Courses

I teach the following courses at Nazareth University in Rochester, NY. 

COMM 483 and 484, Communication & Media Internship (Fall 2025) 

• Description and Purpose: As the Communication & Media Program Director, I oversee internships, which include practical guided learning experiences at a business or organization. Supervised placement provides experience appropriate to the student’s knowledge, skills and interests. In addition to the on-site activities, internships require completion of a series of online, asynchronous modules that provide video instruction and guidance, promote reflection, deepen on-site engagement, and use discussion forums to facilitate peer-to-peer interactions.

COMM 345, Social Media (Fall 2024) 

• Description and Purpose: This course introduces students to the contexts and forms of social media. Students become familiar with a range of social media tools, analyze and discuss their uses and implications, and have the opportunity to explore the theory, psychology and practice of social media. The final project is a full social media campaign.

• Highlights: 

  • We alternated between learning about PR, marketing, and other strategies, and the ethics of social media platforms, apps, and channels. 

  • Through a series of reflections, posts, and class discussions, students shared their thoughts on the history, ethics, and uses of various social media. 

  • Students designed social media campaigns for clients, creating a series of posts and recommendations for their social media presence. 

COMM/ENGL 341, Representation in Media (Spring 2025) 

• Description and Purpose: Media representations of race, age, gender, ethnicity, nationality, ability, and/or class may reflect society, but also have a hand in shaping it. Throughout the semester, we explore the historical changes in media portrayals and how people are portrayed in the media, and exercise our own critical skills in dissecting such images and the impact that those images may have in politics, in policy, and in our understanding of the world. 

• Highlights: 

  • We discussed the ethics of recent AI advancements, and the personal and societal impacts of these technologies. 

  • I disclosed my personal expertise and blind spots before we covered each element of identity (race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability, class, etc.) in class, encouraging students to engage in similar reflections in journals, forum posts, and class discussions. 

  • We began the race and ethnicity unit of the course by covering whiteness, addressing the fact that Nazareth is a predominately white institution. The students applied these concepts to topics over the entire course of the term, demonstrating bravery, curiosity, and kindness toward others that made me very proud. 

  • Students composed creative Video Essays on aspects of representation in particular media that they were passionate about, effectively teaching each other through relevant case studies. 

COMM 301, Communication Research Methods (Spring 2025) 

• Description and Purpose: This course covers the design, analysis, and reporting of communication research. Research methods relevant to advertising, social media, public relations, and interpersonal communication are examined. Topics include research ethics, methodology design, and proposal defense. 

• Highlights: 

  • We applied the principles of sampling and other concepts to case studies such as presidential elections.

  • Students learned about the various research paradigms and reflected on which paradigm they were most interested in, and why. 

  • Focusing on real-world applications, we listened to episodes of the podcast Science Vs. and discussed how research is all around us but often misunderstood/misrepresented. 

  • Students learned how to conduct focus group, survey, interview, and discourse analysis research and applied these methods to projects of their own choosing. 

COMM 300, Communication Theory (Fall 2025) 

• Description and Purpose: Communication studies focus on how people use messages to generate meanings across contexts. Through social scientific, humanistic, and aesthetic inquiry, communication scholars analyze all forms, methods, modes, and means by which communication happens. This course reviews the most relevant theories, systems of ideas, concepts, and approaches to inquiry in communication and media. 

• Highlights: 

  • Students work in groups to apply theories of their own choosing to relevant, timely topics. 

  • Along with textbook explanations, we discuss how scholarly articles make use of and elaborate upon theories. 

COMM 207, Oral Communication (Fall 2024; Spring 2025) 

• Description and Purpose: The major aims of this course are to make students more effective professional communicators, analytical thinkers, and critical listeners. By the end of the semester, students are able to plan and prepare professional meetings and presentations, deliver effective speeches, and adjust to different speaking situations, purposes, and contexts.

• Highlights: 

  • We discuss tactics for overcoming speech anxiety and I provide in-class opportunities, including elevator pitches, impromptu speeches, and interviewing, to give students a safe space to practice. 

  • I encourage students to address difficult topics and important social issues in their speeches, and award extra credit if they teach me something new.

COMM 101, Introduction to Media Industries (Fall 2025) 

• Description and Purpose: This course builds understanding of media history, up-to-date media industry conventions, media theories, communication terminology, viewer behaviors, emerging technologies, and current disciplinary controversies in order to help students make a more informed assessment of media’s role in society and gain a deeper understanding of media industries. 

• Highlights: 

  • This course operates as a first-year seminar; a Perspectives-Enduring Questions (Core) course; and the introduction to Communication & Media major. 

  • I begin the term with a comprehensive unit about what "AI" is; how it works (or doesn't work); and the ethics of its use. We then develop a class AI policy. 

  • I require students to attend at least one campus or other event and reflect on how it relates to media industries. 

I taught the following courses at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. 

COM 6350/8340, Communication, Culture, and Conflict

• Description and Purpose: This graduate course focuses on theoretical concepts and methods of inquiry related to communication, culture, and conflict. This course is designed as a collaborative seminar: students are expected to actively participate in discussion. We explore communication and culture in various contexts, including organizations, community, interpersonal relationships, and the public sphere. Developing self-reflexivity and the ability to talk across difference, students engage in research and discussion as we think critically about and analyze cross-cultural experiences.

• Highlights: 

  • We prioritized critical, cultural, and intersectional approaches, centering scholarship produced by and about Black women.

  • I modeled scholarly reflexivity by explaining how my race, gender, beliefs, experiences, and more impact my research, and guided students through writing positionality statements. 

  • I tailored the reading list to match students' interests: We focused on Black studies, health communication, and rhetoric. 

  • The small class size allowed me to get to know each student, mentor them through their research projects, and offer advice specific to their research interests and career plans.

COM 5190, Senior Seminar in Communication Studies. Topic: Race, Gender, and Identity in the Media

• Description and Purpose: This special topics section takes intersectional approaches to the formation, representation, and negotiation of social identity. Topics covered in class readings include stereotyping, social media influencers, and identarian politics across various mass and digital media. Designed as a seminar, this course provides students with the tools to critically engage with media.

• Highlights: 

  • I developed the special topic for this seminar and designed this course from scratch, which allows me to teach material that aligns with my research expertise.

  • Students were encouraged to select readings and final project topics that align with their personal and professional interests.

  • I assigned culturally diverse and recent readings, to keep students abreast of rapidly changing digital media content. 

COM 4210, Research Methods in Communication

• Description and Purpose: The goal of this course is to introduce students to social scientific and other approaches to communication research. Students learn how to employ social scientific and qualitative methods to investigate a topic that is interesting, novel, and socially relevant. The skills learned in this class provide a basic literacy in communication scholarship, allowing students to critically evaluate existing research and appreciate the complexity of research processes.

• Highlights:

  • We applied textbook concepts by designing our own small-scale qualitative and quantitative pilot studies. 

  • I mentored students through their passion projects as they investigated important social communication issues.

COM 4041, Rhetoric and the Body

• Description and Purpose: This course consists of humanistic analysis, research, and theory related to rhetoric of/about the human body and its intersections with broader social concerns, including consumerism, race, gender, and disease and health. Students are guided through describing and evaluating various critical and rhetorical theories of the body, in order to incorporate them into their own perspectives and research.

• Highlights: 

  • Students completed journal entries that connect rhetorical theories to their own embodied experiences. 

  • Smaller writing assignments scaffold into larger assignments, preparing students to make connections and express their thoughts about important social issues. 

COM 3400, Theories of Communication

• Description and Purpose: This course introduces students to the primary communication theories in our field. It is designed to help students understand the role that theory plays within communication scholarship; apply communication theories to events in their own and others’ lives; demonstrate awareness of professional and scholarly standards in the field of communication; and express complex ideas via written and oral communication.

• Highlights:

  • After surveying a range of theories, students were encouraged to further investigate theories that relate to phenomena that they experience and that interest them.

  • A Writing Intensive (WI) course, this class featured a series of scaffolded writing assignments that build into a final paper.

COM 3300, Business and Professional Presentations

• Description and Purpose: The objective of this course is to help students become effective in oral and written communication in a business context. It provides students with the tools to design business communications appropriate to specific contexts, audiences, purposes, and genres; recognize and accommodate cultural differences in verbal and nonverbal communication practices; produce effective business documents such as emails, letters, and reports; prepare professional presentations and collaborate with others; and adapt to technological work environments.

• Highlights: 

  • Per a student's suggestion, I invited Mark Dilley, AAUP-AFT, of the Wayne State Faculty Union, to speak to students about his 20 years of union experience. 

  • Through a series of practical assignments, students honed their writing and presentation skills. 

COM 1010, Oral Communication: Basic Speech

• Description and Purpose: This public speaking course fulfills Wayne State University’s general education oral competency requirement. Students will learn oral competency through speeches, exams, and written assignments. By applying public speaking skills and concepts to speech presentations, students learn to conduct audience analyses, integrate credible research into speeches, design effective presentation aids, and critically reflect on the organization, content, and delivery of public speaking performances.

• Highlights: 

  • I have taught 13 sections of public speaking over the past four years, in all formats: online synchronous, online asynchronous, hybrid, and in person.

  • I taught incoming first-year students, welcoming them to Wayne State and giving them tools and advice about how to succeed in college.