CLS Curriculum Conference (2026)

Hosted by the Professional Development, Research, and Service Committee
Austin Community College | Composition & Literary Studies

Friday, March 6, 2026 @ 11:00 am – 4:00 pm

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Schedule

Texas’ Own CCCs

CLS Curriculum Conference (2026)

Austin Community College

Composition & Literary Studies
Friday, March 6, 2026

11:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Panels & Workshops

CLS hosts a variety of panels and presentations on timely topics relevant to pedagogy in higher education.

Featured Presenter

Deb Olin Unferth is the author of six books, including the novels Barn 8 and Vacation, the memoir Revolution, finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award, two story collections, and the graphic novel I, Parrot. Her fiction and essays have appeared in over fifty magazines and journals, including Harper’s, the New York Times, The Paris Review, Granta, and McSweeney’s. She has received a Guggenheim fellowship, three Pushcart Prizes, a Creative Capital Fellowship for Innovative Literature, fellowships from the MacDowell, Yaddo, and Ucross residencies. Her next book, the novel Earth 7, will appear in June.

She’s a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches for the Michener Center, the New Writers’ Project, and she also directs the Pen City Writers, the prison creative-writing program at a south Texas penitentiary. Originally from Chicago, she lives in Austin with the philosophy professor Matt Evans.

Deb Olin Unferth

Location

Highland Campus (HLC)

6101 Highland Campus Dr., Austin, TX 78752

Registration (Required)

Register Now
Deadlines: February 22, 2026 in-person or virtual
February 27, 2026 virtual only *
* Registration Required

Directory & Map

Highland Campus (HLC)

Information & Directory (HLC)

6101 Highland Campus Dr., Austin, 78752

Google Map (HLC)

Sessions & Topics

Session 1A: Mexican American Lit. & Hip Hop
"Mexican American Lit. & Hip Hop" highlights the importance and usefulness of studying the creative and rhetorical output of Mexican American writers and Hip Hop artists. Their discourse displays a multi-linguistic, multi-dialectical, and multi-conscious reality that serves as an anti-hegemonic force.

Dr. Robert Tinajero, Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Applied English
Dr. Robert Tinajero is Associate Professor of English at UNT-Dallas and also serves as the program coordinator for the Applied English program. His research interests include Hip Hop Studies, Race Studies, Mexican-American Rhetoric, and the history of Composition Studies in the United States. He teaches various writing and rhetoric courses.

Session 1B: Serious Fun: Gamifying the English Classroom & Active Learning
This session offers practical strategies for energizing classrooms through active learning and gamification. Drawing on Lilly conference insights and classroom-tested games, presenters will share adaptable techniques that prioritize student engagement, movement, and meaningful learning.

Melissa Holton, Professor of Composition and Literary Studies
Melissa enjoys trying active learning, allowing students to ask important questions and take a stake in their own learning processes. Her scholarly work focuses on everything dark and spooky in storytelling.

Jill Bosché, Professor of Composition and Literary Studies
Jill uses gamification to transform discussion and engagement. She invites students to play with ideas in ways that stick.

Session 1C: AI Assisted Approaches to Teaching
Three CLS colleagues will share three AI-assisted approaches to teaching and how they integrate them into Blackboard. Hear how students assess 'AI Instructor' discussions for extra credit, how professors can easily tweak a quiz's level of difficulty, and how AI can generate holistic rubrics for quick formative progress checks or descriptive rubrics for thorough assessment of summative assignments.

Dr. Brinda Roy, Professor of Composition and Literary Studies
Brinda teaches in the CLS department for both the Honors and LEAD programs. Her approach to teaching emphasizes critical inquiry, interdisciplinary engagement, and the development of students’ academic voice. She’s also Program Coordinator for LEAD and Facilitator of the Global Education FLC which helps faculty integrate global perspectives into the curriculum.

Dr. LaTasha Goodwyn, Professor of Composition and Literary Studies
Dr. Goodwyn studied at the University of the Cumberlands, and she’s currently a full-time Professor of Composition and Literary Studies at Austin Community College. Her interests are American Literature and Literature of the African Diaspora.

Lauren Davila, Professor of Composition and Literary Studies
Lauren Davila is an Assistant Professor in the department of Composition and Literary Studies at Austin Community College. Since 2018, she has worked primarily with Dual Credit students teaching Composition I & II. Currently she is the Co-Facilitator of the Leander ECHS Character Education Community of Practice.

Session 1D: Teaching Literature During a 'Reading Crisis'
How can we get students to do course reading, especially when it includes long texts? This presentation looks not at traditional English pedagogy but at the seemingly unrelated field of evolutionary biology, positing that reading hard things is a lot like exercise, and this is useful for course design.

Dr. Lindsay Lawley-Rerecich, Associate Dean, Dual Credit, Liberal Arts
Dr. Lindsay Lawley-Rerecich likes to find connections among seemingly disparate things, whether this is spanning the Old English epic to the early novel in her teaching, helping others navigate the K-12-College intersection of dual credit in her administrative work, or sharing life with her partner, two teenagers, and three dogs.

Session 2A: The Asymmetric See-Saw: How to Collaborate Co-Intelligently with AI on Revision
This interactive session demonstrates how students can create parallel drafts of an essay with AI, then collaborate with it to generate a revised meta-draft. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in this co-intelligent revision process with AI in a workshop format.

Ryan Knight, Ph.D., Adjunct Faculty
Ryan Knight (Temple College; McLennan Community College) has taught English and composition full-time and part-time at five community colleges in three states. He also coaches faculty leaders across North Carolina and co-directs the state’s West hub through the Belk Center at NC State University.

Session 2B: Through a New Lens: Reframing the Literary Canon
"Through a New Lens" explores decentering the traditional literary canon to prioritize diverse voices. Using migrant and refugee narratives for Composition I and ethical remixes in Composition II, this session demonstrates how inclusive, contemporary storytelling fosters student engagement and critical thinking within the modern literature and composition classroom.

Professor Bianca "Binx" Beronio
Binx is a Tolkien scholar and PhD student at UTSA specializing in indigenous and Latinx narratives. As an adjunct at ACC and Chair of Tolkien Studies for the PCA, she integrates eco-justice and digital humanities into her pedagogy. She also serves her community through environmental and civil liberties advocacy.

Session 2C: Teaching Cultural Literature
This workshop will focus on methods of teaching cultural literacy, listening with raw openness, infusing cultural competency, and preparing students to engage with diverse literature, including syllabus language, writing trigger warnings, and preparing students to approach cultural literature analysis with critical thinking tools. Created for instructors interested in teaching World Literature, Mexican American Literature, and British Literature.

Sarah Stayton
Sarah Stayton has been teaching since 2005, with focus on modern short story, Borderlands literature and Dual Credit instruction.

Megan Wallace
Megan Wallace is a CLS faculty member at ACC. My teaching centers identity, culture, and. representation, with a strong commitment to Mexican American literature, inclusive pedagogy, and student-centered course design. I’m currently completing a Graduate Certificate in Mexican American Studies to expand culturally responsive literary instruction.

Session 2D: Teaching As Performance
Ever thought of yourself as a performer? Or your students as an audience? Explore how applying the principles of stage presence and improvisation can help you better gain and hold your students' attention.

Ryan Lopez, Assistant Professor of Composition and Literary Studies
Ryan is a published author with a masters in creative writing from Texas State University. He has taught reading and writing in the greater Austin area and online for over a decade to students as young as 6 and as old as 60. He has a wife and three children.

Session 3A: Grading/Not Grading for Engagement and Growth
Grading as a requirement often seems to overshadow learning and development. Our session will advance some thoughtful grading strategies, along with rationales for their use to: grade what we say we value; promote student participation and engagement; and acknowledge the reality of AI.

Luanne Preston
Luanne Preston has been at ACC for 45 years, serving in administrative and managerial roles including establishment of the dual credit program. She has been teaching full-time in Composition and Literary Studies for almost 20 years.

Mallory Lehenbauer
Mallory Lehenbauer is an ACC dual enrollment Composition and Literary Studies professor with 15 years of experience empowering youth. Her background spans coaching high school sports, teaching yoga, and leading youth non-profit initiatives focused on building self-efficacy, confidence, and advocacy.

Session 3B: Exploring the Pedagogy of Composition 2
This panel will explore English Composition II: its standards, ambiguity, and pedagogical possibilities. English Composition II declares that the course will prepare students for writing in academic and other public writing contexts. How can professors bring course skills such as researching, synthesizing sources, making focused arguments, building credibility, and inspiring beliefs or actions to academic and public writing contexts? This panel will try to answer that and other questions by sharing 3 different professors' experiences and honed methodologies.

Brian Fonken
Brian Fonken earned a PhD in English with a focus on 19th-century American literature and culture at UC Irvine. After lecturing in the Composition and Humanities programs at UCI and Orange Coast College, he returned to his hometown of Austin and joined the CLS faculty at ACC.

Amber Clontz
Amber Clontz studied at California State & Fullerton, and she has an MA in Linguistics. She is an Assistant Professor of Composition and Literary Studies, and she is the Assistant Department Chair of Teaching & Technology and Revilazing the English Major.

Robert Tinajero
Dr. Robert Tinajero is Associate Professor of English at UNT-Dallas and also serves as the program coordinator for the Applied English program. His research interests include Hip Hop Studies, Race Studies, Mexican-American Rhetoric, and the history of Composition Studies in the United States. He teaches various writing and rhetoric courses.

Session 3C: Backwards Planning Workshop: Setting Your Students (and Yourself) Up to Meet Expectations of Major Assignments and Essays
This session will provide strategies to adapt current class materials into a clearly scaffolded unit with the aim to build autonomy and confidence in students. We will provide examples of scaffolded units, tips for scaffolding current assignments, and explain features of Google Docs that make the process and grading easier.

Ellen Reyes, Adjunct Professor of Composition and Literary Studies
During my eight years of teaching at Round Rock High School, I have taught a variety of freshmen to junior level English courses including ESL, Inclusion, OnRamps, and Dual Credit. My love of learning has further flourished to support students in these classes.

Session 3D: Leadership in the Line of Fire--How To Catalyze Cultural Change in a Department
Leadership in the Line of Fire--How To Catalyze Cultural Change in a Department describes our own department’s dramatic transformation in the last five years. I’ll explain where we were, and what I found worked to generate the vibrant, productive, better organized, and happier academic department. Key points include how to: listen and respond to those most at risk; cultivate new leaders; build resistance and resilience in faculty; offer transparency, hope, and structure; and share and celebrate our story.

Dr. Wendy Elle, Dept. Chair of Composition and Literary Studies
Wendy Elle, Ph. D. is the Department Chair of Composition and Literary Studies (2021-2027) at Austin Community College (and served on the MLA ADE Executive Council 2023-2025.