Faculty Spotlight: Jason Schneider

Professor Jason Schneider is the newest tenure-track member of the WRD faculty. Having taught at DePaul as a Visiting Assistant Professor since 2012, he moved into his current position of Assistant Professor in the department during fall quarter. With an MA in applied linguistics and a PhD in rhetoric from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Schneider felt immediately at home in the WRD program. Today, Schneider wears many hats here at DePaul. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in teaching English as a Second Language and coordinates the graduate certificate program in TESOL. Over the summer, he oversaw the creation of WRD 111, a new course for

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Kate Vieira Brings Immigrant Stories to Life

Last Thursday the WRD Department welcomed Kate Vieira, who spoke with students and faculty about her research on “Money and Bodies: How They Matter for Writing.” Vieira has conducted a great deal of research on literacy in immigrant communities and the families left behind. More recently, her focus has been on writing from the body, and how writing can aid physical, mental, and emotional healing. Her argument in her presentation for the DePaul community? That there are more connections between these strands of research than we might think—and that the root of this connection lies in the materiality of writing. Writing is

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Students from NMS and 510 with their nonprofit partners

MA Students Partner with Local Nonprofits

This post was written by Meaghan Young-Stephens, a graduate assistant to the WRD program who was enrolled in Writing Digital Content. If you’re like me and spend a lot of time on Chicago trains and buses, you’ve probably seen DePaul’s marketing promise, “The city is your campus.” Of the classes I have taken so far, NMS 510 is the one where the slogan rings most true. NMS 510 “Writing Digital Content” (or WRD 525 for those of us in the Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse program) is structured around a service-learning component that sets it apart. Early in the quarter, each student

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News and Updates

WoRDing It Your Way with Kevin Lyons and Bridget Wagner

We recently spoke with Kevin Lyon and Bridget Wagner, both alumni of the MA in WRD program who now work in Faculty Instructional Technology Services (or “FITS”) at DePaul. Kevin and Bridget are two of several MA in WRD alum who are now putting their degrees into practice at FITS! FITS isn’t the only DePaul experience Kevin and Bridget share: Both worked as peer tutors in the University Center for Writing-based Learning (UCWbL) and currently teach classes in DePaul’s First-Year Writing program. In FITS, Kevin works as an Instructional Technology Consultant to the College of Computing and Digital Media and College of Communication, and Bridget

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News and Updates

WoRDing It Your Way with Mitchell Goins and Joseph Klein

We recently spoke with Mitchell Goins and Joseph Klein, both alumni of the MA in WRD program who now work at Triton College, a two-year community college in River Grove, IL. At Triton, Mitchell serves as assistant director of ESL programs, and Joseph works as a faculty member in the English department. We’re happy they took the time to share a little about their experiences!

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Laurie Alfaro Accepts Position at City Colleges of Chicago

WRD recently caught up with former faculty member Laurie Alfaro as she begins a career at the City Colleges of Chicago. Below, Laurie tells about her new position and shares about her experiences as a student and teacher in WRD’s New Media Studies program. Tell us about your new position at City Colleges. What will you be doing? I am the new Faculty Co-Chair of Computer Information Systems at Wilbur Wright College.

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WRD Alumni Spotlight: Brendan Bergen

This week, the WRD Alumni Spotlight features New Media Studies graduate Brendan Bergen. He currently works in Athletic Communications at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. What have you been doing professionally since you earned your degree? After graduating, I accepted a position in Athletic Communications at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. In my role I serve as our department lead for website/digital content and social media strategy, while also performing a traditional public relations role for our sports teams on campus.

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News and Updates

News and Updates from MA Alumni and Faculty

  Here’s some news on what our MA in WRD and MA in NMS graduates and faculty have been up to in the last five months… NMS Alumni Daisy Franco (2012) began a new job in May as Director of Public Relations and Marketing for the City Colleges of Chicago. Kim Galovich (2014) recently started a position at Digital Marketing for RXBAR, a Chicago start-up company that sells natural protein bars. She handles email marketing and online advertising and manages website content. Mike Garabedian (2015) has a new position as an Account Coordinator at Fishman Public Relations in Chicago and Northbrook,

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NMS 580: A New Way to Read Old Texts

In Winter Quarter 2016, the MA program in New Media Studies (NMS) will offer NMS 580: Markup and Text Encoding in the Humanities, a core course in the new certificate in Digital Humanities. Though the course has an NMS course number, the instructor, Prof. Antonio Ceraso, hopes it will also draw students from the MA in WRD and humanities disciplines such as English and history—all of whom can benefit from the new tools and perspectives the course offers.

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Conference Spotlight: Computers and Writing

Graduate students in NMS or WRD: Have you done research in a graduate class related to digital technologies or pedagogy? Would you like to share that research with a wider audience? If so, consider presenting at the annual Computers and Writing Conference! This academic conference will happen from May 19-22 at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY. The theme for 2016 — Crossing Wires: Reaching Across Campus, Between Disciplines, and Into Communities — challenges presenters to consider how new media and digital technologies cross boundaries and expand horizons, in both scholarship and pedagogy.

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