AVA C. CIPRI
Email: ava[dot]c[dot]cipri[at]gmail[dot]com
EDUCATION
M.F.A., English, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 2002
Thesis: Asymmetrical House/ Advisor: Malena Morling
B.S., Health Policy Administration; Minor in English
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 1996
TEACHING (Duquesne)
Instructor of Writing, Duquesne University, English Department, Fall 2011–present
Multi-Genre Creative Writing & Poetry Workshops (levels I-IV.).
UCOR 101—UCOR 102 (Thinking and Writing Across the Curriculum; Imaginative Literature & Critical Writing), & UCOR 101C—UCOR 102C (Personae Learning Community Courses taught in the McAnulty College).
ACADEMIC SERVICE (Duquesne)
Director, Personae Learning Community, the McAnulty College of Liberal Arts, Spring 2012–present.
Personae’s students work as in-class assistants to instructors of English as a second language at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU), where they help refugees and immigrants increase communication skills, make cultural adjustments, & navigate community resources.
Faculty Host to Personae’s Community Engagement Scholars, the Center for Community-Engaged Teaching and Research (CETR), Fall 2012–present. Apply and recruit scholars for Personae, where they will serve as liaisons between us and our community partner. Overseeing each scholar carryout our program’s mission in supporting Personae students in reaching their S-L goals, all while finishing their own volunteer hours.
Lead-Peer Mentor, Near-Peer Mentoring Exchange, the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), Fall 2013–present
Serving as a mentor for incoming cross-disciplinary non-tenure track faculty. A lead-peer is someone who has succeeded at the next steps for which incoming faculty are preparing. At meetings I share my own experience, process of ongoing learning, and foster a positive spirit of collegiality.
Member, First-Year Writing Committee, Fall 2013–present
Member, Creative Reading Series Committee, Fall 2011–present
Co-facilitator/Co-founder, Writers’ Room, the Writing Center, Duquesne University, 2007–2011
Writers' Room is a discussion group designed to facilitate an egalitarian approach to the experience and enjoyment of creative writing. Writers' Room is not a workshop; it is more of a "salon" atmosphere.
TEACHING AWARDS & HONORS (Duquesne)
Creative Teaching Award, the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), Duquesne University, April 2013.
Marcia Rapchak (co-collaborator) and I were the first award winners not only to feature a McAnulty learning community, but to have piloted a project that is currently implemented across all the college’s first-year learning communities since the fall 2013. I was selected to collaborate with instructional librarian Marcia Rapchak, teaching linked curriculum between two university core courses UCOR 030 and UCOR 101 within the Personae learning community. This approach was unique to Duquesne, since no UCOR 030 course has been linked to a UCOR 101 course or to a learning community. Aside from presenting at the annual Celebration of Teaching Excellence where the awards were conferred by the Provost, we participated in a fall Center for Teaching Excellence panel discussion.
Student Essays Selected as First Class Winners, Fall 2010, Fall 2011 & Fall 2013.
These students’ winning essays were published in the First Class journal, a publication put out by the Department of English every year to showcase exemplary student writing in the First-Year Writing program.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Adjunct Instructor, Duquesne University, English Department, 2006–5/2011
UCOR 101-UCOR 102 (Thinking and Writing Across the Curriculum, Imaginative Literature & Critical Writing) & Poetry Workshops (level I.).
Adjunct Instructor, Duquesne University, Mathmatics and Computer Science Department, 2008–2009
UCOR 030: Research and Information Skills Lab
Madwomen in the Attic Poetry Workshop Substitute, Carlow University, 2008–2009
Adjunct Instructor, Carlow University, 2006–2007
Taught multiply sections of CC100: College Writing and Research & ENG101: Introduction to Literature
Professional Writing Instructor, Syracuse University, Writing Program, 2001–2002
Developed curriculum & served as instructor for Composition, Rhetoric & Literature Courses
Teaching Assistant, Syracuse University, English Department/Writing Program, 1998–2001
Developed curriculum & served as instructor for Composition Rhetoric, Literature, & Creative Writing Courses
Raymond Carver Living Writers Series Instructor, Syracuse University, English Dept., 2000–2001
Prepared students for visiting authors by facilitating discussions & designing papers
B.F.A. Program Instructor, Syracuse University, English Department/Writing Program, 2000–2001
Designed Rhetoric Course geared for students in the Fine Arts
Practicum Writing Consultant, Syracuse University, English Department/Writing Program, 1999–2001
SummerStart Writing Consultant, Syracuse University, English Department/Writing Program, 1999
Writing Consultant, Syracuse University, English Department/Writing Program, 1998–2001
Academic Writing Consultant & Resource Counselor, Fowler High School, Syracuse, NY 1997–1998
Enhanced ESL students’ fluency in reading, writing & speaking English
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Creative Writing Facilitator, Pennsylvania Organization for Women in Early Recovery (POWER), 2006–2013
Museum Artist-Educator, The Mattress Factory, 2008–2010
Assistant Editor & Art Editor, Salt Hill, Syracuse University’s Literary Journal, 1997–1999
DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY PRESENTATIONS/ WORKSHOPS
“Winning Ideas and Tips on Preparing Creative Teaching Award Submissions.” Facilitator: Laurel Willingham-McLain.
Panel participant consisting of former Creative Teaching Award Recipients. Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE). Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. 10/2013.
“Teaching Students to Evaluate Information with the Relevance/Credibility Model.” Co-presenter with Dr. Greg Barnhisel. Gumberg Library & Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE). Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. 11/2009.
“The Evaluative Equation: Implementing the Relevance-Credibility Model.” Invited Presenter. English UCOR Instructors In-Service Day Workshop. Dr. Greg Barnhisel (Director of First-Year Writing, facilitator). Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. 8/2009.
“Making UCOR030 Work for You”: Meeting UCOR102’s Learning Outcomes Enabling Students to Effectively Utilize What They Know in Conducting Research for their Papers.” Organized/Led Workshop. First-Year Writing Committee’s 2nd UCOR Professional-Development Workshop. Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. 3/2009.
“A Reflection of Teaching Strategies: Achieving Teaching Objectives with Non-Liberal Arts Students.” Invited Presenter. English UCOR Instructors In-Service Day Workshop. Dr. Greg Barnhisel (Director of First-Year Writing, facilitator). Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. 8/2008.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“Unruly Catholic Women Writers: Creative Responses to Catholicism Writers.” Featured Book Reading at The National Association for Women in Catholic Higher Education (NAWCHE). Making Connections XI: The Welcome Table—Interfaith Women in Dialogue in Catholic Higher Education. Seattle University, WA. June 18-20, 2014.
“Research Skills and Writing in a Learning Community: A Symbiotic Relationship.” Co-presenter Marcia Rapchak. The National Learning Communities Conference (NLCC), Corpus Christi, TX. November 2013.
“Into the Canvas: Accounting for the Presence of Working-class Art in Society.” Spoken Word I. Co-presenter; competitively selected authors. Working Class Studies Association Conference. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. June 3-6 2009.
“Designing First-Year Composition Courses to Promote Critical Thinking: The Evaluative Equation.” Co-presenter; competitively selected panel. College English Association 40th Annual Conference. Omni William Penn Hotel, Pittsburgh, PA. March 26-29, 2009.
“Accommodating Writing: Teachers and Students with Disabilities.” Co-presenter; competitively selected panel. Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Convention. Adam’s Mark Hotel. Denver, CO. 2001.
“Bodies Like Us: Visibility and Invisibility as the Paradoxical Markers of (Dis)ability Identity.” Co-presenter; competitively selected panel. Desegregating Disability Studies: an Interdisciplinary Discussion. Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY. 2000.
READINGS
Poetry Reading. Duquesne University English Department’s Coffee House Reading Series. Co-reader. Genesius Theater. Pittsburgh, PA. 2016.
Poetry Reading. Duquesne University English Department’s Coffee House Reading Series. Co-reader. Barnes & Noble Café. Pittsburgh, PA. 2009.
Poetry Reading. PROSODY. Jan Beatty, interviewer. NPR-affiliate WESA Radio Broadcast. Pittsburgh, PA. 2008.
PUBLICATIONS
Scholarship: “Standing Alone No More: Linking Research to a Writing Course in a Learning Community.” Portal: Libraries and the Academy 15.4 (October 2015): 661-675.
Book Reviews: “Last Call: Poems on Alcoholism, Addiction, & Deliverance,” Editors, S. Gorham & Skinner, Salt Hill 5; “Crazy Horse,” by William Heyen, Salt Hill 4.
Nonfiction and Poetry: “Anthony’s Asceticism” & “Excuse Me for This, Sister Mary:” Unruly Catholic Women Anthology II. (2011) [FINALIST–2013 ForeWord IndieFab Book of the Year Award in the Anthologies Category].
2River View, Atlas Poetica: A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka ATPO 6, CEIIA’s Round Trip, Cimarron, Contemporary Haibun Online (CHO), decomP magazinE, Drunken Boat, Georgetown Review, The Ghazal Page, Luna Luna, Moonbathing: A Journal of Women’s Tanka, New Zoo Poetry Review, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rust+Moth, Western Humanities Review, Whiskey Island Review, Uppagus, Wicked Alice, Wild Violet, Wisteria, & YCR.
GRADUATE STUDENT THESIS COMMITTEE
Completed Thesis: Outside Reader Committee Member, Hayley Rieg, Chatham University (MFA) 2016.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
The College English Association
Haiku Society of America
Haiku Society of Canada
Tanka Society of America
National Association for Women in Catholic Higher Education
CREATIVE WRITING AWARDS & HONORS
“From the Barre.” Tanka Splendor Award Winning Tanka Sequence. Twenty Years Tanka Splendor: 1990-2009. Ed. Jane Reichhold. AHA Books. 2009.
“Character Study” and “Third Anniversary” invited by Editor, Jim Kacian, President of the Haiku Society of America to appear in contemporary haibun anthology, Red Moon Press, Volume 11. 2010.
Teaching Assistantship/Graduate Scholarship, Syracuse University, 1999–2001
The Katey Lehman Creative Writing Award, Pennsylvania State University, 1996
The Prague Summer Writers' Workshop Scholarship, Charles University, 1995
Email: ava[dot]c[dot]cipri[at]gmail[dot]com
EDUCATION
M.F.A., English, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 2002
Thesis: Asymmetrical House/ Advisor: Malena Morling
B.S., Health Policy Administration; Minor in English
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 1996
TEACHING (Duquesne)
Instructor of Writing, Duquesne University, English Department, Fall 2011–present
Multi-Genre Creative Writing & Poetry Workshops (levels I-IV.).
UCOR 101—UCOR 102 (Thinking and Writing Across the Curriculum; Imaginative Literature & Critical Writing), & UCOR 101C—UCOR 102C (Personae Learning Community Courses taught in the McAnulty College).
ACADEMIC SERVICE (Duquesne)
Director, Personae Learning Community, the McAnulty College of Liberal Arts, Spring 2012–present.
Personae’s students work as in-class assistants to instructors of English as a second language at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU), where they help refugees and immigrants increase communication skills, make cultural adjustments, & navigate community resources.
Faculty Host to Personae’s Community Engagement Scholars, the Center for Community-Engaged Teaching and Research (CETR), Fall 2012–present. Apply and recruit scholars for Personae, where they will serve as liaisons between us and our community partner. Overseeing each scholar carryout our program’s mission in supporting Personae students in reaching their S-L goals, all while finishing their own volunteer hours.
Lead-Peer Mentor, Near-Peer Mentoring Exchange, the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), Fall 2013–present
Serving as a mentor for incoming cross-disciplinary non-tenure track faculty. A lead-peer is someone who has succeeded at the next steps for which incoming faculty are preparing. At meetings I share my own experience, process of ongoing learning, and foster a positive spirit of collegiality.
Member, First-Year Writing Committee, Fall 2013–present
Member, Creative Reading Series Committee, Fall 2011–present
Co-facilitator/Co-founder, Writers’ Room, the Writing Center, Duquesne University, 2007–2011
Writers' Room is a discussion group designed to facilitate an egalitarian approach to the experience and enjoyment of creative writing. Writers' Room is not a workshop; it is more of a "salon" atmosphere.
TEACHING AWARDS & HONORS (Duquesne)
Creative Teaching Award, the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), Duquesne University, April 2013.
Marcia Rapchak (co-collaborator) and I were the first award winners not only to feature a McAnulty learning community, but to have piloted a project that is currently implemented across all the college’s first-year learning communities since the fall 2013. I was selected to collaborate with instructional librarian Marcia Rapchak, teaching linked curriculum between two university core courses UCOR 030 and UCOR 101 within the Personae learning community. This approach was unique to Duquesne, since no UCOR 030 course has been linked to a UCOR 101 course or to a learning community. Aside from presenting at the annual Celebration of Teaching Excellence where the awards were conferred by the Provost, we participated in a fall Center for Teaching Excellence panel discussion.
Student Essays Selected as First Class Winners, Fall 2010, Fall 2011 & Fall 2013.
These students’ winning essays were published in the First Class journal, a publication put out by the Department of English every year to showcase exemplary student writing in the First-Year Writing program.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Adjunct Instructor, Duquesne University, English Department, 2006–5/2011
UCOR 101-UCOR 102 (Thinking and Writing Across the Curriculum, Imaginative Literature & Critical Writing) & Poetry Workshops (level I.).
Adjunct Instructor, Duquesne University, Mathmatics and Computer Science Department, 2008–2009
UCOR 030: Research and Information Skills Lab
Madwomen in the Attic Poetry Workshop Substitute, Carlow University, 2008–2009
Adjunct Instructor, Carlow University, 2006–2007
Taught multiply sections of CC100: College Writing and Research & ENG101: Introduction to Literature
Professional Writing Instructor, Syracuse University, Writing Program, 2001–2002
Developed curriculum & served as instructor for Composition, Rhetoric & Literature Courses
Teaching Assistant, Syracuse University, English Department/Writing Program, 1998–2001
Developed curriculum & served as instructor for Composition Rhetoric, Literature, & Creative Writing Courses
Raymond Carver Living Writers Series Instructor, Syracuse University, English Dept., 2000–2001
Prepared students for visiting authors by facilitating discussions & designing papers
B.F.A. Program Instructor, Syracuse University, English Department/Writing Program, 2000–2001
Designed Rhetoric Course geared for students in the Fine Arts
Practicum Writing Consultant, Syracuse University, English Department/Writing Program, 1999–2001
- Trained new TAs in teaching development Facilitated bi-weekly team meetings & TA orientation
- Observed classes of new TAs & conducted preliminary & follow-up conferences
SummerStart Writing Consultant, Syracuse University, English Department/Writing Program, 1999
- Prepared incoming freshman with writing, revision & proof-reading strategies
- Enhanced the students' ability to invent, develop, & polish their assignments
- Challenged students with one-on-one and small group tutorial sessions
Writing Consultant, Syracuse University, English Department/Writing Program, 1998–2001
- Assisted undergraduates & graduates in applying for professional degrees
- Athletic Department tutor in one-on-one & small group sessions
Academic Writing Consultant & Resource Counselor, Fowler High School, Syracuse, NY 1997–1998
Enhanced ESL students’ fluency in reading, writing & speaking English
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Creative Writing Facilitator, Pennsylvania Organization for Women in Early Recovery (POWER), 2006–2013
Museum Artist-Educator, The Mattress Factory, 2008–2010
Assistant Editor & Art Editor, Salt Hill, Syracuse University’s Literary Journal, 1997–1999
DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY PRESENTATIONS/ WORKSHOPS
“Winning Ideas and Tips on Preparing Creative Teaching Award Submissions.” Facilitator: Laurel Willingham-McLain.
Panel participant consisting of former Creative Teaching Award Recipients. Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE). Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. 10/2013.
“Teaching Students to Evaluate Information with the Relevance/Credibility Model.” Co-presenter with Dr. Greg Barnhisel. Gumberg Library & Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE). Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. 11/2009.
“The Evaluative Equation: Implementing the Relevance-Credibility Model.” Invited Presenter. English UCOR Instructors In-Service Day Workshop. Dr. Greg Barnhisel (Director of First-Year Writing, facilitator). Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. 8/2009.
“Making UCOR030 Work for You”: Meeting UCOR102’s Learning Outcomes Enabling Students to Effectively Utilize What They Know in Conducting Research for their Papers.” Organized/Led Workshop. First-Year Writing Committee’s 2nd UCOR Professional-Development Workshop. Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. 3/2009.
“A Reflection of Teaching Strategies: Achieving Teaching Objectives with Non-Liberal Arts Students.” Invited Presenter. English UCOR Instructors In-Service Day Workshop. Dr. Greg Barnhisel (Director of First-Year Writing, facilitator). Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. 8/2008.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“Unruly Catholic Women Writers: Creative Responses to Catholicism Writers.” Featured Book Reading at The National Association for Women in Catholic Higher Education (NAWCHE). Making Connections XI: The Welcome Table—Interfaith Women in Dialogue in Catholic Higher Education. Seattle University, WA. June 18-20, 2014.
“Research Skills and Writing in a Learning Community: A Symbiotic Relationship.” Co-presenter Marcia Rapchak. The National Learning Communities Conference (NLCC), Corpus Christi, TX. November 2013.
“Into the Canvas: Accounting for the Presence of Working-class Art in Society.” Spoken Word I. Co-presenter; competitively selected authors. Working Class Studies Association Conference. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. June 3-6 2009.
“Designing First-Year Composition Courses to Promote Critical Thinking: The Evaluative Equation.” Co-presenter; competitively selected panel. College English Association 40th Annual Conference. Omni William Penn Hotel, Pittsburgh, PA. March 26-29, 2009.
“Accommodating Writing: Teachers and Students with Disabilities.” Co-presenter; competitively selected panel. Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Convention. Adam’s Mark Hotel. Denver, CO. 2001.
“Bodies Like Us: Visibility and Invisibility as the Paradoxical Markers of (Dis)ability Identity.” Co-presenter; competitively selected panel. Desegregating Disability Studies: an Interdisciplinary Discussion. Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY. 2000.
READINGS
Poetry Reading. Duquesne University English Department’s Coffee House Reading Series. Co-reader. Genesius Theater. Pittsburgh, PA. 2016.
Poetry Reading. Duquesne University English Department’s Coffee House Reading Series. Co-reader. Barnes & Noble Café. Pittsburgh, PA. 2009.
Poetry Reading. PROSODY. Jan Beatty, interviewer. NPR-affiliate WESA Radio Broadcast. Pittsburgh, PA. 2008.
PUBLICATIONS
Scholarship: “Standing Alone No More: Linking Research to a Writing Course in a Learning Community.” Portal: Libraries and the Academy 15.4 (October 2015): 661-675.
Book Reviews: “Last Call: Poems on Alcoholism, Addiction, & Deliverance,” Editors, S. Gorham & Skinner, Salt Hill 5; “Crazy Horse,” by William Heyen, Salt Hill 4.
Nonfiction and Poetry: “Anthony’s Asceticism” & “Excuse Me for This, Sister Mary:” Unruly Catholic Women Anthology II. (2011) [FINALIST–2013 ForeWord IndieFab Book of the Year Award in the Anthologies Category].
2River View, Atlas Poetica: A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka ATPO 6, CEIIA’s Round Trip, Cimarron, Contemporary Haibun Online (CHO), decomP magazinE, Drunken Boat, Georgetown Review, The Ghazal Page, Luna Luna, Moonbathing: A Journal of Women’s Tanka, New Zoo Poetry Review, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rust+Moth, Western Humanities Review, Whiskey Island Review, Uppagus, Wicked Alice, Wild Violet, Wisteria, & YCR.
GRADUATE STUDENT THESIS COMMITTEE
Completed Thesis: Outside Reader Committee Member, Hayley Rieg, Chatham University (MFA) 2016.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
The College English Association
Haiku Society of America
Haiku Society of Canada
Tanka Society of America
National Association for Women in Catholic Higher Education
CREATIVE WRITING AWARDS & HONORS
“From the Barre.” Tanka Splendor Award Winning Tanka Sequence. Twenty Years Tanka Splendor: 1990-2009. Ed. Jane Reichhold. AHA Books. 2009.
“Character Study” and “Third Anniversary” invited by Editor, Jim Kacian, President of the Haiku Society of America to appear in contemporary haibun anthology, Red Moon Press, Volume 11. 2010.
Teaching Assistantship/Graduate Scholarship, Syracuse University, 1999–2001
The Katey Lehman Creative Writing Award, Pennsylvania State University, 1996
The Prague Summer Writers' Workshop Scholarship, Charles University, 1995