FAll 2012 Bios - TBA

Specialties

Colin Agur

Colin Agur is a third-year PhD student in communications and a visiting fellow at Yale Law School for 2011-12. His research focuses on how mobile technologies are being put to use among low-income urban populations in India and parts of Africa. He has taught international relations and economics at ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico, as well as SAT/GRE/GMAT prep for the Princeton Review in Taipei and Istanbul. Specialties: ESL; grammar; personal statements; political science; economics; 19th- and 20th-century world history; international relations of East Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Deborah Aschkenes

Deborah Aschkenes is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Prior to graduate school, Deborah spent more than a decade in the fashion industry, most recently as the director of learning and development for Saks Fifth Avenue.  She loves finding strategies to help people succeed in their writing projects: whether discussing and developing ideas, clarifying communication, or generally getting writers “unstuck.”  Her dissertation shows how nineteenth-century theories of the mind shape the description in the British novel. Specialties: British literature, personal statements, University Writing.

Samantha Chanse

Samantha Chanse is a third-year MFA candidate in playwriting at Columbia University's School of the Arts and a University Writing instructor. She received a BA in American studies/ethnic studies from Brown University and worked for several years in program/artistic director capacities with San Francisco-based arts nonprofits. A writer and performer, she has a background in theater, comedy, and solo performance, and organizes multi- and interdisciplinary arts events. Specialties: personal statements, proposal & grant writing, theatre, University Writing.

Nicholas Chong

Nicholas Chong is a third-year graduate student in the Department of Music, specializing in historical musicology. His research interests are interdisciplinary in nature, and include the philosophy of music, music and politics, music and religion, and the place of music in Western intellectual history.  He is a teaching assistant in Music Humanities, and serves on the editorial board of the journal Current Musicology.  Nicholas earned a BA in music, summa cum laude, from Yale University, and holds a master of music degree in orchestral conducting from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. Specialties: Chicago (CMS) style, comparative literature, grammar, history, Lit Hum, music, Music Hum, personal statements, philosophy, political science, proposal & grant writing, theology.

Phoebe Collins

Phoebe Collins holds an MA in English literature from Saint Louis University and BA in cultural studies from SUNY Empire State College. She taught undergraduate English at Saint Louis University and ESL in France, Spain, and Korea. She has worked as an acquisitions editor for Liguori Publications and the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, edited a nursing journal for Sage Publications, and published articles in Ambassador Media, Aishti Magazine, Divine Wine, and Cinematheque, as well as serving as a contributing writer for two non-fiction books. Specialties: American literature, art, British literature, business & professional writing, ESL, fiction, film, grammar, job search materials, medicine & nursing, personal statements, publishing, theatre, thesis writing, long projects, literary non-fiction.

Emily Cooke

Emily Cooke holds an MFA in fiction from Columbia University School of the Arts and a BA in journalism from the University of Oregon. She taught University Writing at Columbia for two years and currently teaches composition at Baruch College. She is at work on a novel. Specialties: American literature, British literature, fiction, journalism, science writing, University Writing, literary non-fiction.

Muna Gurung

Muna Gurung is a third-year MFA student in fiction at the School of the Arts and an instructor for University Writing. She received her BA in English (creative writing) with minors in sociology and anthropology from Lake Forest College in Illinois. She has experience working with non-native English speakers and writers in the U.S. and abroad. Currently, she is working on her first collection of short stories that explores ideas of girlfriendhood and food. She is from Kathmandu, Nepal. Specialties: anthropology, education, ESL, fiction, political science, University Writing, literary non-fiction.

Andrew Housiaux

A 2001 graduate of Columbia, Andrew Housiaux is delighted to be back in the neighborhood. Most recently, he taught philosophy and religious studies at Phillips Academy, a boarding school in Massachusetts. Before that, he spent a year studying and traveling in South Asia and received a master's degree from Harvard Divinity School. In addition to his work at the Writing Center, Andrew is pursuing research on globalization and the study of religion in high school education. Specialties: religious studies, philosophy, CC, Lit Hum, University Writing, Asian studies.

Irvin Hunt

After graduating Morehouse College summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Irvin Hunt went on to receive an MA in English and American literature from University of California, Berkeley. Awarded the Ford Fellowship for Graduate Study, he then enrolled as a PhD student in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, from which he received two MA degrees. In 2005 he released a book of letters and poems titled Family. He has published articles for the Maroon Tiger and Independent School. His dissertation will be study of the politics of laughter in 20th-century American literature. Yet as wide as his interests span, teaching is his first joy. Specialties: African-American studies, American literature, grammar, MLA style, personal statements, University Writing.

Lauren Kopec

Lauren Kopec is a fourth-year doctoral student in the English Department at St. John’s University where she has also been teaching First-Year Writing and other introductory English courses for the past two years. Lauren has been working in writing centers since she earned her BA at Stony Brook University; she has researched and written extensively about peer- tutoring with her first article appearing in The Writing Lab Newsletter in 2008.  She has also presented in a variety of conferences on writing center pedagogy including national, regional, and a European conference hosted in Paris in May 2010.  She is currently writing her dissertation on critical race theory, trauma theory, and the blues aesthetic of the Harlem Renaissance as a way of helping marginalized student populations work through and within the boundaries of academia. 

Matt Lombardi

Matt Lombardi is an adjunct lecturer and writing consultant at Baruch College.  He has taught English and writing in various capacities here in New York since 2005 as well as abroad in Chile, Thailand, Nepal, and Budapest. He received an MFA in fiction from The New School in 2008. His work has appeared in Details, The Bellevue Literary Review, Nerve,Forklift Ohio, and Court Green. He has recently completed his first novel. Specialties: brainstorming, essay organization, fiction, political discourse analysis, American literature, ESL, MLA style.

Ben Lyons

Ben Lyons is a sixth-year PhD candidate in the History Department, specializing in the diplomacy of the American Revolution with an emphasis on the work of Columbia's own John Jay.  Other historical interests include slavery and abolition and the development of American law.  Ben also has an MA in East Asian studies and has studied Mandarin intensively, along with Spanish and Modern Hebrew.

Katie McIntyre

Katie McIntyre graduated from Dartmouth College with a BA in philosophy and a minor in English and is currently a fifth-year PhD student in the Philosophy Department at Columbia where she earned her MPhil in 2011.  Her focus in on 19th- and 20th-century European philosophy, though she has served as a TA for a variety of courses in the Philosophy Department, most with a heavy emphasis on paper writing.  Specialties: academic paper writing in the humanities, CC, grant and proposal writing, personal statements.

Sue Mendelsohn

Sue Mendelsohn is the Writing Center's director. She has more than a decade of writing consulting experience. Her current focus is completing her dissertation in English with a specialization in rhetoric and composition studies at the University of Texas. She regularly presents her research on multimodal composing and visual rhetoric at national conferences. In addition to her own scholarly work, Sue teaches University Writing. Specialties: American literature, APA style, business & professional writing, job search materials, MLA style, multimedia composing, personal statements, University Writing.

Craig Moreau

Craig Moreau received his MFA in poetry from New York University. His first collection came out in June of 2011 by Chelsea Station Editions. He currently writes for Electric Literature and has work forthcoming for display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was previously a writing tutor at the University of Iowa and would be happy to help you with your projects, whatever your level, year, or stage in the writing process. Specialties: comparative literature, history, poetry, University Writing, mixed-media/genre projects.

Cynthia-Marie O'Brien

Cynthia-Marie earned her MFA in creative writing from Columbia's School of the Arts, where she concentrated in nonfiction. She has taught University Writing at Columbia University and Central European University. She has also taught fiction in the Narrative Medicine program at Columbia's College of Physicians & Surgeons and poetry at the Putney School Summer Programs. Cynthia graduated from Dartmouth College cum laude with high honors in her major, English literature and creative writing. At Dartmouth, she also concentrated in Latin American literature and international relations. Her work appears in Bellevue Literary Review. She is presently drafting and revising essays that explore concepts of home, psychology and biographies of place. She believes in writing as a form of conversation and looks forward to working with you. She has significant experience working with non-native English speakers, students embarking on long-term writing projects, and students in the social sciences. Specialties: American literature, business & professional writing, Chicago (CMS) style, comparative literature, dissertation writing, ESL, fiction, history, job search materials, journalism, law, Lit Hum, MLA style, personal statements, poetry, political science, proposal & grant writing, publishing, science writing, thesis writing, University Writing, long projects, literary non-fiction.

Jessica Pishko

Jessica Pishko is a third-year MFA candidate in fiction at the School of the Arts.  She received her BA from Rice University in English and French and a JD from Harvard Law School.  Prior to coming to Columbia, Jessica was a corporate litigator in New York, as well as a legal recruiter and research specialist at LexisNexis.  She has worked privately as a legal writing tutor and law school admissions consultant. Her short fiction has appeared on anderbo.com and elimae.  She is currently a University Writing instructor.  She is also a yoga teacher and will happily give stretching suggestions upon request.  Specialties: British literature, business & professional writing, fiction, job search materials, law, Lit Hum, personal statements, thesis writing, University Writing, long projects, literary non-fiction.

Anitta Santiago

Anitta Santiago is a fifth-year PhD student in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Her dissertation examines quotation and the development of a national/literary culture in the American long nineteenth-century. She teaches University Writing. Specialties: American literature, British literature, grammar, Spanish, University Writing.

Kat Savino

Kat Savino holds an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University's School of the Arts and a BA in English from Montclair State University. She taught University Writing as well as creative writing classes through the Columbia Artists and Teachers program (CA/T) and at the School of Continuing Education. She has also worked as a professional tutor for the past decade and most recently worked as a staff writer at the business publication, Speech Technology Magazine. Kat has also published her work in The Columbia Poetry Review and Venus Magazine. Specialties: literary analysis, application writing, creative writing, gender studies.

Jason Takayuki Ueda     

Jason Takayuki Ueda teaches composition at Hunter College and Empire State College. His interests include modern and contemporary poetry, Japanese medieval history, labor studies, media and culture, cooking, and bike riding. Jason received a BA from Hunter College and an MFA from The New School.

Tejan Waszak   

Tejan Waszak holds an MFA in creative writing from Long Island University and a BA in journalism from Hunter College with a minor in theatre. In addition to working as a writing consultant, she has taught at the high school and university level for six years. She is currently working on a book of poetry and short stories. Specialties: African-American studies, American literature, ESL, fiction, film, journalism, personal statements, poetry, theatre, religious studies, literary non-fiction, Caribbean studies, gender studies.

Carin Jean White

Carin Jean White holds an MFA in theater directing at the School of the Arts. She has taught University Writing in the Undergraduate Writing Program. Her play, Rivers and Tributaries, premiered in February 2011 at Riverside Church.  Specialties: ESL, fiction, grammar, job search materials, personal statements, poetry, proposal & grant writing, theatre.

Christopher John Williams           

Christopher John Williams is a second-year University Writing instructor and a fourth-year MFA candidate in fiction at the School of the Arts. His short fiction is featured in Of a Monstrous Child: An Anthology of Creative Writing Relationships. He matriculated at Yale University where he was awarded a Presidential scholarship for undergraduate study. He went on to receive a BA in economics and an H. B. Earhart fellowship for graduate study. Christopher has taught a combination of creative and essay writing, math, and science at the middle, high school, and university levels for more than eight years. He is passionate about teaching and learning. Specialties: business & professional writing, dissertation writing, economics, fiction, MLA style, personal statements, University Writing, literary non-fiction.