Mark Brand
Lecturer
English
Contact
Building & Room:
1807 UH
Office Phone:
Email:
About
Ph.D. in English, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2017)
M.A. in Writing & Publishing, DePaul University (2013)
Mark R. Brand has taught English since 2013 and served in 2018-2019 as Assistant Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center at UC Santa Barbara, one of the largest critical film and media studies departments in the U.S. He specializes in teaching research-writing, first-year writing, and writing-intensive courses concerned with digital literacies. His course topics have included alternative economies, relationships and technology, nostalgia narratives, catastrophe fiction by female science fiction writers, the anxieties of capitalism in zombie narrative, and virtual reality, augmented reality, and atmospheric media. He is a two-time winner of the Digital Literacy Teaching Award from the City Colleges of Chicago (2017/2018) for incorporating video games and new media into first-year writing. He has served as faculty mentor in English 555, and as a faculty judge for the UIC Undergraduate Research Forum. His scholarly work includes both creative and critical writing, and his most recent project is a collaboration with James Drown (UIC) concerning LGBTQ+ themes and empathy in video games and other new media.