Senior Lecturer

• Office Location: Loyola Hall 206
• Phone Number: 773.508.2258
• E-mail: sweller@luc.edu

About

I've been an avid reader since I was young, and my fascination with writing started with a poem I wrote in second grade about a yellow duck.  While I meant to be an advertising major in my undergraduate years at Marquette University, I fell in love with my literature courses, with the animated and thought-provoking discussions we had, and followed that passion straight to a major in English with a writing concentration.  I pursued an MFA at the University of Minnesota with a focus on poetry (that then tipped a bit into creative non-fiction). I moved to Chicago in 2003 after completing my degree and have been teaching first-year writing, literature, and creative writing classes ever since.  I taught part-time at DePaul, Loyola, Columbia College, and The School of the Art Institute over the years and was hired full-time at Loyola in 2007.   In my UCWR 110 classes, I focus on the building blocks of academic argument and composition giving students the space to practice the critical reading, thinking, and writing elemental in their success at Loyola.  In my literature courses, I engage students in the ways they read and think about a wide variety of texts, situating works in their social and historical context, always asking how the poem/essay/novel/play reverberate in and reflect our lives and our human conditon.  In my creative non-fiction workshop, I strive to help students find their own stories, practice their craft, and nourish their own voice. 

Administrative Positions

• Writing Program Committee member, 2007-present
• Shared Text Project Coordinator, 2010-present

Degrees

• BA, Marquette University
• MFA, University of Minnesota

Research Interests

• Rhetoric and Composition
• Women in Literature: Contemporary Memoir
• Creative Non-Fiction