Molly Appel

Ph.D.

Department of Humanities

Molly.Appel@nevadastate.edu

Though I am a proud Philly girl, I am thrilled to have migrated out west to join the Scorpion community! I hold a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature with a minor in Latin American Studies (Penn State), an M.S.T. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Pace University), and a B.A. in Mythology and Folklore (Skidmore College).

As an academic, I study the ways that literature "teaches" audiences to learn about human rights and social justice. More specifically: I examine the ways that Latin(e/x) American authors of the Long Sixties and onwards have strategically employed the figure of the student to re-write Western, Enlightenment-based understandings of human rights and justice through the medium of literature. I put these interests into practice by approaching the classroom as a collaborative pedagogical space between teachers and learners. To borrow from the words of Gloria Anzaldúa: learning occurs in our processes of crossing, in our travesías. The study of literature and culture helps us develop “a tolerance for contradictions, a tolerance for ambiguity.”

During my career as an educator, I have taught courses on composition, Video Games as Literature, Literature of Migration, Human Rights and World Literature, the work and legacy of Gloria Anzaldúa, Theater of the Americas, and creative writing for incarcerated women. I’ve also enjoyed supporting and training teachers with the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, Teach for America: Philadelphia, and working as an ESL teacher at the Bronx Expeditionary Learning High School (Bronx Collegiate Academy) and P.S. 189 in Washington Heights.