Wall-E: Theorizing Disability and Ecocriticism

This is a brief abstract of the paper that I will present at the annual conference of the Midwest Popular Culture Conference in Chicago. My interest throughout my academic career has been on morality: how can we live in the least violent manner, that is, how can ‘we’ be hospitable to those on the margins?…

Exciting Spring 2023 Courses

ENGL ENGL-123-2 INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE T TH 12:30 PMENGL ENGL-320-1 PRINCIPLES OF LITERARY STUDY T TH 9:30 AMENGL ENGL-385-1 TOPICS: COMICS AND WEBCOMICS MWF 11:00 AM My comics course will include, most likely, the following comics and graphic novels. Many more will be added at a later moment. Contact me if you are interested Asterios…

What we lose when we use cell phones.

There’s an intriguing story about cell phones and how they are influencing humans in today’s NYT. A few paragraphs from a story in the Times: “The smartphone brought about a planetary rewiring of human interaction. As smartphones became common, they transformed peer relationships, family relationships and the texture of daily life for everyone — even those…

The Purge of Higher Education

From the AAUP; here’s a description of the larger issues facing education in this country: “Daniel Greenstein writes in the fall 2019 issue of Daedalus that we may be on a track toward a dramatic bifurcation in the US higher education system, with students at wealthy, selective institutions enjoying personal, face-to-face learning experiences and the rest of…

Exciting Spring Courses

Greetings! For an animated introduction to our spring 2020 course offerings, please click here (go head, click it!): Email Todd (tcomer@defiance.edu) or Steve (sengel@defiance.edu) for more information. ENGL 123 Media Writing MWF, 11:00 am An introduction to the process of writing for the media. Students will learn to report, write, and edit stories for print and…

Comp 1 Memes

In an attempt to have my students learn about the rhetorical triangle (audience, writer, issue), I have them create memes (which are attuned, hopefully, to their audience). Here are a few from class today.