Kara Laurene Pernicano

About Kara Laurene Pernicano

I have earned my MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Queens College, CUNY, and I am now a PhD Candidate in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Stony Brook University. I teach Gender Studies at Stony Brook and English for CUNY. I teach English Composition, Research Writing and Creative Writing to a diverse student body, and I routinely spark discussions surrounding language and literacy, intersectional feminism, the politics of art, and digital/visual rhetoric.I enjoy teaching and advising undergraduate majors in various disciplines and professions because I myself am invested in collaborative projects and the interdisciplinary humanities. A passion of mine is to extend critical conversations in higher education to museum/gallery spaces through a shared stake in global/diversity learning. I write scholarly essays, embrace new digital tools and social media platforms for visualizing data and archiving content, and create works of art in mixed media. As an active member at NeMLA and an advocate for CUNY Arts Alliances, I have presented literary criticism and socially transformative pedagogy at numerous conferences. I have also assisted in curating two exhibitions of fashion, art and popular culture on campus. I pursued my first graduate degree at the University of Cincinnati, an MA in Literary and Cultural Studies with a Certificate in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies. In my MA thesis, I explored how queer theory may aid how we frame life-narratives about coming of age and mental health struggles.Artist and writer, I have a passion for poetry, memoir, still life and self-portraits. I focus on creative and critical works by modern and contemporary artists and writers, particularly documentary poetics and women of color poetics. In my own hybrid creative practice, I celebrate queer love, trauma narratives and disability justice. My creative writing has been published in Snapdragon, Waccamaw, Rabbit, The Winnow Magazine and Full Stop, and my visual art has been on view in the Whitney Staff Art Show at the Westbeth Gallery and in LIC Artists’ Creative Mosaic at the Plaxall Gallery. I am currently making comics, zines and chapbooks.I have served as a guest editor or reader for Breadcrumbs Mag, Snapdragon, Chautauqua and The Cincinnati Review. I am also involved in community service with 826NYC, Ugly Duckling Presse and other local creative non-profits as needed.

Experience

1. Adjunct Lecturer

   Queens College

   Aug 2020 — Present

Education

• Cedarville University

  Bachelor of Arts, English

  2010 — 2013

• University of Cincinnati

  Master of Arts, Literary and Cultural Studies

  2014 — 2016

• Queens College

  Master of Fine Arts - MFA, Creative Writing & Literary Translation, Emphasis in Poetry

  2018 — 2021

• Stony Brook University

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Gender studies

Skills

• Mla Style
• Teaching Writing
• Event Planning
• Public Speaking
• Learning Styles
• Problem Solving
• Fundraising
• Microsoft Office
• Jstor
• Interpersonal Communication Abilities
• Iphoto
• Genre Analysis
• Analysis
• Test-Taking Strategies
• Theology
• Powerpoint
• Imagemaking
• English Grammar
• Research
• Art History
• Teaching
• Curriculum Design
• Literary Theory
• Facebook
• Fine Arts
• Prezi
• Editing
• Ebsco
• Tutoring
• Higher Education
• Leadership
• Creative Writing
• Community Outreach