Kent Anderson

My teaching experience includes a range of subjects, including popular culture, speech communication, global stories, and English as a second language. Additionally, I have given lectures in art appreciation courses, as well as being a guest lecturer in English courses overseas on topics in Victorian literature and Shakespeare. As a student, I pursued degrees in varied disciplines, including a BA in English, a MA in broadcast and cinematic arts, and I completed a doctoral program in culture studies, with an emphasis in critical studies in film, media, and culture.

I taught popular culture and speech communication to non-traditional students. Global Stories was an undergraduate class that focused on teaching storytelling using films, series, literature, and artwork from a wide range of countries. The Global and Local Urban Health and Equity (GLUE) program afforded me valuable opportunities to work with medical professionals from Nigeria, India, Guatemala, and China, to name a few countries. Teaching English as a second language requires teaching adult students from many regions, including South and Central America, Asia, Europe, Eastern Europe, and Russia. I am well-versed in interpersonal communication across cultures.

Complementing my teaching experience, interdisciplinary research has been essential to my development as a professional. While my research interests are wide-ranging within and across films, video games, art, literature, and topics in medical sociology, everything is complementary. For example, pandemic narratives can be examined across multiple media, while knowledge of epidemiology and the history of disease adds a further dimension that can heighten the reading of the narratives, enhancing their value for audiences and researchers. Interdisciplinary research allows for more complex analyses of topics, while it also improves my teaching, because it helps me find multiple ways to engage with students, as well as developing multifaceted perspectives on topics.