Summary My research for ENG 501 focused on digital literacy. This is an area of study I began getting interested in while attending the Connecticut Writing Project's Summer Institute in 2021. Several texts we read mentioned the "digital divide," and I was curious to find out if and how this affected my students, many of whom are first-generation college students on financial aid. My paper proposed incorporating digital literacy into a first-year composition class where students would learn how to use digital tools to create compositions while also critically examining the pervasiveness of digital content in shaping public perception. At the end of the semester, students complete a survey and exit interview assessing skill acquisition and application in a final project.

Summary The climate crisis is of great concern to me, and this interdisciplinary class gave me a strong foundation for communicating about issues related to the environmental humanities. For our final essay, we needed to write a critical analysis of a creative work with an environmental theme and address key terms in the field. I chose the children's book, We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, and analyzed its depiction of fossil fuels, climate change, and sense of place. Lindstrom uses the metaphor of the "black snake" invading ancestral land of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe to evoke both indigenous wisdom and activists’ protest against the fossil fuel industry. The book highlights the importance of activism, vigilance, and resistance as essential components of environmental justice, which was also a central theme of this course.

Summary This course explored the historical foundation and contemporary trends in the discipline of Composition Studies. One assignment entailed analyzing and synthesizing key features of one journal in the field. I selected NCTE's Teaching English in the Two-Year College. This led to the subject for further research which would be compiled into an annotated bibliography. I chose to focus on how inclusive mentor texts can be used to promote equity and empower student voice in the composition classroom. My research included articles about writing courses designed for high school ELA classrooms, interventions for marginalized populations, and real world examples of multi-modal text analysis and creation through digital technologies. This research continues to inform my current teaching practices.