My name is Tish Lopez and I am a new tenure-track English faculty member at Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, WA.  I have a B.A. in Literature and American Studies from Claremont McKenna College, an M.A. in English from the University of Washington (UW), and I am in the process of completing a Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric at the UW as well.

As an academic, I primarily analyze fields of composition theory, genre studies, and popular culture theory to identify effective methods for teaching academic writing and assessing departmental writing programs.  My work is centered on the notion that writing is one of the central spaces in academia where students can engage directly in the process of discovery, respond to challenging questions presented through lines of inquiry, and begin to understand the interconnected nature of texts and ideas within and across disciplines. 

Despite the important role that academic writing plays in one's college education, one of the biggest challenges undergraduates often face as they make the transition from high school to college writing is how to conduct themselves and write like an academic.  This task becomes even more daunting when one takes into consideration that most students are asked to fashion themselves into experts from the position of novices and that much of the scholarship or works utilized in traditional writing courses often intimidate or alienate students, especially multilingual students, basic writers, and students labeled "disadvantaged" on the basis on their race, class, gender, and/or educational background. Thus, how should we--as both instructors and writing center professionals--conceptualize and/or teach academic writing given the challenges and constraints listed above? In addition, how can we effectively utilize popular technology to make our work relevant to students today?

In addition to the questions listed above, I am also interested in assessment.  More specifically, how can we best assess the impact of our work on students, faculty, and institutions?  What quantitative and qualitative methods most accurately capture the complex work we do?  And last but not least, how can we effectively use assessment to improve program pedagogies, policies, and procedures?  How can we use it to substantively advance program outreach and funding efforts as well?  

To ground my interest in the areas above, I have spent the past five years teaching composition, literature, and film courses at the University of Washington (UW) and Edmonds Community College. There, I tested out my theories and tried to find ways to make my courses substantive, thought-provoking, and above all--fun. As a born technophile, I also experimented with innovative technologies such as mediated classrooms, wikis, the internet, discussion boards, online chat rooms, virtual office hours, group conference calls, Google documents, Jing, and podcasts to enhance the learning process

More recently, I served as the Director of the Odegaard Writing & Research Center at the University of Washington from 2006-2008.  Under my tenure, the OWRC experienced a 400% increase in attendance and is now the second largest writing center in the Pacific Northwest. While I am sad to leave my staff, I'm very excited to join the BCC community and find ways to improve the quality of writing instruction for all students on campus.

When I am not studying or working in academia, I like to participate on local film projects (the first film I produced recently screened at Comic Con and is scheduled for national distribution in a couple months!), sleuth out the best coffee shops in Seattle (my current favs are Cafe Vivace and Cafe Allegro), walk my roommate's dogs, and feed my blog and movie addiction.