Sarah Aleshire
Assistant Professor, English
Office: Old Main 202G
Email: sarah.aleshire@minotstateu.edu
Phone: 858-3395
Sarah Aleshire
Assistant Professor, English
Office: Old Main 202G
Email: sarah.aleshire@minotstateu.edu
Phone: 858-3395
Courses Taught
English 110/111H – College Composition I
English 120/121H – College Composition II
English 191 – English Community Seminar
English 220 – Introduction to Literature
English 225 – Introduction to Film
English 238 – Children’s Literature
English 240 – World Literature
English 270 – Introduction to Literary Criticism
English 342 – Gendered Literature
English 350 – Literature of the Last 20 Years
English 367 – Media Literacy
English 391 – Junior Seminar
English 412 – Creative Non-Fiction Workshop
English 430 – Advanced Seminar in Literature (21st Century)
English 435 – Major Writers (John Irving)
English 491 – Senior Seminar
Gender Studies 225 – Introduction to Gender/Women’s Studies
Honors 395H – Citizenship and Service
Honors 450H – Project and Portfolio Design
IDS 470 – General Studies Capstone
INT 110 – First Year Seminar (Subcultures, ND Place)
SCE 102 – Environment and Humanities
I have been teaching in the English department since 2007, and I currently serve as the program coordinator for both English and Gender/Women’s Studies. I completed my graduate work in Washington state, but I chose to return to Minot and the community I care about. When I was growing up, my family emphasized a strong sense of place and the importance of involvement in – and service to – that place, and my parents modeled that with their careers and their volunteer work.
I was born into a family of readers, and I grew up surrounded by the arts. The theater on campus is named after my paternal grandfather, and my dad’s side of the family is littered with English, theater, speech, and music teachers. My mom’s side of the family tree is built on generations of North Dakotan farmers. Both sides inform my pedagogy and views of education: a mix of creativity, commitment, and hard work.
Though my area of specialization is literary and cultural theories, I am, at heart, a research writer, and I enjoy working with writers at the start of their college education. While my approaches to writing and the teaching of writing change over time, my pedagogy remains grounded in critical literacies and the application of those literacies in everyday life. I identify as a literary Marxist and a feminist, but I work with a wide array of literary theories, genres, and time periods in order to make connections between texts and across those lines. My most recent work has dealt with visual and popular culture, punk culture, and geographical and architectural texts.
Outside of teaching and writing, I also work with committees and groups across campus to promote diversity and raise awareness of social justice. I am the current advisor for the English Club / Sigma Tau Delta, and I organize WordStock, the English component of MSU NOTSTOCK, Minot State’s signature arts event.
I’m also an unapologetic coffee addict, a dedicated reader, a vinyl collector, and a voracious consumer of popular culture. In my free time, I love a good game of cards, a late night of conversation, an unfamiliar city to explore on foot, a 90s song played a little too loudly, or a challenging renovation project in my old, weird house.
