creative writing, literature, interdisciplinarity, multimodal communication, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment
Susan Varnot hails from Massachusetts in New England and has taught in many cultural and geographical contexts: New York, Arizona, Spain, Florida, the Jicarilla Apache Nation, New Mexico, and California. Since joining UC Merced, Susan Varnot has been active in the Writing Studies Major and Minor, including founding the UC Merced Creative Writing Collaboratorium, a multi-campus conference, and curating the Write! Look! Listen! reading and workshop series. She has also been active in general education, assessment and review processes, the UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal, student clubs and events, as well as other campus initiatives and projects. These areas of engagement and inquiry stem from her teaching and research interests in empowering pedagogy and praxis, creative writing, interdisciplinarity, and creativity studies. Susan completed her MFA degree in Creative Writing: Poetry from Arizona State University and her BA in English with focal areas of literature and creative writing from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. Her poems have been published widely and have received national recognition.
