Curricular Revision

At the end of my first periodic review at Loyola Marymount University (end of Fall 2020), Professor Craig Rich, Department Chair, invited me to draft a proposal for a new Core course that would satisfy the Rhetorical Arts requirement. Based on my 17 years of experience in environmental writing and rhetoric, I proposed an environmentally-themed Rhetorical Arts class that adheres to the Core’s purpose, content, and learning objectives. (Here, I define the “environment” as natural and constructed places, including where we live, work, and play.) “Earth in the Balance: Environmental Rhetoric, Ethics, and Justice” was enthusiastically accepted by the Core Curriculum Committee.

I believe that analyzing the discourse of supporters and opponents of various environmental controversies in a first-year writing and communication course exposes how diverse publics perceive environmental issues and policies and how rhetoric in a particular context frames social realities. My new course (which begins in Fall 2022) will allow students to hone their rhetorical skills as writers and speakers while building their awareness and understanding of environmental rhetoric, ethics, and justice.

A course such as this is valuable not only for its ability to provide a strong foundation in writing and speaking but also for its interdisciplinarity and the acknowledgment that the many environmental challenges we face will be solved not only through science and policy but through studies that focus on communicative acts among various audiences. Encouraging students to explore environmental disputes using the lens of rhetoric enables them to examine how competing expressions shape our thoughts and actions. In other words, by giving them tools with which to discern the political, social, and moral agendas of those involved, we simultaneously strengthen the effectiveness of their own rhetorical choices.

Teaching Goals

Feedback: Continue the never-ending effort to learn more methods of digital feedback on student writing to streamline my commenting process and increase turn-around time on drafts to students, particularly in online conferences.

Assessment: Develop a rubric for class participation that articulates the characteristics of meaningful and productive class participation. How can I communicate what qualifies as thoughtful, informed contributions that build on what others have said? How can I clarify the difference between high-quality and low-quality participation? By articulating these distinctions and providing feedback to help students improve, I hope to find ways to engage quieter students in more productive class discussions to motivate their learning further.

Development of Teaching Materials:

  • Continue attending professional seminars to support ongoing personal development regarding subject mastery and awareness of trends in sustainability, sustainable and alternative energies, energy security, and environmental ethics.
  • Generate course materials/readings that connect environmental challenges to social justice, human rights, and environmental racism (e.g., Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (2011); “Unimagined Communities: Megadams, Monumental Modernity, and Developmental Refugees” (2010); Pipedreams: Ken Saro-Wiwa, Environmental Justice, and Micro-minority Rights (1996); Faces of Environmental Racism: Confronting Issues of Global Justice, 2nd edition (2001); Spaces of Environmental Justice (2010)).

Conferences and Workshops

Early in my career at Stanford, I attended at least one professional conference a year and always presented a paper on a panel at these meetings (see my Curriculum Vitae for a list of conferences attended and papers delivered). I was particularly active in the yearly Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), the bi-yearly meeting of the Association for Literature and the Environment (ASLE), and the annual gathering of the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS). At these conferences, I regularly attended panels regarding technology in the classroom and also gave talks regarding FYC pedagogy and teaching sustainability in the composition classroom. Together, these three organizations provided significant opportunities to foster my research and scholarship while inspiring me to bring new ideas back into the classroom on a practical level as well.

A challenging health situation that began in 2011 took me off the conference circuit and left me with little energy to devote to publishing. My teaching and tutoring responsibilities at Stanford University were my top priority. Despite my tremendous efforts to remain, I left Stanford University on excellent terms after Spring 2018 and returned home to Los Angeles to focus full-time on my recovery. As I regained strength, I began teaching again as part-time faculty at Loyola Marymount University in Fall 2019. I started writing again that year and had plans to attend the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies yearly conference just before the Covid-19 pandemic struck in March 2020. Now fully recovered, I am highly motivated to return to the intellectual stimulation from attending professional conferences (online or in-person), leading to better research, writing, and teaching.

I also intend to resume my involvement with the Climate Reality Leadership Corps. I completed my first certification with the Climate Reality Project in August 2012. At that time, Al Gore and various team leaders trained a diverse group of passionate individuals to deliver Gore’s original slideshow that formed the basis of the award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Concerned citizens from all disciplines—leaders, organizers, scientists, and storytellers—gathered for a week to learn the content of Gore’s slideshow. More importantly, we also studied the most effective methods of delivering that content to any organization or group interested in learning more about our climate and our world. With the recent release of the sequel to Gore’s first film, it is a timely moment to re-engage with the Corps and take my participation in the program to another level.