{"295901":{"#nid":"295901","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Capturing Composition through the Queer Media Lens","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EChannel writing instruction through whatever students are interested in\u2014that\u0027s the rationale behind Marty Fink\u2019s creation of the first-year English course Queer New Media: Literature, Film, and Digital Cultures.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWriting is this really important skill you can actually teach through the lens of whatever affects students,\u201d says Fink, who joined Tech\u2019s \u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Literature, Media, and Communication\u003C\/strong\u003E as a Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow in the fall of 2013.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter teaching English I using the modality of comics and graphic novels in the fall, Fink, who taught gender and sexuality studies at her previous university, felt compelled to build an English class that not only engaged students using new media but also embraced those trying to find themselves as well as others like them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI felt I needed to make a space at Tech where students could come and say, \u2018Oh my gosh, I\u2019m in this room full of other students who identify as queer, transgender, or as feminists, and this class can be a space to work through those issues in my life, in my school, and in my social circles with others also interested in these issues.\u2019\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFink explained that because certain types of people don\u2019t see themselves reflected in the media, the Queer New Media class is essential because it offers examples of marginalized identities as its central focus.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere\u2019s this norm out there we\u2019re supposed to aspire to, but what if we don\u2019t fit that norm? I think a lot of students can identify with that,\u201d Fink says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESomething outside the norm\u2014a different approach to writing instruction\u2014was what Raksha Muthukumar was looking for when she signed up for Fink\u2019s class,\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen I came to Tech, I wanted to explore things I\u2019d not been exposed to,\u201d said the first-year industrial engineering student. \u201cI saw the topic as something I\u2019d never sought out before. I think it was the \u2018it\u2019s different\u2019 aspect that attracted me to it.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe says a particularly key learning for her was grasping the importance of exploring the unfamiliar in order to gain a true understanding of and respect for it. She wishes that wisdom for all college students and recommends the class to students of varying backgrounds and disciplines.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cRespecting people of different backgrounds is a really important thing to know; if you\u2019re going to be an engineer, for example, functioning in the world with others, it\u2019s critical to know how to interact respectfully with others, no matter what their background is.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EChannel writing instruction through whatever students are interested in\u2014that\u0027s the rationale behind Marty Fink\u2019s creation of the first-year English course Queer New Media: Literature, Film, and Digital Cultures.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Channel writing instruction through whatever students are interested in\u2014that\u0027s the rationale behind Marty Fink\u2019s creation of the first-year English course Queer New Media: Literature, Film, and Digital Cultures."}],"uid":"27889","created_gmt":"2014-05-08 12:18:35","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:22","author":"Beth Godfrey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-05-08T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-05-08T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"293501":{"id":"293501","type":"image","title":"Queer New Media (ENG 1102) flyer","body":null,"created":"1449244313","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:51:53","changed":"1475894991","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:51","alt":"Queer New Media (ENG 1102) flyer","file":{"fid":"199305","name":"qnm.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/qnm_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/qnm_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":152776,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/qnm_0.jpg?itok=8N_BLMQL"}}},"media_ids":["293501"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"92381","name":"queer new media"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}