COMMUNITY OUTREACH

The Big Read

I have routinely volunteered to help with the Purdue English Big Read, a community outreach program funded by a $1.25 million grant from the Harriet M. Crews and Sandra K. Biggs Endowment. The Big Read “is designed to enrich Greater Lafayette through the shared experience of literature. Each year we select a great book, create a calendar of engaging events, including lectures, book group discussions, performances, workshops and author visits, and then provide free copies of the text to the community.”

I firmly believe that it is my job as an academic to make the field of literature accessible to people outside of the academy. The Big Read has been an excellent way to connect varied community members–from seniors to undergraduates to high schoolers–to genre fiction, and to connect that genre fiction to scholarly theories, movements, and periods in an easy-to-grasp way.

I have taken part in the Big Read for the past four years:

2022: Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic

Undergraduate Book Club Organizer and Discussion Leader
- Organized and led three discussion sessions surrounding Mexican Gothic for Purdue undergraduate students
Instructional Materials Developer
- Created lesson plans and syllabi for undergraduate courses interested in including Mexican Gothic and participating in the Big Read.
Graduate Book Club Discussion Leader for Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic
- Organized and led three discussion sessions for graduate students interested in teaching Mexican Gothic in the fall semester. Gave a presentation on my own teaching of the text in Fall 2021, and helped lead a lesson planning workshop.

2021: Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti

Course Involvement: English 373: Science Fiction and Fantasy
- Taught Binti and one of its sequels as part of a unit on Africanfuturism. Encouraged students to take part in community events outside of the classroom.
Twitter Watch Party: Black Panther (2018)
- Wrote tweets on Africanfuturism and helped run a Twitter watch party for the movie Black Panther.

2020: Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver

Trivia Night Developer and Tech Support
- Wrote and curated questions for a trivia night based around fairy tales, folklore, and Spinning Silver; worked tech support for the virtual trivia competition.
Instructional Materials Developer
- Designed a lesson on medieval antisemitism and Spinning Silver for high school teachers.
Guest Lecturer
- Gave a guest lecture to graduate students in English 601: Teaching College Literature on medieval antisemitism and medievalism as it occurs in Spinning Silver and offered suggestions on how to broach the subject with undergraduate students.

2019: Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey

Community Book Club Discussion Leader
- Led a discussion of books 6-10 for a group of senior citizen community members.

Reading Groups and Workshops

I have had the opportunity to run smaller, self-contained programs at the West Lafayette Public Library or with former students. Those events have included:

2023: Lead Instructor and Organizer, Children’s Graphic Novel Workshop, West Lafayette Public Library
2023: Undergraduate Book Club Organizer and Discussion Leader for Tracy Deonn’s Bloodmarked, Purdue English Department
- This reading group was the brainchild of former students from my ENGL 202 class in spring 2022. Out of the 25 total students in the class, 14 signed up to return and read the sequel to one of our course texts, including one student who had already graduated.
2023: Lead Instructor and Organizer, Young Adult Graphic Novel Writing Workshop, West Lafayette Public Library