Instructor Biographies

Fall 2024

Jason Bartulis holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Chicago.

Andrea Carter holds a PhD in Education with a focus on feminist pedagogy and student resistance and has taught at a variety of colleges and universities. She has participated in the National Writing Project, the NCTE, and the AERA. She recently published her first in a series of young adult murder mystery novels. Her most recent work was published in the San Diego Poetry Annual, 14 Hills and The Big Windows Review.

Jennifer Carter completed an MA in Liberal Arts & Sciences, focusing her research on gender, popular culture, sociology, ethnic, and LGBTQ studies. She also holds a BA in English Literature and Women's Studies and is a German-English translator. In addition, Jennifer has taught for several college campuses and her writing has appeared in various publications, which culminated in the founding of The California Journal of Women Writers.

Sean Compas earned a Ph.D. in literary and cultural studies from UC San Diego. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UC San Diego and a A.M. in Cultural Studies from Dartmouth College. He is also an alum of the University of Virginia’s inaugural Semester at Sea voyage. His academic interests and areas of expertise are in American studies, disability studies, queer theory, critical gender studies, and TV and film. He loves watching, talking, and writing about TV and film. His research has been funded by PFLAG and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Prior to his career in academia, Sean spent several years working in medical education and international development in Washington, D.C.

Melinda Guillen is a writer, curator, and Ph.D. in Art History, Theory, and Criticism in the UCSD Department of Visual Arts. Her dissertation titled, "Don't Need You: Conceptual Art, Feminism, and Estrangement" focuses on the work of curator Lucy R. Lippard and artists Lee Lozano and Adrian Piper during the 1960's and 1970's. She specializes in Postwar American Contemporary Art and Feminist Theory. She has also published essays and presented on panels in other areas including socially engaged art criticism, art & technology, urban studies, social movements, DIY culture, and humor as a critical device.

Jinhyuk Kim obtained his Honours BA in Sociology from the University of Toronto and is currently a PhD candidate in Sociology at UCSD. He specializes in international migration, citizenship law, nationalism, boundaries and East Asia. His dissertation focuses on the development of the Nationality Act in the 21st century, specifically examining the case of South Korea. His work explores how both policymakers and individuals define what it means to be South Korean in everyday life and how they draw social and symbolic boundaries between "Us" and "Them".

Jarret Krone completed an MA degree in Composition and Rhetoric at CSU Chico and since has worked as a lecturer in writing and rhetoric at both CSU Channel Islands and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He also worked as assistant director of the Writing & Multiliteracy Center at CSU Channel Islands. His scholarly interests include digital pedagogy, digital rhetoric, multimodal composition, and writing center studies. 

Elizabeth Miller has a Ph.D. in Art History, Theory, and Criticism from UC San Diego and an M.A. in Art and Museum Studies from Georgetown University. She has worked for a number of arts initiatives, non-profit organizations, and museums over her graduate and professional career, and she has been teaching and tutoring writing since 2005, when she first gained employment as an undergraduate writing tutor at Arizona State University's Learning Resource Center. Her dissertation, “The U.S. Imagination of Maya Ruins—Critical Reflections on American Art and Architecture 1839-1972,” unpacks historical treatments of indigenous America by addressing various examples of Anglo-American cultural production that draw upon ancient Mesoamerican architecture. Elizabeth's research focuses on the intersections between geography, art, and politics, and her interests include 19th and 20th century art of the Americas, focusing on works of fine arts and architecture that have contributed to the mythologies of the broadly American landscape.

Carolina Montejo is a Colombian American artist, filmmaker, and educator. Her films center on nature and ecology, as well as notions of community and justice that are told through experimental and documentary narratives. She has a BA in Communications from Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, and an MFA in Visual Arts from UC San Diego. She is a Film Studies Lecturer at the University of San Diego, as well as a lecturer at Muir College, UC San Diego, teaching in the Environmental Studies Program and the Writing Program. Montejo’s films have been official selection for the Berlin International Art Film Festival, Montreal Independent Film Festival, and the San Diego Environmental Film Festival. Her most recent work includes 'Coming Clean: A Demand for a Fossil-Free UC', Rizomas, Femme Vitale, and 'Eco, Fantasy, Premonition'.

Michael Morshed writes crime novels around bringing opportunities to the disenfranchised. He also created and writes for a website (roykeaneismydaddy.com) that tells narrative and analytical stories about soccer.

Laurie Nies holds a Ph.D. in Literatures in English from UCSD and completed her undergraduate studies at Muir College, where she was a student in the MCWP. Her academic interests include American Literature, life writing, disability studies, and the ability of popular media to both reflect and reshape cultural norms and beliefs. A former librarian, Laurie enjoys the research process and values narratives that advocate for diversity, inclusion, and social justice.

Ricardo "Ricky" Novaes de Oliveira is a graduate student in the UCSD Literature department, where he is working towards an MFA in Writing. Ricky is a literary artist, writer, and educator; he holds a BA in Political Science and in Creative Writing from the University of Chicago, as well as a MA in Urban Education with a focus in Literacy from Loyola Marymount University. His scholarly interests include postmodern literary theory, experimental poetry, art as political instruments, and the intersections between belonging, community, and individuality. He has several poems published in print and online, a weekly blog about poetry, and is working on a book of creative writing to be published after the MFA program. Ricky has been an educator since graduating from college, starting out at a high school in Los Angeles as an ELA 12 / AP English Literature / Creative Writing teacher before transitioning to the collegiate level. 

Vincent Pham received his PhD in Art History, Theory, and Criticism from UCSD in 2021. A specialist in British culture, portraiture, and museology, he has since begun a research project on communities of modernist Vietnamese painters in Hanoi from the 1990's. His forthcoming publication, "Turning the Crank: The Performance of Empire through Tipu's Tiger" will appear via Johns Hopkins University Press' Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture late 2024. When he's not teaching, he can be found road cycling through San Diego county or avidly playing Magic: The Gathering.

Pamela Redela holds a PhD in Spanish Language, Literature, and Culture with an emphasis in Feminist Studies and teaches in the Muir College Writing Program at UC San Diego.  She is a retired faculty from California State University, San Marcos where she taught Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies for 18 years.  Her research focuses on the complexities of gender, feminist activism, Ecofeminism, and intersectional analysis and her teaching includes an emphasis on mindfulness as an avenue for building empathy and increased personal awareness.  Her publications explore dimensions of identity in the pursuit of a purposeful life and focus on fiction writing as a form of advocacy.   Her passion is educating and empowering her students to be agents of cultural change. 

Kelly Silva holds a PhD in History from the University of California San Diego. Her dissertation, "To Serve and To Heal: Native Peoples, Government Physicians, and the Rise of a Federal Indian Health Care System, 1832-1883," charts the origins, expansion, and bureaucratization of a federal Indian health care system throughout the nineteenth century. She is currently researching and writing about medical interactions between the Ho-Chunk and U.S. army surgeons during the Black Hawk War of 1832.

Haydee Smith specializes in LGBTQ+ memoirs and media, Disability Studies, and how personal narratives propel social justice communities and movements.  She has published about Pop Cultural icons like Xena: Warrior Princess and is currently negotiating a détente with her cat about to whom the couch belongs.  

Nur Duru received her MA in History from UC San Diego in 2017. Her research focuses on European Jewish immigration to Ottoman Palestine. Nur's scholarly interests include orientalism, cultural imperialism, and the production of knowledge.

Carrie Wastal is the Director of the Muir Writing Program.  She holds a doctorate in Composition and Rhetoric from the Literature Department at UCSD.  Her research interests include public policies for higher education, writing instruction, and nontraditional students.