Teaching

COURSES TAUGHT

I. The University of Texas, El Paso

  1. Workplace Writing | Spring 2021
  2. Technical Communication | Fall 2020
  3. [Co-instructor] RWS 6320: Advanced Critical Theory | Instructor: Prof. Kate Mangelsdorf | Spring 2020
  4. RWS 1302: Rhetoric and Writing Studies | Spring 2019 – Spring 2020 
  5. RWS 1301: Rhetoric and Writing Studies | Spring 2018- Fall 2018

II. Institute of Advanced Communication, Education, and Research (IACER)

  1. History of Ideas | Spring 2017
  2. Literary Theory | 2016
  3. Global Literary Theory | 2015
  4. Western Tradition: Classicism to Modernism | 2014
  5. History of Ideas | 2013
  6. Literary Theory and Criticism | 2013
  7. [Co-instructor] New Cosmopolitanism- South Asians in US | Instructor: Prof. Arun Gupto | 2012

III. Central Institute of Science and Technology (CIST) | 2010 – 2011

  1. Bachelor of Pharmacy: Technical Communication
  2. Bachelor of Public Health: Technical Communication

EXTENSIVE SEMINAR-WORKSHOP CONDUCTED:

  1. “Critical Digital Humanities and Participatory Design: A Workshop Series in Kathmandu, Nepal” | Coordinated with SAFAR & Co-conducted with Dr. Laura Gonzales | June – July 2019
  2. “A Seminar-Workshop on Postcolonial Discourses: Locating Postcolonialism in South Asian Context through the Nature of Theory” | Co-conducted with Prof. Arun Gupto | April – May 2014

I.  The University of Texas, El Paso

Technical Writing

This course introduces the students at the undergraduate level to the principles and methods of technical writing and provides them with the skills to improve their communication through a variety of technical documents and media. Together, we examine (analyze) a number of technical documents and design principles and practice (produce) a variety of technical genres. Successful completion of this course will improve your ability to:
• Analyze the rhetorical situation and define the users and/or audience as well as tasks that the information must support;
• Apply rhetorical principles to plan and design effective technical documents for diverse media;
• Direct, manage, and monitor the publication cycle of small- and large-scale texts, such as articles, manuals, and websites;
• Compose content appropriate for the users and genres, revise and edit written work for accuracy, clarity, coherence, and appropriateness, and document resources as defined by a specific field;
• Apply technological and visual rhetorical skills (e.g., document design, graphics, computer documentation, electronic editing, and content management applications) in the composing process and publish, deliver, and archive as required; and
• Work critically and collaboratively to complete projects through social justice approaches.

[Co-instructor] RWS 6320: Advanced Critical Theory | Spring, 2020
Instructor: Prof. Kate Mangelsdorf

The theory in this course is approached through the following four sections:

• Section One focuses on three highly influential theorists who come from different schools of thought: Gramsci, neo-Marxist; Foucault, post-modernism; and Bourdieu, social theory. Key concepts from these theorists circulate so widely in RWS scholarship that they often aren’t even cited. It’s part of the “common sense” of the field. In this section, we’ll also read four recent RWS articles that demonstrate how these concepts are frequently used.
• Section Two concentrates on Critical Race Theory, or CRT, which originated in legal studies and which now influences all areas of RWS.
• Section Three focuses on Critical Language Studies, including the important and often misunderstood notion of translingualism.
• Section Four highlights what some are calling in RWS the post-critical or post-human turn, which includes New Materialism and Actor-Network Theory.

RWS 1302: Rhetoric and Writing Studies

The primary goal of RWS 1302 is to develop students’ critical thinking skills to facilitate effective communication in all educational, professional, and social contexts. This effective communication is based on an awareness of and appreciation for discourse communities as well as knowledge specific to the subject matter, genre, rhetorical strategy, and writing process. The class presents an approach to communication that helps students determine the most effective strategies, arrangements and media to use in different rhetorical contexts. It teaches students a systematic approach for analyzing rhetorical situations and then producing a variety of documents and presentations while gaining more confidence and fluency in visual, oral, and written communication. In addition, because communication is central to being an active and engaged member of society, the course also provides a space for informed advocacy.

RWS 1301: Rhetoric and Writing Studies

The goal of RWS 1301 is to develop students’ critical thinking skills in order to facilitate effective communication in educational, professional, and social contexts. Effective communication is based on an awareness of and appreciation for discourse communities as well as knowledge specific to the subject matter, genre, rhetorical strategy, and writing process. It is designed to prepare you for the writing you will do throughout your university experience as well as in professional and civic environments. This course offers you a curriculum that empowers you to determine the most effective rhetorical strategies, arrangements, and media to use in different rhetorical contexts

II.  Institute of Advanced Communication, Education, and Research (IACER)

History of Ideas | Graduate Courses | 2013 & 2017

This course attempts to present the landscape of the history of Western thought going back to the ancient Greeks on the one hand and the ancient Hebrews on the other. It tries to trace the evolution of the “Western mind” by going back to two of these major philosophical and religious points of space-time and the process that follows after. The course endeavors to answer the questions like how these two convictions and their principles and philosophy interacted with each other, how they contradicted, how they borrowed each other’s ideas, and finally how this entire process shaped the Western mind of each generation to date. We make these inquiries by also observing the history of painting and architecture. 

Literary Theory and Criticism | 2013 & 2016

The main objective of this course is to orient students towards the tradition of critical practice by developing essential critical perspectives. The course examines some of the core aspects of literary theory. The understanding of these critical theories strengthens the students’ ability to think logically, critically, and with a great deal of insights, which in turn, helps renew the way texts in all areas of intellectual disciplines can be read. The course attempts to capture these theories not in their static position or singularity but in their evolution and plurality too so that the students are familiar with both then and now of these theories.

Global Literary Theory | 2015

The course comprises essays with an aim to acquaint the students with the range of literary theory from the classic foundational essays to the most contemporary ones. The course aims to include:

•  the “evolution of” and “revolution in” the (literary) theory,
•  the range of how the theory, which sometimes, emerges from one discipline and happens to cross the disciplinary boundaries untameably by questioning the definitions of discipline itself,
•  the writings on gender and sexuality that critiques the simple essential categories of male/masculinity & female/femininity,
•  the blurring of the boundary between text and context.

Western Tradition: Classicism to Modernism | 2014

This course aims to present the history of ideas from deep antiquity to the present day from the invention of medicine, mathematics, science, and philosophy to the rise of such concepts as the law, sacrifice, democracy, and the soul. The essays included in this course offer a comprehensive survey of the ideas that shaped the present day human world and also endeavor to answer the question: ‘why do we think the way we think today and why the world is like the way it is now’.

[Co-instructor] New Cosmopolitanism- South Asians in US | Instructor: Prof. Arun Gupto | 2012

The course focuses on how South Asians in the United States adopt and contest with the cultures of their diasporic location in the contexts of technology, travel, and globalization. Identity formation is influenced by various modes of cultural practices in the presence of mainstream American culture. The idea of new cosmopolitanism is critiqued in relation to a number of essays (Units 1 and 2), and novels and movies (Units 3 and 4). Cosmopolitanism, transnationalism, diaspora, hybridity, adaptation, appropriation, and South Asian art and religion will be the key ideas and terms of reference to initiate debates, discussion, and research during the semester. The course is part of the broader research on South Asian Studies. Consequently, we will discuss the issues related to the region in a broader fluid context.