The Writing Department has added adjunct professors Zen Dochterman,听Chelsea Hull, and Diana Shamiryan听to its faculty roster. It also announced the establishment of two new funds to support student programs:听 the 鈥淲riting Department Fund鈥� and the 鈥淢ORIA Literary Magazine Fund.鈥�
鈥淶en, Chelsea, and Diana all bring solid experience in writing, teaching, and editing, having helped students at a range of Southern California academic institutions master the demands of writing at the university level,鈥� says Dr. Reuben Ellis, Writing Department Chair.
In addition to his duties at Woodbury, Zen Dochterman teaches composition and literature at Platt College and previously taught at UCLA. He earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in literature from UC Santa Cruz and received his Ph.D. from UCLA, with emphases in Modern French and Latin American literature, respectively. His classes stress critical thinking, effective research, literary analysis and persuasive writing. He is also a freelance writer and editor, a writing coach and ghostwriter. As an editor, his published works include The 7-Day Allergy Makeover, The Mighty Mito and The Magic Kimchi Diet (forthcoming), and he has submitted papers at the American Comparative Literature Association鈥檚 annual conference.
Chelsea Lucille Hull recently completed her master鈥檚 degree in English at Cal State Los Angeles, where she served as a Teaching Associate in college writing as well as a senior instructor and tutor in Cal State L.A.鈥檚 University Writing Center. There, she helped design a composition course that embraced a variety of approaches, all aimed at helping students from diverse backgrounds write with confidence and clarity. She received her bachelor鈥檚 degree from UC Davis with an emphasis in literature, criticism, and theory.
听Diana Shamiryan has taught writing for the past four years at Moorpark College, College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita and Cal State Northridge, specializing in preparing students to think critically and write with authority. In addition to her writing classes, she teaches a course in the humanities at Northridge. She has also participated in programs to revise and improve the writing curriculum at CSUN and College of the Canyons, and was a rater for California鈥檚 Early Assessment Program, a statewide initiative to help high school juniors measure their college writing and math readiness. She earned her bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees in English literature from CSUN.
Professors Dochterman, Hull, and Shamiryan are all teaching courses in the Writing Department鈥檚 First Year Composition (FYC) program, part of the Woodbury General Education program. The FYC program helps students gain a foundation in university-level writing skills.听 The Writing Department is also home to the major and minor in Writing, which provide concentrated practice and instruction in creative and technical writing and the Writing Center, which provides peer tutoring services to students in all the university鈥檚 programs. The Writing Department is a dynamic and forward-looking community of writers that also sponsors readings, discussions, workshops, and other campus events.
Additionally, the department has established two new funds with the University Advancement office to assist in two critical fundraising needs. “The Writing Department Fund鈥� will be used to support the work of the students, student tutors and faculty of the department, while the 鈥淢ORIA Literary Magazine Fund鈥� will be used to support the student-run, national literary publication. ()
More information about these and other funds can be found at: /giving