taught with Dr. Kirsten Paine.
Digital Narrative & Interactive Design Capstone 2022
Digital Narrative and Interactive Design Spring 2021, Spring 2022
Collaboratively piloted and taught with Dr. Dmitriy Babichenko (School of Computing and Information Science)
Global Fictions Spring 2021
Science Fiction: “Escape Velocity of a World Genre” Fall 2018; 2019, 2020
Composing Digital Media Spring 2018
Narrative and Technology: “Story-Tech-ing” Fall 2017; 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
Women and Literature: “System Subversions” Fall 2017
Science Fiction: “Experimenting in the Generic Crucible” Fall 2017
Introduction to Literature Spring 2017
Introduction to Critical Reading Spring 2017
Science Fiction: “Boldly Going Genre” Fall 2016
Detective Fiction: “Detecting the Great Global Game” Summer 2016
Secret Pittsburgh, 2015 , 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020
Course individually developed and piloted
Short Story in Context: "The Future is Now & Then" Summer 2015
Women and Literature: “Narrative Spaces of Unrest and Unquiet” 2014-2015
Literature of the Contemporary: “Echoes & Lineages” 2013-2014
Reading Poetry: “Beyond Botheration” Summer 2013
Seminar in Composition 2011-2012
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ADDITIONAL TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
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University of Pittsburgh:
Teaching Assistant, Lectures in Literature 2012-2013
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Lulu Ross Elementary School of Milford, DE:
Response To Intervention (RTI) Reading Tutor, grades 2 through 5 2009-2010
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University of Delaware:
University Writing Center Peer Tutor 2006-2009
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SELECT EVENTS & SERVICE to the FIELD:
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August Wilson House Organization, Interpretive Committee Member Fall 2019-2021
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Science Fiction Research Association, Mary Kay Bray Award Committee 2019 - 2022
Invited to serve, award honors the best essay, interview, or extended
review to appear in the SFRA Review. Member from 2019-2021, Chair
from 2021-2022.
Wheel Mills to Steel Mills: Uncovering Secret Pittsburgh Art Gallery Evening Spring 2016
A public art gallery event themed “Secret Pittsburgh” highlighting a
class-designed place scavenger hunt highlighting student creative and
nonfictional work from the semester as well as specifics about host location,
a warehouse transformed into an indoor bike park.
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SELECT SERVICE, STUDENT MENTORSHIP, and TRAINING:
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University of Pittsburgh:
Welcomed By Design Podcast, Independent Study Director Fall 2022
Executive Produce Welcomed By Design Podcast (about accessibility and inclusive design) with Lynn Priestly (host and producer), Ashton M. (sound designer), and Chloe D. (sound designer). Lead group learning circle readings and discussions about accessible audio design and the topics of inclusive design.
Digital Media Lab, Undergraduate Lab Manager Supervisor 2021-2023
Brackenridge Undergraduate Research Project, Faculty Mentor Summer 2022 Topic: The Secret of Century III: Dreams Lost” Walking Simulator Game
Summer Undergraduate Research Mentor (SURA program) Summer 2022
Topic: Campus-Wide Alternate Reality Game (ARG)
Digital Water Stories booth; World Water Day Event Spring 2022
Organized Open Lab and Digital Media Lab presence offering virtual reality and video game considerations about how we represent and explore questions of water.
Brackenridge Undergraduate Research Project, Faculty Mentor
Topic: Mapping Social Justice in Pittsburgh in the 20th-Century
Archival Scholars Project, Faculty Mentor Fall 2019 – Spring 2020
Topic: Paper Paratexts, Vovelles as Instruction for Digital Interface Design
Archival Scholars Application Project, Faculty Mentor Fall 2019
Topic: Fan Discourses in Science Fiction Archives
ALLY accessibility pilot training for Courseweb/Blackboard 2019–2020
The ALLY plug-in helps instructors identify and improve the
accessibility of course content.
Department Diversity Committee 2019-2020
Department Digital Narrative and Interactive Design (DNID) Committee 2019-2020
DNID is a joint major with English and the School of Computing & Information
Brackenridge Undergraduate Research Project, Faculty Mentor Summer 2019
Project: near-future SF Novella-in-Flash about A.I. & Sex Trafficking
Derek Jarman Lab (Birkbeck College, University of London) Film Production Workshop Spring 2019
Workshop Topic: Research Films.
Product: “Secret Pittsburgh: Enter the City” course advertisement film
Faculty Partner, Chancellor Undergraduate Teaching Fellowship Spring 2019
A competitive fellowship awarded to a teaching assistant collaboratively
developing new curriculum sequences. For Narrative & Technology course,
ORSON project new media production sequence with Valkyrie Speaker.
Independent Study Director Spring 2019
Topic: Imagining A.I. and Activism in science fiction, introduction to
genre megatext and methods
AdHoc Literature Pedagogy Working Group Fall 2018
Department Pedagogy Committee Fall 2018
Department Planning and Budget Committee, Fall 2018
Elected Visiting Lecturer Representative
Independent Study Director Fall 2018
Topic: Time-Based Social Media Ergodic Narrative; Creative Project: ORSON
Summer Undergraduate Research Mentor Summer 2018
Topic: 21st Century Ergodic Digital Storytelling
Speculative Fiction Research, Pedagogy, & Community Group, Organizer 2017-2018
Archival Scholar Faculty Mentor Spring 2018
Topic: Information Sharing in the Trans Community
Teaching Assistant & Teaching Fellow Department Teaching Mentor 2016-2017
English Department Alumni Digital Coordinator 2016-2017
Undergrad Literature Conference, Moderator Spring 2016
Literature Program Curriculum Committee, Member 2015-2016
Literature Program Undergraduate Outreach Coordinator 2015-2016
Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences Honors Research Fellowship Mentor Fall 2016
Topic: Young Adult Fantasy & Gendered Heroism
Literature Program Pedagogy Committee, Member 2014-2015
Literature Program, Reading Group Organizer 2014-2015
English Department Graduate Exchange, Literature Coordinator 2014-2015
Undergraduate Literature Conference Planning Committee, Member 2011-2012
English Department Graduate Student Organization, Co-President 2010-2011
Allies Network Training to support LGBTQIA students and employees Fall 2010
New Student Mentor, via Graduate Student Organization 2011-2014
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University of Delaware:
Sexual Assault Prevention & Education (SAPE) Committee Member 2007-2009
Satellite Walk-In Writing Center, Program Coordinator 2007-2009
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SELECT EVENTS & COMMUNITY BUILDING
within the University:
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Transatlantic Workshop Celebration: Student Interpretive Media Map Showcase Fall 2019
Community Showcase of student produced London & Pittsburgh maps, resulting
from partnership between Secret Pittsburgh and Pitt London Film Program.
Cathedral Arcade: Student and Faculty Critical Playing Videogame Event Fall 2018
Locating Stories: Spatial Storytelling Competition (ArcGIS Story Maps) Spring 2019
Secret Pittsburgh 360* Showcase Fall 2018
Paper and Print Tech Workshop Fall 2018
Secret Pittsburgh Spring 2018 Showcase Spring 2018
Exploring the Outer Limits of Pop-Culture Archives Night at Special Collections Fall 2017
Exploring the Outer Reaches of Special Collections' Pop-Culture Archive Fall 2017
Wheel Mills to Steel Mills: Uncovering Secret Pittsburgh Art Gallery Evening Spring 2016
Literature Pedagogy Retreat Fall 2016
Inaugural Lit@Pitt Charity Read-a-thon Fall 2016
Undergraduate Literature Conference, Senior Co-Chair 2014-2015
Undergraduate Literature Conference, Junior Co-Chair 2013-2014
English Department Community Picnic Fall 2011
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TECHNICAL SKILLS:
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Institutional social media management: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Video production and editing: Adobe Premiere Pro, iMovie
Digital media project formation (including podcasting, blogging, 360° video,& 3D Scanning):
Adobe Photoshop, ArcGIS maps, Audacity, Garmin VIRB Edit, Open Broadcaster Software, SoundCloud, TimelineJS (Knight Lab), Twine (open-source interactive story generator), Wordpress Learning management systems: ALLY accessibility plug-in, BlackBoard/Courseweb, Canvas, Digital content presentation: Drupal, Microsoft Office Suite, Prezi, Skype, Zoom ; currently training on Unity
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Institutional Communication Platforms: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Zoom
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