Janelle Adsit
- Associate Professor
she/her
(707) 826-5936
FH228
Featured Book
I teach writing classes at Cal Poly Humboldt, along with courses on environmental and health justice.
I'm interested in the role of the arts in health, wellbeing, and advocacy.
I'm currently working on a textbook titled Creative Writing and Health Care (forthcoming from Bloomsbury in 2024).
The books I've published in recent years are primarily meant to support the teaching of creative writing. Another book, which was released by Routledge, focuses on mindfulness and contemplative practice, epistemic justice, and the environmental humanities.
I also write poetry. Unremitting Entrance (poetry collection, published in 2015 from Spuyten Duyvil) is a meditation on grief in relation to place and environment.
Off campus, I offer writing workshops for community members in healthcare settings. I offer writing as a tool for processing emotion and reducing stress. I've recently co-facilitated writing workshops at Hospice of Humboldt with local artist Julie Doerner.
Specialty Areas
Creative Writing; Environmental Humanities; Narrative Medicine; Health Humanities, Arts in Health
Education
Ph.D. English, State University of New York (SUNY), Albany
Certificate, Narrative Medicine, University of Toronto
Certificate, Arts in Health, University of Florida
M.A. English, Colorado State University
Courses Taught
English 306: Contemporary Texts
English 311: Creative Writing for Environmental Justice
English 315: Creative Writing: Fiction
English 422: Professional Research Pathways
English 460: Literary Editing and Publishing (Toyon)
English 461: Professional Concerns in Writing & Editing
English 600: Introduction to Graduate Studies
Environmental Studies 470: Climate Justice Leadership (co-taught with Christina Eskridge)
Environmental Studies 480: Health Justice and Climate Justice (co-taught with Cristian Martinez)
Research
Narrative Medicine, Creative Writing Studies
Adsit, Janelle. “Narrative Medicine as Creative Writing Methodology.” Innovations in Creative Writing Studies Research. Eds. Jon Udelson and Ben Ristow. Peter Lang Publishing, Forthcoming 2024. Under Contract.
Perris, Kim, Eden Donahue, Matt Zytkoskee, Janelle Adsit. “Narrative Medicine: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Address Burnout in Healthcare.” Humboldt Journal of Social Relations. Spring 2023.
Hernandez, Marcos, and Janelle Adsit. “#RepresentationMatters: Literary Journals, Editorial Courses, and Equity in the Publishing Industry.” From Practice to Print: Creative Writing Scholars on the Publishing Trade. Eds. Marshall Moore and Sam Meekings. Routledge, 2021.
Writing Program Administration, Critical University Studies, Composition & Rhetoric
Adsit, Janelle, and Sue Doe. “Educating the Faculty Writer to ‘Dance With Resistance’: An Affective Rhetorical Analysis of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity.” The Things We Carry: Strategies for Recognizing and Negotiating Emotional Labor in Writing Program Administration. Eds. Courtney Adams Wooten, Jacob Babb, Kristi Murray Costello, Kate Navickas. Utah State University Press, 2020.
Adsit, Janelle, and Laura Wilder. “Borders Crossed: A Nationwide Survey on the Influence of Rhetoric and Composition on Creative Writing.” Pedagogy 20.3 (2020): 401-429.
Doe, Sue, Maria Maisto, and Janelle Adsit. “What Counts and What Works: Bringing Affect into ‘Effectiveness’ in Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Advocacy.” Contingency, Exploitation, and Solidarity: Labor and Action in English Composition. Eds. Karen Fitts, et al. WAC Clearinghouse / University Press of Colorado, 2016.
Adsit, Janelle, et al. “Affective Advocacy: Answering Institutional Productions of Precarity in the Corporate University.” Special Issue: Institutional Feelings: Practicing Women's Studies in the Corporate University. Eds. Jennifer Nash and Emily Owens. Feminist Formations 27.3 (Dec. 2015): 21-48.
Other
Adsit, Janelle. “Pursuing Antiracist and Anticolonial Approaches to Contemplative Practices.” Contemplative Practices and Anti-Oppressive Pedagogies for Higher Education: Bridging the Disciplines. Eds. Greta Gaard and Bengü Ergüner-Tekinalp. Routledge, 2022.
Published Interviews
Liu Weidong, and Janelle Adsit. “Frontier Issues in Creative Writing in English-speaking Countries, Creative Writing, Writing Healing and Health Care: An Interview with Janelle Adsit.” Chinese Creative Writing Studies 2. Springer, 2023.
Liu Weidong, and Janelle Adsit. “Creative Writing in Community: Ideas, Practices, and Problems: An Interview with Janelle Adsit.” Chinese Creative Writing Studies 3. Springer, 2024.
Current Graduate Students
| Name | M.A. Project |
|---|---|
| Allison Iafrate | Our Place in Research: Understanding Social Productions of Knowledge Using Digital Spaces |
Former Graduate Students
Publications
Books
Epistemic Justice, Mindfulness, and the Environmental Humanities (Routledge, 2021).
Writing Intersectional Identities: Keywords for Creative Writers, co-authored with Renée Byrd (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018).
Critical Creative Writing: Essential Readings on the Writer's Craft (edited collection, Bloomsbury Academic, 2017).
Toward an Inclusive Creative Writing: Threshold Concepts to Guide the Literary Writing Curriculum (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016).
Unremitting Entrance: Poems (Spuyten Duyvil, 2015).
press yourself against a mirror (Porkbelly, 2015).
