Jonathan Abidari, 2021
I have been a writing tutor and instructional assistant at HSU, and I have taught English as a foreign language in China. My MA research project focused on first-year composition pedagogy. Specifically, I examined the implications of multimodality on the composition classroom. My research was aligned with that of veteran scholars in the fields of digital humanities and composition and rhetoric who look to bring composition instruction into a new era that incorporates digital technologies and their potential to deliver multimodal content. The goal of composition instruction is to cultivate critical thinking and rhetorical awareness in our students. In our current society, digital literacy is often a requirement for engaging in critical discourse, and my work explores how instructors can assist their students in attaining all the literacies necessary for their academic and ensuing professional careers. I live locally in Arcata, California where I can be found peddling a variety of tomes at local independent bookseller Northtown Books. The experience and rhetorical awareness I gained from completing the MA in Applied English Studies serves me well in this occupation, and I hope to find even more applications in future professional contexts.
