Eloquentia Perfecta Ex Machina SLU New Media Writing

Welcome back! After a brief hiatus last spring, we have an exciting new lineup of episodes this fall. Our first episode features Katie Gutiérrez-Glik in conversation with Meha Gupta about transnational identity in the classroom. During her first semester teaching English 1900, Meha reflects on some of the tools and techniques she has used as an international instructor at SLU.
Meha is the co-editor of "The Lit Archive," an Instagram-based literary blog and book club. You can find it here: https://www.instagram.com/thelitarchives/?hl=en

Welcome back! In this week's episode, Katie Gutiérrez-Glik sits down with fellow SLU graduate instructors Lexie Broemmer and Sal DiBono to discuss how and why they seek to diversify the curriculum and decenter the literary canon in their 1900 and 2000-level courses at SLU.

In this week's episode, we have a brief and temporary Michigan invasion! Sheila Coursey interviews friend and former colleague Anne-Charlotte Mecklenburg about her work on serial narratives, from Victorian novels to contemporary pop concert tours, and the way that seriality shapes fan writing and engagement. They also discuss how practices of reading and writing fanfiction have influenced their own pedagogy as writing instructors.
For those not in the know about the Michigan RhetComp texts mentioned in this episode, they are:
Mark Gaipa. "Breaking into the Conversation: How Students Can Acquire Authority for Their Writing." Pedagogy 1 October 2004; 4 (3): 419–437. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-4-3-419
Mike Bunn. "How to Read Like a Writer" in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing Vol. 2. Edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky (Parlor Press, 2011): 71-86.
You can read it here: https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/writingspaces2/bunn--how-to-read.pdf

In this week's episode, Lauren Terbrock-Elmestad sits down with Dr. Amanda Barton to discuss Amanda’s recent transition from teaching for the Writing Program to a new position with the Billikens' First Chapter Program. They spend time thinking about their academic interest in the medical humanities, particularly as it affects their ideas about Cura Personalis and the First-Year student.

This week's episode is a recording of the Lab's virtual roundtable on ADHD Advocacy and Social Media, organized and hosted by SLU Graduate Instructor and Ph.D. Candidate Carol Hogan-Downey. Carol invited Jennifer Parker and Michael Ruffin to discuss their work creating peer advocacy networks on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Jennifer Parker started her page, Jenn Has ADHD, in 2019 to learn more about her ADHD and to advocate for herself. Now, she has reached over 260,000 followers on Facebook, 35,000 on Instagram, and two ADHD support groups with a combined 40,000 members. Jenn’s content draws on her studies in art, her love of memes, and her Maori heritage to promote ADHD awareness and advocacy through peer support. While she works on her own content, she also promotes the work of other neurodiversity advocates and leads a team of moderators in her peer-support group, We Have ADHD—all working toward her goal of ending the stigma about ADHD and furthering awareness of adult ADHD and its many presentations.
Michael Ruffin is an ADHD coach and social-media advocate. He entered into ADHD advocacy after developing a following in 2020 as a Dungeons and Dragons Twitch streamer and TikTok personality @Words for Sale. In September of 2020, he was diagnosed with ADHD and started to pursue a career in mental health by becoming a Peer Support Specialist. While becoming more and more educated on neurodiversity, he discovered the similarities and differences between ADHD and ASD that resonated with his own experiences and was diagnosed with ASD in July of 2021. He began posting about neurodiversity in early 2021, amassing over 73,000 followers on TikTok as Words_and_ADHD. Michael incorporates his skills as a writer and actor to spread awareness about neurodiversity and its overlaps with topics of gender, mental health, creativity, and geek culture.

Our first episode of Season Seven is not about the classic 1996 basketball film starring Michael Jordan (perhaps next season). We are, however, featuring three SLU English instructors discussing the role of space in their courses, assignments, and research projects: Jonathan Sawday and the space of the page, Jo Rho and the space of the theater, and Nathaniel Rivers and the process of mapping space.