Kansas City Professor & Author

Say Hello

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Hi I'm Antonio.

I’m an associate professor of English at the University of Missouri Kansas City, where I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in professional and technical communication, qualitative research studies, composition pedagogy, and Black rhetoric. I serve as a faculty fellow for Diane Filion Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence (CAFE) focusing on faculty professional learning in writing pedagogy and generative artificial intelligence. I'm also the co-chair for MLA Task Force on Generative AI Initiatives, and a member of the CCCC Special Committee on Generative AI in College Composition and Writing Studies. My book Black Tech Ecosystems: How Black Adult Learners Use Computer Code Bootcamps for Liberation reports on a year-long ethnographic study of low-income Black adult learners attending Clearwater Academy, a nonprofit computer code bootcamp that teaches coding literacy to help end racism and poverty. Although pathways into careers in software development was elusive for participants, Black adult learners develop new knowledge and frameworks that change their relationship with coding literacy and labor. To learn more, please check out highlights of my work below and remember to say say hello!

Check out my CV!

Teaching

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Check out the courses I teach at UMKC! :)

Research

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Learn more about my research interests and my current projects

Community

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Discover how I use my research interests for community engagement!

Teaching

I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in Black literacy, professional and technical communication, multimodal composition, digital rhetoric, and qualitative research methods. My approach to teaching can be summed up in one sentence I often tell students in my syllabi: This class isn’t a bootcamp; it’s a playground. Students use assignments to explore, find solutions, and pose serious questions about what writing does for us. I make classes open so students find meaningful writing projects that draw on their personal, professional, and academic pursuits. Each class explores how writing and our beliefs about writing can support liberating or oppressive policies, practices, laws, and behaviors that separate us. In this way, students not only understand writing as a tool that leads to a good job but it also helps with community action in our neighborhoods! Check out a sample of courses I teach to learn how I carry out this teaching philosophy!

Image of an apple sitting on a stack of books.
Image of an apple sitting on a stack of books.

Research

My primary research focuses on how race and literacy inform Black people's experiences in the knowledge economy. My approach is qualitative: interviewing community members, participating in community events, collecting literacy artifacts meaningful to their lives, and honoring their voices through writing. My second long-term research project focuses on how Black freelance / contract coders and graphic designers advocate for their digital literacies on the job markent and while on the job. This project is tentatively titled Below the Fold: Black Temp Coders on the Prowl for Respect. Other related research interests include Black feminisist care as writing assessment, responsive graduate education, and how students' writerly identities transform when they enounter generative artificial intelligence. A sample of my work is below!

Community

I believe that if public dollars supports my research then my research should be used to benefit community organizers and community learners. I volunteer in Kansas City to achieve this goal, from teaching workshops on race and racism to offering my own skills in writing and research to benefit charity partners. In addition, I link students with nonprofits for capacity-building projects! Listening to the needs of community partners, students create prototypes that community partners may or may not improve and use for later use. This approach maintains sustainable relationships between the university and the Metro Area and doesn't overburden already busy nonprofits! In the past, I've worked with Code for KC, Global FC, MARC, and Center for Neighborhoods! I would love to connect with others and learn how I and my students can serve you!

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