Rachel Dean-Ruzicka
Rachel Dean-Ruzicka is a Lecturer of Writing and Communication, where she specializes in teaching the department's corequisite composition courses. She received her PhD in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University in 2011, with an emphasis in film and media studies. Her book, Tolerance Discourse and Young Adult Holocaust Literature: Engaging Difference and Identity, was released in a paperback edition from Routledge in 2019. She has previously published on paranormal teenagers who defeat serial killers, all-ages feminist comic books, female engineers in YA fiction, and the films of director Wes Anderson. She has a forthcoming article on the podcast My Favorite Murder, to round out her pop culture crime publication credentials. Her current research investigates models of maturation, YA Weird fiction, and contemporary feminist theory. Despite all the murder and mayhem in this bio, she's really quite a cheerful person.

Pandemic Pedagogy – Short Essays

At the beginning of last year we asked for reflections from Brittain fellows on teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in instructive articles from “The Shift to Online Consulting at Georgia Tech’s Communication Center” by Jeff Howard et al. to “A Sense of Belonging in the Archive and the… Continue reading

Life After the Brittain Fellowship: Kellie Meyer

Image of Kellie Meyer

What does life after the Brittain Fellowship look like? What opportunities within academia or in other sectors do Brittain Fellows pursue? And how does the postdoc prepare Brittain Fellows for these positions?  The Professional Development Committee reached out to former Brittain Fellows and other experts to find out the answers to these and other related questions. The interview below — with Kellie Meyer, a teacher at TMI Episcopal School of Texas, and a former Brittain Fellow  — is… Continue reading

Life after the Brittain Fellowship: John Harkey

What does life after the Brittain Fellowship look like? What opportunities within academia or in other sectors do Brittain Fellows pursue? And how does the postdoc prepare Brittain Fellows for these positions? The Professional Development Committee reached out to former Brittain Fellows and other experts to find out the answers to these and other related questions. The interview below — with John Harkey, a teacher at Brookstone School in Columbus, GA, and… Continue reading

Life after the Brittain Fellowship: Rebecca Weaver

What does life after the Brittain Fellowship look like? What opportunities within academia or in other sectors do Brittain Fellows pursue? And how does the postdoc prepare Brittain Fellows for these positions? The Professional Development Committee reached out to former Brittain Fellows and other experts to find out the answers to these questions and more. The interview… Continue reading

Life After the Brittain Fellowship: Andrea Krafft

What does life after the Brittain Fellowship look like? What opportunities within academia or in other sectors do Brittain Fellows pursue? And how does the postdoc prepare Brittain Fellows for these positions? The Professional Development Committee reached out to former Brittain Fellows to find out the answers to these questions and more. The interview below — featuring Andrea Krafft, an instructional… Continue reading

Life After the Brittain Fellowship: Emily Kane

What does life after the Brittain Fellowship look like? What opportunities within academia or in other sectors do Brittain Fellows pursue? And how does the postdoc prepare Brittain Fellows for these positions? The Professional Development Committee reached out to former Brittain Fellows to find out the answers to these questions… Continue reading

Multimodal Assignment Design Series: Comics Creation

This is the first post in an ongoing series on multimodal assignment design created by the lecturers and postdoctoral fellows in the Writing and Communication Program at Georgia Tech. Several committees have come together to work on this project: Professional Development, Curriculum Innovation, and TECHStyle. Our goal is to produce… Continue reading

Anticipating THATCamp

I’ve been a member of the digital humanities community here at Georgia Tech for the past year and a half (+!) and yet here I am, THATCamp-less.  It’s a shame.  I’m ashamed!  THATCamp is one of the hallmarks of what we at the Brittain Fellowship try to do on a… Continue reading

Hate Studies and the Holocaust Memorial Museum

What is hate, and how do we combat it?  Recently, I attended a symposium organized by Gonzaga University’s Institute for Hate Studies and American University’s Washington College of Law.  The symposium was on “Hate and Political Discourse” and was organized by John Shuford and Robert Tsai in honor of the… Continue reading

Notes from National Women’s Studies Association

Normally, I would sit down to write a blog of this sort saying I’d “just returned” from a particular conference.  However, that language doesn’t really work this year as I was lucky enough to move to Atlanta just before this year’s National Women’s Studies Association annual conference.  This year it… Continue reading