Westfield State University English Department

ENGLISH INSIDER VOLUME 11 ISSSUE 2🦉📚✒️

Please enjoy the attached Spring 2026 issue of The English Insider, the official newsletter of the WSU English Department. We are very proud to be continuing this publication that highlights our impressive students and distinguished faculty members and staff.

We hope that you take a moment to read about the English Department’s events, current students’ accomplishments, looking through vibrant photos, and enjoying related articles from several student contributors.

Many thanks to our Spring 2026 Graduate Assistant, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Sears, Summer 2026 Work-Study student, Alicia Beaton, and to those who contributed to this issue! This particular issue includes snapshots of English Department events, articles about the Main Office and Administrative Assistant, Regina, alongside insight into our many celebrations! We hope you enjoy! ❤️😊🎉🦉

Please stay tuned for our future editions, and if you are interested in a physical copy of the newsletter, visit the English Office in Bates 217! Thank you to all who support the English Department through your various roles at WSU! 🦉

Sincerely,
The WSU English Department

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ENGL 612: Teaching Writing With and Against Generative Al
🦉Thursdays 4-6:25 p.m. on Zoom
🦉Fall 2026 Semester

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🦉This 3-credit course can count towards the Western Mass Writing Project Teaching Writing Pedagogy Certificate!

🦉Writing and teaching in the age of generative Al is fraught. The central question of this course is: How can we promote critical Al literacy amongst our students while ensuring students learn to write? To arrive at potentia answers to this question, we will begin by immersing ourselves in the debate surrounding Al and writing/writing instruction. In doing so, we will explore the ethical issues associated with Al and develop an understanding of critical Al literacy. Students in this course will experiment with using Al in both the teaching and writing process and will leave this course with a set 1 practices and principles that will guide them as Al continues to reshape the educational landscape.

🦉Professor Catherine Savini is the director of the Writing Center and the Writing Across the Curriculum Program. She participated in the American Colleges and Universities Institute on Al, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum and her opinion piece We Can't Ban Al, But We Can Friction Fix It was published in Inside Higher Education.

🦉Questions?
🦉Email: [email protected]

WMWP

Hey Owls! 🦉Be a part of our new throwback series! 😊📚 DM me your pictures from when you were little and now as you are entering into University, or even since having been at the University for many years! 🦉📚 Another idea could be to send a photo of you when you were in kindergarten or middle school and now at your new job perhaps! Have fun with it! 😊 Thank you! Regina 🦉📚❤️

Photos pictured here are of Tyara Thomas! 🪶🦉✒️📚

Hey Owls! 🦉Be a part of our new throwback series! 😊📚 DM me your pictures from when you were little and now as you are entering into University, or even since having been at the University for many years! 🦉📚 Another idea could be to send a photo of you when you were in kindergarten or middle school and now at your new job perhaps! Have fun with it! 😊 Thank you! Regina 🦉📚❤️

Photos pictured here are of Amanda Madru! 🪶🦉✒️📚

Hey Owls! 🦉Be a part of our new throwback series! 😊📚 DM me your pictures from when you were little and now as you are entering into University, or even since having been at the University for many years! 🦉📚 Another idea could be to send a photo of you when you were in kindergarten or middle school and now at your new job perhaps! Have fun with it! 😊 Thank you! Regina 🦉📚❤️

Photos pictured here are of Molly Moulin an English Education Major! 🪶🦉✒️📚

Hey Owls! 🦉Be a part of our new throwback series! 😊📚 DM me your pictures from when you were little and now as you are entering into University, or even since having been at the University for many years! 🦉📚 Another idea could be to send a photo of you when you were in kindergarten or middle school and now at your new job perhaps! Have fun with it! 😊 Thank you! Regina 🦉📚❤️

Photos pictured here are of Professor Alexandra (Ola) Smialek! GPS, ENGL & FYJ 🦉📚

PURSUE A FILM STUDIES MINOR! 🦉📽📚🎬

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🔹️WHY MINOR IN FILM STUDIES?

🔹️A Film Studies minor can open up various career paths and opportunities, including:

• Film Archiving and Preservation
• Film Production
• Event Coordination
• Marketing and Public Relations
• Media and Film Criticism
• Screenwriting

INTERESTED?
🔹️CONTACT: IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN DECLARING A MINOR. PLEASE EMAIL DR. GLEN BREWSTER AT [email protected] OR ANY ENGLISH FACULTY ✒️📚🦉

The English Department congratulates Dr. Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides and Rebecca Ashley (HS Teacher) on their publication in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy / Volume 70, Issue 2! 🎉📚✒️

🔹️"Solace, Mobility Strategies, and Meritocracy: High School Seniors Acquiring Social Class Literacy Through Young Adult Literature"
Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, Rebecca Ashley
First published: 01 July 2026

🔹️Note from Rebecca Ashley:
"Working with Dr. Sarigianides (Sophia) has been a gift. I initially took a class with her through Westfield that I discovered through a friend's FB post. I loved the Race In The English classroom course so much that I enrolled in her Social Class course. I immediately started applying my learning to my classes and saw the impact right away. When she asked to research my class, I never hesitated. We spent a semester reviewing student work and journals. She visited my class. I talked through every step of the unit with her. The best part was taking the students to Westfield State and watching them present on a panel to professors, teachers, etc. These students were not used to such academic attention and respect. They were amazing and I was so proud of their work and willingness to be vulnerable about their class experiences. Once we began to review the research and talk about what we saw, new ideas kept coming up. I am still learning from this research and changing my curriculum as a result. I teach social class in just about every unit I use in my three senior classes and I have shared some of the research with the department I lead. Sophia is an incredibly thorough and thoughtful researcher and she has made me a better teacher. The gift of talking about my class and my work with such a knowlegable and approachable scholar has been a remarkable expereince."

🔹️https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jaal.70061?fbclid=IwdGRjcAS6HBRjbGNrBLobKWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHgma9l_G9d2-rX8bpm4lJXVjtf8Vfgiyb6_jZuxveM0lolunfAdRcdXAGg2__aem_1vN7aLeH9L11YuTvQ7fDzw

International Literacy Association

The English Department congratulates Dr. Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides and Rebecca Ashley (HS Teacher) on their publication in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy / Volume 70, Issue 2! 🎉📚✒️

"Solace, Mobility Strategies, and Meritocracy: High School Seniors Acquiring Social Class Literacy Through Young Adult Literature"
Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, Rebecca Ashley
First published: 01 July 2026

Note from Professor Sarigianides:
"It is not easy to open up your classroom to other educators, as all of us who teach know. But it’s even tougher to open it up to research, to seek out the strengths and problems in the ways we teach. For this and so many other reasons, I am so proud to share that my collaboration with HS teacher extraordinaire, Rebecca Ashley, is in publication!!!! We sought out to see what would happen if her college prep students were introduced to social class literacy concepts—Bourdieu’s cultural & social capital, class injury—through a YA novel, Watson’s “Piecing Me Together.” And we learned so much! If you read it or use it, we’d love to know what happens!!!"

https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jaal.70061?fbclid=IwdGRjcAS6HBRjbGNrBLobKWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHgma9l_G9d2-rX8bpm4lJXVjtf8Vfgiyb6_jZuxveM0lolunfAdRcdXAGg2__aem_1vN7aLeH9L11YuTvQ7fDzw

NEA Today International Literacy Association