Faculty Accolades
Simone Sessolo Awarded Title of Teaching Professor
The Sweetland Center for Writing is proud to announce that Dr. Simone Sessolo has been awarded the title of Teaching Professor in 2024, recognizing his outstanding teaching, leadership in writing pedagogy, and commitment to inclusive practices. Simone is the third faculty member at Sweetland to receive this title, which honors exceptional contributions to teaching and professional growth.
One highlight of Simone’s teaching is his course, “Creating Narratives in Augmented Reality,” which integrates emerging technologies to enhance students’ digital literacies. He received the Digital Studies Institute’s inaugural teaching award in 2020. Simone also incorporates inclusive teaching practices, such as using portfolios and self-assessment, which foster equity and encourage students to reflect on their growth as writers. In addition to his teaching, Simone has been instrumental in developing Sweetland’s graduate programs, including Writing 631: Dissertation Writing, and the Dissertation ECoach.
The University’s recognition of Simone’s exceptional work with this title is well-deserved. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Simone Sessolo on this achievement and his continued contributions to our community.
Faculty Updates
Scott Beal
My second full-length poetry collection, Stegosaurus Moon, will be published by Dzanc Books in 2026.
Angela Berkley
One of my students from my Writing 201 Attention and the Digital Landscape class created a podcast episode for the Daily's Arts, Interrupted podcast in which she interviewed me about this activity I did with our class, which I based on the activities of the (not so) secret society that Nathan Heller profiles in this New Yorker piece. Then, she (Megan Gydesen) and a few friends did their own version of the activity at UMMA.
April Conway
In 2024, I, along with three other Rhetoric and Writing scholars, launched Bale: An Annotated Bibliography of Narrative and Storywork, a dynamic and collaborative project designed to bring together voices and texts across storytelling scholarship in and beyond the field of rhetoric, composition, and writing studies. The editors of Bale are a collective of scholars interested and invested in storytelling and narrative methods and methodologies, brought together by the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition’s 2021 Fellowship Pod Program and in partnership with the WAC Clearinghouse/Colorado State University Press.
Chris Crowder
My poetry manuscript, The Kin of Nakedness, was selected for publication by Four Way Books, set for release in 2026.
Staff Updates
Aaron Valdez
In 2024, I was commissioned to create a short found footage video for Project 200, the Ann Arbor District Library's celebration of Ann Arbor's bicentennial. My video, entitled "I Remember When (Bicentenniel Remix)," utilized archival interviews with notable Ann Arbor citizens originally recorded in 1974 using an early form of black and white video. Interestlying, much of the original video was shot and edited in the old Frieze building where North Quad, Sweetland's home, now resides.
