I am an Associate Professor of Writing & Rhetoric, with extensive experience and expertise in experiential learning, student cohort-building, and academic inquiry into inequality to this role. Currently, I am the Academic Director of Privilege and Poverty.
I was a first-gen, immigrant student, born in Córdoba, Argentina. I became a US Citizen in 1972 (in this political climate, this has to be said). I went to, first, the Naval Academy Prep School, in MD, then onto the University of South Florida, and NYU for graduate school. I’ve been teaching since 1985—community colleges, private colleges, and public universities, all in the NY metropolitan area. Then I came to Middlebury … A time when academia was beginning to wrap its head around technology. I was an early adapter, which opened doors for me. In 2008, I was invited, as the only non-tech humanist, to speak at the MIT OpeniWorld Conference in, Lyon, France. I spoke on The Location of Technology, a Theory of the Present. Not much has changed
My book, Life Affirming Acts, Education as Transformation in the Writing Classroom (Heinemann/Boynton-Cook) addresses the tension between race and gender, class, and the education system.
My book article, “Digital Stories in the Liberal Arts Environment: Educational Media Communities at the Margins,” with Barbara Ganley, in Media Communities, Brigitte Hipfl, Theo Hug, eds .(Waxmann, Berlin and New York) demonstrates how digital media can break down harsh boundaries between students and education.
Further essays on education, marginalization, and identity are published by the Community Works Journal. Of interest: More Than a Gesture: Toward a Pedagogy of Community, Degrees of Separation: Helping Students Find Safe Spaces for Thinking and Being, and Star Wars Civilization and Stone Age Emotions. The Ecology of Teaching is an interview about service learning, particularly at Middlebury College.