Teaching

Messina College Admin Building

BOSTON COLLEGE

I am a Professor of the Practice in English at Messina College at Boston College, where I teach literature, public speaking, and composition.

ABOUT MESSINA: Located on the Brookline Campus of Boston College, Messina College is a two-year fully residential associate's degree program. Beginning in the inaugural 2024–25 academic year, Messina College will provide 100 first-generation, high financial need students each year with an opportunity to pursue an associate's degree from Boston College, with the goal of preparing them to enroll in a bachelor’s degree program or to begin their careers.

I am the co-creator of Northeastern’s first student-run first-generation, low-income literary magazine with Prof. Caitlin Thornbrugh. This project, grant-funded by the NU Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, seeks to create a space for first-gen low-income students to be heard.

I also teach a graduate class on short prose at Emerson College.

  • Writing Center Director | July 2022 - June 2024

    Director of First-Year Writing | Sept. 2015 – July 2018

    Writing Center Director | Sept. 2013 – September 2015

    Interim Writing Center Director | Sept. 2013 – Jan. 2014

  • ENGL 2400: The Modern Bestseller
    The Modern Bestseller offers students an opportunity to join a collaborative community of readers to discuss the books that have captured readers’ imaginations. We’ll explore each book’s historical and social context as well analyze the writer’s strategy. We’ll consider what makes a bestseller a bestseller and explore which authors (and audiences) are excluded from commercial success.

    HONR 3310: Representation in YA Lit

    Historically, middle grade and young adult books have been written by white, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied writers. When readership of Kitlit skyrocketed in the 2000s (from the 3,000 titles published annually in the late 1990s to 30,000 annually in 2010), an uptick in diverse published young adult writers and protagonists followed. Regardless, the YA publishing industry still fails to champion diverse experiences and is not reflective of the reality of our communities, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, gender, people with disabilities, and ethnic and religious minorities.

    Representation in Young Adult Literature offers students an opportunity to join a collaborative community of readers to discuss the YA books that have captured modern readers’ imaginations. Students will be exposed to a variety of styles (contemporary, dystopian, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, mystery and graphic novels) and books with writers and/or protagonists that identify as BIPOC (Love Boat Taipei; The Hate U Give), LGBTQIA+ (Cemetery Boys, They Both Die at the End), people with disabilities, neurodivergence or mental illness (Challenger Deep), and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities (Darius the Great is Not Okay) to name a few. We will also discuss intersectionality, the rise and fall of the #OwnVoices movement, the white-washing of book covers, and the Kitlit discourse of Twitter, TikTok, Goodreads, and other social media sites. Students will have the opportunity to speak with professionals in the publishing industry, writers, and bookstore owners. In short, if you are interested in exploring young adult books with diverse characters and stories, this is the class for you!

  • 2021 Faculty Innovations Grant in Diversity and Academic Excellence

    This grant funds a student-run Northeastern First-Generation, Low-Income literary magazine with the goals of building community through creative and academic writing; making space for the university community to learn from first-gen, low-income student voices; and creating experiential work opportunities for students writing, editing, designing, and marketing the publication.

    2019 Service-Learning Teaching Fellow

    This year-long fellowship led to a community partnership with The Black Umbrella Project, a community organization with the mission of "keeping culture covered by connecting consumers with Black-owned businesses.”

    2019 Global Experience Faculty Fellowship

    This year-long fellowship supports Northeastern faculty as they design new Dialogue of Civilizations (an accelerated summer study abroad program) or make extensive changes to existing programs. I worked with Prof. Caitlin Thornbrugh to design NU’s first dialogue to Southeast Asia, Food and Culture in Vietnam and Cambodia.

    2016 NU Humanities Center Grant

    2015 NU Faculty Scholars Fellowship

    2007 Calderwood Foundation Fellowship

    2006 Emerson College Assistantship

  • Getchell and Gonso. “Valuing the Process: Building a Foundation for Collaborative Peer Review.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College. Print. (September 2019)

    “Varying Authorial Roles of the University Tutor in High School Writing Centers.” Teachers on Writing and Writers on Teaching. Emerson College. (2011).

    John Trimbur, Anne C. Wheeler, Kat Gonso, Kara Mae Brown, Amy Patterson, Tim Lockridge, Daniel Lawson, and Diana George. “Rhetorical Situations, Research Writing, and Genre: Cross-Institutional Collaboration on Curriculum Design.” Journal of College Writing. 10. (2010): 1 – 42

    Review of Who Speaks for Writing: Stewardship in Writing Studies in the 21st Century. Studies in Composition and Rhetoric. Eds. Jennifer Rich and Ethna D. Lay. Double Helix: A Journal of Critical Thinking and Writing. Vol. 1 (2013).

GrubStreet

I’ve taught creative writing at GrubStreet since 2014. I also frequently take classes! Some of my favorite teachers are Lori Goldstein, Henriette Lazaridis, and Karen Day.

Take a Class with Kat

  • #Kidlit: Writing Dialogue in MG and YA

    Judy Blume says that "Nothing teaches you as much about dialogue as listening to it." In this three-hour intensive workshop, participants will learn how to "listen" for realistic dialogue to utilize in their middle grade and young adult works-in-progress. We'll discuss how to incorporate different modes of communication such as texts, Instagram, and TikToks. Through a series of short lessons, writing exercises, interactive listening activities, and peer review, we'll explore what makes for honest dialogue that kids will find relatable and engaging. You'll leave with a better understanding of how your young protagonist sees and describes the world.

  • HONORS 3310: Representation in Young Adult Lit.

    Historically, middle grade (MG) and young adult (YA) books have been written by white, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied writers. When readership of MG and YA skyrocketed in the 2000s (from the 3,000 titles published annually in the late 1990s to 30,000 annually in 2010), an uptick in diverse published young adult writers and protagonists followed. Regardless, the YA publishing industry still fails to champion diverse experiences and is not reflective of the reality of our communities, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, gender, people with disabilities, and ethnic and religious minorities.

    Representation in Young Adult Literature offers students an opportunity to join a collaborative community of readers to discuss the YA books that have captured modern readers’ imaginations. Students will be exposed to a variety of styles and books with writers and/or protagonists that identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, neurodivergence or mental illness , and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities, to name a few. We will also discuss intersectionality, the rise and fall of the #OwnVoices movement, the problem with book covers, and YA discourse of Twitter, TikTok, Goodreads, and other social media sites. In short, if you are interested in exploring young adult books with diverse characters and stories, this is the class for you!

  • ENGL 2440: Modern Bestseller

    This quote by young adult writer Becky Alberalli encapsulates my approach to this class: “White shouldn’t be the default any more than straight should be the default. There shouldn’t be a default.”

    Modern Bestseller offers students an opportunity to join a collaborative community of readers to discuss the books that have captured readers’ imaginations. We’ll explore each book’s historical and social context as well as analyze the writer’s strategy. We’ll consider what makes a bestseller a bestseller and explore which authors (and audiences) are excluded from commercial success.