ENGL489 Advance Portfolio Workshop Author Bios
(scroll to the end of this page for contact information and links to office hours and zoom classes)
Asher Kaminsky (he/him) is a self-proclaimed “nerd,” a “retired theater kid,” and a student of writing and philosophy. Asher is from northern New Jersey, though he also has family in Florida, where he was grateful for the opportunity to do an internship this past summer. Asher worked at a rehab facility, where he supported the residents in their day-to-day tasks. The job was emotionally tough but rewarding. He has also worked as a camp counselor and with children at the YMCA, both of which he loved and felt like he could have continued doing, were graduation not looming on the horizon. Asher also loves music, mostly for fun now because a professional career in music “would have taken the joy out of it.” Something else that brings Asher joy is nature; he relates that on his way home from Florida this summer, he was deeply moved by the changing landscape, by the gradual return of trees and unique architecture as he traveled north along the east coast. Asher is proud of his Jewish heritage; he loves the rich culture while feeling disconnected from religion at the same time. Asher expressed a love for the humanities for teaching him world skills like empathy when he would not have felt fulfilled by technical skills. Asher is grateful for courses like this to help him figure out where he will be most welcome in the job market come graduation in May. Ideally, Asher would love to be a creative writer, and he is also thinking of eventually going to graduate school for psychology to work his way up in the mental health field.
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If Sarah Audette had infinite money, she would live in the dense forests of Massachusetts and scare little kids as the local town witch. As she does still want for money, she has become a Geography student at Bridgewater State University and deeply cares about her topic of study. She would one day like to hold the reigns of climate policy herself and change our relationship to the planet for the better. Sarah is someone who loves fun work, stating once that if it paid the bills, she would remain at her sandwich-making job at The Pink Bean in Somerset Mass through graduate school, which she plans to begin sometime after she moves out of her childhood home. Sarah is a very hard worker, evidenced by the personal notebook she keeps and treasures. In this journal is an exhaustive list of books Sarah is planning on reading, past writing assignments for school, thoughts and plans about her upcoming graduation from undergrad, and everything else that evidences a life well-participated in. The feeling of a new blank notebook, waiting for organization and lists, makes her face light up to discuss. Sarah is a woman in motion who has cultivated a keen sense of her aesthetics and preferred taste. This sense comes from a strong sense of her own identity, that shines through everything she does.
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Emily Knox (She/Her) has sacrificed her college years on the altar of “Being an Education Major,” and having just recently completed the MTELs; she eagerly awaits her results. She values the time she has spent here at BSU tremendously and has benefited greatly from the offered courses, such as copy editing, which have given her the opportunity to bone up on subjects such as phonics and advanced grammar which will be leveraged to great effect in her future as an English educator. Long term, she intends to pursue a career as a teacher, motivated by the influence one good teacher can have in a student's life, especially in her field of elementary education. There is also the possibility of a career in high school on the distant horizon for her, having already spent a great sum of time working with lower income schools in cities like Brockton and Taunton; but that is also dependent on further licensure, which she is not personally keen on pursuing just yet, and for now wants to focus on her major of elementary education. In the scant time between her careers both academic and professional, Emily is a fan of music and travel. She has seen several concerts in the recent past from bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Foreigner, and even has a Billy Joel tattoo. She enjoys these passions with her mother and aunt, who she has planned a Europe tour with, going to places like London, Paris, and Germany. She is now in her senior year with BSU and will soon be student teaching, where she hopes to find a more permanent position.
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Abby Paulette (she/her) is a senior at BSU where she is majoring in Communication and Media Studies and double minoring in Writing Studies and Sustainability. Abby commutes to BSU from Marion, MA, where she enjoys taking scenic walks around the beachy town and collecting shells by the water, which she often incorporates into crafts and art that she creates. Abby loves being cozy; if you can't find her, the first place you should look is a comfy book nook where she’s probably curled up with a coffee or matcha and her current read. You might also find her at your local cat cafe, where she might be plotting how to take all the cats home with her. While Abby enjoys a lot of quiet, cozy activities, she is also very sociable, enjoying spending time with friends and family both in person and when playing her favorite multiplayer video games such as Stardew Valley, Marvel Rivals, Mecachameleon, and Slimerancher. Her ability to work well with others serves her well in her current internship as an editor at Nerve to Write, a literary magazine that advocates for mental health and disability awareness. Here, she works with the team to select and edit submissions to be published in the magazine. When Abby is not editing, she is a writer herself, writing a lot of creative works such as fiction and poetry, mostly in the Horror and Women’s Issues genres. She plans to use this class as a way to explore a professional career in writing and figure out what direction she wants to take her writing professionally.
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Emma Jamrin (she/her) is a senior here at Bridgewater State University, completing a Geography major concentrating in sustainable global systems and also has a minor in writing studies. She is from Raynham, Massachusetts, a local in the eyes of many, where she’s been her entire life. She finds her hometown's geography unique, with a highway split down the middle, inspiring her interest for her major. She splits her time evenly between science and writing, interning for the Natural Resource Trust of Bridgewater, where she makes the website for local trails around the school (yay women in STEM!) and is a staff member for the literary magazine, Nerve to Write, which is a magazine advocating for mental health and disabilities. At the magazine, she reviews and edits submissions to go out for publication. She focuses even more on feminism in her field of Geography, advocating and representing the smart and hardworking women in predominantly male fields. On her own time, she loves to hike local outdoor paths, bake whimsical treats for everyone, and read an array of books. Her favorite book is There Are Rivers In The Sky by Elif Shafak, which is a wonderful choice that tells how water shapes society. She doesn’t shy away from chic, too, and works at Old Navy while rocking their iconic wardrobe everywhere. Emma is here in this class specifically to write about Geography in a creative way for everyone to find interesting and to be accessible for everyone regardless of their familiarity with the subject.
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Rich Smith (he/him) is a true musical aficionado, having built a collection of over one-hundred vinyls and CDs. With all of that experience in the medium, it makes sense that he has also come to master four instruments himself, proving that he has the skills to back up his enthusiasm for the art form. Not unsurprisingly, his favorite color is purple (in honor of a certain celebrated pop star). That isn’t to say that music is Rich’s only passion, though. Growing up, he found assisting and guiding those around him to hold a deeper calling. Accordingly, when a teacher in high school suggested that teaching could be a potential career path, Rich was quick to move towards a career in education. Incorporating his love of creative writing, he proceeded to double-major in English and Elementary Education, all while maintaining time to enjoy literature, films, and sports amidst his studies. Once he’s completed his degrees, he plans on returning to his stomping grounds in Boston, Massachusetts to teach creative writing to the 6th grade. He loves the city’s atmosphere, and plans on staying there until life presents an opportunity to explore new horizons.
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Aiden Colligan (He/Him) is a Senior at BSU soon to walk across the stage after this semester and into the spotlight of Hollywood. He hails from Plymouth, but half of his family is from Ohio. His five adolescent half siblings may have been the driving force for him not wanting to be a teacher and wanting to pursue film. Cinema is a big part of his life, with its roots in him coming all the way from when he was a child making videos. Like one of his idols, David Leitch, who is an award-winning director known for John Wick, he aspires to become a director/cinematographer after school. Aiden is a multifaceted person with a love for reading and traveling. When you look up “get up and go,” he appears, as he once drove all the way to Montreal. He's also been abroad, as he once studied in Ireland which he remembers fondly for its laid-back environment and personable people. Soon though, related to his interest in film, we could see a road movie, and he may even take inspiration from his favorite film Baby Driver. If you put him on a stranded island, all he needs is paper, a pencil, and a Swiss army knife, and best believe he’s getting off that island. The one thing that might halt his escape is his strong dislike for feeling queasy and tomatoes. Aiden Colligan is a name he hopes to see displayed across the screen at the Oscars or Cannes to celebrate his greatness in film. He hopes to achieve this by graduating from Bridgewater State.
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Katie Knapp (she/her) is an English major with a concentration in creative writing and a double minor in marketing and music. She is deeply involved in BSU campus life, having served as News Editor and now Opinion Editor of Bridgewater State's student-run newspaper, The Comment, where she curates interesting stories and pieces for the Bridgewater community to read, enjoy, and learn from. Katie also serves on the Center of Student Engagement's marketing team and is Vice President of the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority, where she runs executive council, plans events, and leads meetings. Furthermore, she is a beloved Resident Assistant at DiNardo Hall. In her free time, she loves to hike, especially in the beauty and serenity of the White Mountains; listen to her favorite artist, Noah Kahan; write and read. Her all-time favorite novel is The Secret History by Donna Tartt, a stunning psychological thriller set in New England. During the summers, you can find Katie in New Hampshire working as a Program Director at a summer camp. Originally from Enfield in Hartford County, Connecticut, Katie hopes to use the skills and tools she learned at Bridgewater State to become a published author and is considering applying to an MFA program after graduating with her Bachelor of Arts in 2027 to continue her journey as a writer.
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Ethan Murray (he/him) has a genuine passion for game design specifically the world-building and narrative development aspects. At Bridgewater State University he is in the creative writing concentration and has known for quite some time that this was his passion. He is currently a senior and will be graduating in the winter. After graduation he plans to go into a position at a game designing company, possibly for DND, Hasbro, or perhaps an indie studio nearby. If he was not planning on going into some career focused on game design we might have found Ethan in a zoologist position or somewhere researching animals. Ethan loves genre fiction like fantasy, sword and sorcery fiction or alternative history. He spends a lot of his time using his artistic and creative abilities to invent his own game piece sets using a 3D resin printer. This challenges him in both painting intricate details as well as working with complex technologies to build the pieces. In his spare time Ethan can be found playing DND with his friends, writing speculative or alternative history, or spending his time working on his own RPG’s (Role Playing Games). This semester Ethan is focusing on growing his skills, on forgetting real life, wrapping up loose strings in his largest world building project, and learning how to do the backstroke.
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Mari Bennett (she/her) is a life-longer learner who works with the public in South Shore, Massachusetts. As a child development professional with over a decade of experience working with young children and families, Mari's work is human development and trauma informed. The foundation of her career was set in a low-income early childhood school, working with families who have various cultural backgrounds and neurodiverse children with developmental delays. In recent years, Mari has begun her career transition into public library work, bringing with her interdisciplinary expertise she formed through her A.S. in Early Childhood Education and her pursuit of a B.A. in English Literature with Childhood Studies and Writing minors. In her study of literature, as it relates to the human condition, she has focused on African American literature and culture, specifically during the period of Harlem Renaissance. Given that Mari's favorite literary genres are thriller and horror, she is ecstatic to begin her research on Indigenous American horror fiction and the culture and history that influences these stories and the shared fears they explore. As Mari explains, "Dark fiction is a brilliant medium of art that can facilitate the development of resiliency skills in the face of adversity." Her zeal for these studies began with her specialty of cognitive, social, and emotional development in toddlerhood: "The exploration of childhood fear is integral to preparing children for the inevitable hardships of uncertainty and trauma." Her community-focused career path is led by her belief that developmentally appropriate interactions with horror art can improve distress tolerance and coping skill development across the lifespan.
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Lee Torda believes there are writers who teach and teachers who write, and she is the latter. She publishes routinely in The Bridgewater Review. Her essay "Where are you From" appears in the edited collection Placing the Academy: Essays on Landscape, Work, and Identity. Her scholarly focus is on literacy instruction, policy, and writing pedagogy (see her essay on book clubs in Integrating Literature and Writing Instruction co-authored with Rona Kaufman). Most recently, Lee was a guest editor for the journal Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education with Karen Richardson, where on her essay "Chaos in the Promise Land," co-written with two undergraduate students, also appears. The essay chronicles their shared experience traveling and writing about a research and writing tour in Israel in 2012. The majority of Lee's energy for writing goes into the classes she teaches and can be located and borrowed from at www.leetorda.com. Lee Torda celebrates 26 years at BSU as an Associate Professor of English and currently serves as Dean of Undergraduate Studies--a job that is often un-fun but fully necessary. She lives in New Bedford, MA in a big, very old house with her husband, a twenty year old cat named Noodle, a 4 year old rescued pit/cattle dog mix named Chicken, and 18 month old Rottweiler named Nugget. She likes very long walks, not to have to cook, having a clean house, zero laundry waiting in the hamper, the beach, talking about all of the TV shows she watches, and reading.
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Need to be in touch with me?
LEE TORDA Dean, Undergraduate Studies & Associate Professor of English 200 Clement C. Maxwell Library 508.531.1790 Teaching Website: www.leetorda.com [email protected] [email protected] www.leetorda.com |
Open Hours for students (office hours):
By Appointment. Email me at [email protected] with times/days you'd like to meet, and I will respond within 24 hours. “Let’s save pessimism for better times” --Eduardo Galeano (Who is Eduardo Galeano? ) |