Introduction

I'm a first-year graduate student and a first-year teaching assistant at UAA.  I'm also the Communications Manager for the 2014 Pacific Rim conference on literature and rhetoric.  I received my BA in English with an emphasis in education from UAA in December 2012.  I completed my undergraduate capstone research on "A Stylistic Analysis of American Gothic Short Fiction".  I focused on short stories from Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Stephen King, and Joyce Carol Oates and how the previous two writers encouraged and affected the latter two. 

I'm currently trying to narrow down my topics for my graduate thesis.  So far I've considered ways to incorporate digital literacies, social media, or a combination of the two into a composition classroom.  I've also thought about studying ways to make the college composition more accessible to ELL students.  I have a background in technical writing and I might incorporate that into my graduate thesis in some form.  After I receive my MA from UAA I hope to continue on and receive a PhD.  I would love to complete my education on the east coast; however, I don't know if that will work out as I hope.